Harvest.

I am harvesting food from our small garden, here is the last of the blackcurrants, the first of the blueberries and tomatoes, and another cucumber, which is my 6th so far. Never huge amounts, the raspberries and strawberries never make it into the house. 

The blackberries are full of fruit, I love these berries, I have trellis to allow this to run along the whole side of the garage. 

Blueberries are a bit slower this year, I have 3 bushes, so a good harvest to come, soon I will start picking them daily, they never last long in this house. 

I only had 4 strawberry plants this year, so to increase my stock, I am reusing this tiered pot, now I am home, I have time to water it a few times each day, and not loose plants, there are babies in each of the lower pockets.

Tomato plant is laden with fruits, I do have 2 plants in the upturned grow bag, 1st year I've grown them like this, it's working well. 

My lupin looked really sick last month, I took away the copper ring I had placed in the ground, and the plant perked up, so very late lupins,. The lilly behind, I dug out last year and moved, I must of missed a bit, I will dig it out once the flower is over. 

I put this dogwood here to hide the waterbutt, it's working well, I did not realise they flower, in the winter months the stems are a bright red, which should look good against the green. 

This side bed has been the best this year, I now have the right balance of flowers, most of which will return next year. Its taken a while, but both hubby and I are pleased with this look. 

The problems with the bird bath has partly been resolved, I popped the copper coins in and then decided to use one of my garden copper rings. The issues have not stopped, but the copper has slowed down all the green growth, I don't mind cleaning it once a month. Once the elderflower have finished on my neighbours plants, it should stay clearer. 

The recent heavy rain has not damaged too many plants, I did lose my chocolate cosmos, which is a shame as I love everything about the plant, I did get a couple of cuttings. I do have a couple of pots I put back into the greenhouse on very wet days. 

The biggest ongoing job outside is cutting back our neighbours fence line, she has planted large shrubs as close to the six foot high fence as she can, they are left to go wild, so we keep them cut back, out of our garden space. In our front garden if we left them to grow, we would not be able to use our 2nd parking space. I always ensure our plants have enough room to grow and are not planted too close to the fence. 

I had a wonderful surprise yesterday, my brother drove over from Somerset for a 4 day visit, instant way to cheer me up.