beetroot

These two beetroots have been baked and their young leaves used in a salad.  There are half a dozen plants waiting to be pulled out and I should do it soon before the tubers grow too mature.  They are so easy to grow in rich friable soil.  I bought a punnet of seedlings and that was sufficient for my needs.  I grew them in one of my vegetable boxes.  When they are all harvested I may put in lettuce seedlings which I am finding in different parts of the garden.  If you look carefully at the picture below you will see a lettuce gone to seeds and in the background some beets doing the same.

Tidiness is not in my nature.  The plants have a way of self sowing.  I pull out the excesses and chop them for mulch and for the compost bin.  I don't think I will ever produce neat rows in my garden.  I will find that too dull.

hydrangea

The hydrangea is not a fashionable flowering plant at the moment and may never be again because it is thirsty and needs looking after during the hot summer days.  They will do very well away from the heat of the afternoon sun.  The leaves burn easily and the flowers dry up but when they are at their best in spring you have a spectacular showy bush.

 I throw a wet sheet over the bush when there is a hot north wind coming.  That seems to help.  They are so easy to grow from cuttings.  The colourings, blue or pink, depend on the presence or absence of aluminium or as some have said, on the ph of the soil.  I am happy to see a bush with healthy flowers, no matter what the colour.

garlic

I dug up these garlics yesterday as the leaves were yellowing.  They were planted in March.  I will be putting aside the best bit from each bulb to replant in autumn and the rest I shall enjoy in the kitchen.  Garlic is so easy to grow and if you do not have a garden a container will do.  You would need good soil with plenty of compost.  I was told if you plant them amongst your flowering plants they will keep the nasty insects away.  I plant them so I don't have to buy the cheap, bleached and tasteless bulbs that the shop passed off as garlic.

roses

These are just a few of the roses from the garden.  They are doing well.  I pick some for the house sometimes but like to see them out in the garden amongst the lush greenery.

The top of the arbor is not quite covered as it was last summer.  The possums were feasting on the shoots up top.   The ballerina rose (bottom picture) however, did not attract the possums so they are doing well.

 The standard iceberg is doing well and so is the creamy yellow rose in front of the porch.  They are north facing and loving the sunshine.

A selection of roses from the garden.  They will be due for their feed soon.  The rain is washing away the aphids but they look bedraggled after a downpour.