Strawberry Dreams

Nothing beats a homegrown bowl of strawberries with some double cream. Yummy! I think we've probably still got enough left for another bowl each. They sure have done us proud this year – maybe triple the crop we had last year.

Easy Peasy

Oh my - fresh peas from the supermarket taste just great. But fresh peas - picked a few seconds ago from your back garden – well they just taste sublime. Tiny little green spheres bursting with the taste of summer. None have made it to the kitchen yet...

An Asian Invasion?

There is a lot of talk at the moment about the invasion of the Harlequin Asian ladybirds into the UK and how they're edging out our native species. We have a pretty healthy population of ladybirds in the garden so I thought this year I would take a shot of each one I see and compile a list.

It'll be interesting to see how many UK vs Harlequin we have.
The first two are:
This fella is a Harmonia axyridis which is yep, a Harlequin.

and yep, you've guessed it this is Harmonia axyridis conspicua – another variant of the Harlequin.

Not looking good for the UK fellas. So 2-0 to Asia so far.

New entrant as of 24 July 2010.
Harmonia axyridis... Asia 3 UK 0.

The guys over at Harlequin Survey are recording all sightings of Harlequin ladybirds over the UK. So if you do see one it would be great to let them know. They have an online form which is really easy to fill out and you can even upload your pictures and they'll email you to confirm your identification.

Red Strawberries!

So Wimledon started this week and look! The strawberries are turning red! How wonderfully English :-)

We're away at Glastonbury for the week so unfortunately we won't be sampling the delights just yet.

Back on Monday so after we've scrubbed ourselves clean we might enjoy a nice bowl with a glass of Pimms. That's if our friend whose kindly watering the garden for us while we're away doesn't decide to eat them first!!

An Emergency of Tiny Proportions

Oh no! Look at our poor leeks!! I was doing my morning check and putting the Basil out to get some summer sun when I saw the monstrosity that one of the local felines had created. What was once a little patch of leek seedling wonder had been turned upside down into a big earth mound.

So I had to forgo my early train to work this morning and do some emergency gardening. I managed to salvage some of them - albeit with some leaves missing on most. I quickly put them into pots for now - I think we'll leave them to establish themselves a little more first before they go back into the ground.

Can you believe it! We've got wire cloches dotted all over the garden to protect the seedlings from cats. On the little leek patch we stuck garden canes throughout it to stop them digging but whoever the culprit was just dug around the canes. Beetroot last year and now our leeks...

I saw you Tabby this morning... sitting on top of our shed - surveying your work were you?! You wait - next time you won't just get a shooo from me - you'll have a water pistol to contend with.

Grrrrrrrrrr.

Yip-Pea!

Well, would you look at that! A yummy, deelish, hard to keep your mitts off, baby pea! This is our first year of growing peas, thinking about it I have no idea why we didn't grow them last year, I mean, they have to be one of THE best tastes of the summer. Nothing beats eating raw peas out of their pods.

We've gone for a dwarf variety and they're doing brilliantly. To be honest, we hadn't noticed the pods growing, we'd just been looking at the lovely white flowers. It took us a little by surprise but now, every day I pop out and check how they're doing. I absolutely cannot wait for the first peas ready to eat. They are SO not gonna make it as far as the kitchen!

Blooming Marvelous!

Lots of flowers in the little garden at the moment. None just for show – oh no, these flowers have work to do! Can you guess what they all are? Some are dead easy, others not!