July already?

 I did finish The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling,  all 568 pages, what to say, the spiel on the back cover oversold it in my opinion,  1st book of hers which I didn't really enjoy. Book 47 read this year.

This is the second title by this author, I really enjoyed her first book, if was quirky and fun, very improbable and a great read. This title is as good as her first book, another improbable story which starts with 'I know I'm dead', I could not put it down, it's already been passed on to daughter. Book 48 read this year.

We had a lovely summer roast on Sunday, all the veg was home grown, with roast beef and Yorkshire puddings. It's the simple things which give me the greatest pleasure, they tasted good as well, better than any purchased veg, even the mint grown here in a pot.

The first of my zinnias have started flowering in the bags I have for cut flowers, it did feel very strange to cut all the blooms, normally I resist cutting anything from my garden, one lot of my sweet peas look as if they are going over, the second tub is now flowering. Only another small bunch, I'm so pleased to have flowers next to my inside chair. 

Just a couple of flower photos, we gave away the children's small bench which always sat by our patio doors, this pot is not new, it does look good here. The boots belonged to hubby, he wore them as part of his motorcycle gear, he was going to pass them on, I nicked them, planted them, each plant should tumble down over the boot.

Thank you for your comment about my ripped nail, I did put it in my last post a bit tongue in cheek, seams we are a group of danger gardeners, it's OK, just a bit tender at the rip point. 

Sunday afternoon we caught up with some Glastonbury, watching Lewis Capaldi and then Rod Stewart live, so pleased to see Lewis back on the stage, I was devastated to watch his breakdown last time he appeared, Rod, whist like so many is showing his age, his voice has changed, he looked tired to me, I found his set disappointing. I had hoped to watch Neil Young, but he restricted the BBC coverage, something he had done many times, I have loved his music since my brother shared his first album, back in the 70's, I had hoped when he changed his mind to appear, a deal was done to see him on TV.

Monday afternoon was spent watching the opening match at Wimbledon, which was not as I expected, neither player could hold on to their good game, it did have brilliant moments, but at times was very frustrating to watch. Tuesday was far too hot, I spend the daytime reading and watching tennis,  Djokovic annoyed me, he always does, I've never warmed to him. Wednesday we woke up to rain, enough to keep me happy, a dull grey morning. 

We had had some devastating family news, life can change so quickly.

Weeds

 Dave has been talking about weeds on his blog, Northsider, he has a lovely organic growing space, it's hard work, he grows all his veg and propagate plants to sell, it's somewhere I would love, it would be my hubby's nightmare. 

Dave asked me to show my fake grass paths around the raised beds, if you remember almost 2 years ago hubby made 2 raised beds, which we placed on our back section of our fake lawn, you can see the whole post here. After placing the beds, we cut away the grass and dug out back to the soil, 

They have been a huge success for me, I manage a small veg harvest, each bed is 200cm x 100cm, the size was decided on the space we had, taking the width of our lawn, less the width of 2 paths, roughly 2 meters, therefore making 2 x 1 meter beds.

There is never enough room, I have a raspberry bed, with my blueberries in a tub in the middle, in another bed I have a strawberry tower, with rhubarb and a gooseberry bush. I have loads of buckets and round bags, which allows more summer veg.

I am always on the lookout for weeds, with 6foot fences around our garden, they help keep weeds out, I try and grow as much as I can from self sown seeds, I have more weeds in my flower beds, I often purchase plants and weeds are arrive in those pots. I am outside every day, so as soon as I see a weed I pull it, I know birds drop seeds, I have found a couple flowering plants which I have not planted. 

With my green paths, I get very few weeds, nothing in the middle, only ever along the decking boards of the raised beds, I pull them whilst they are tiny before the roots get too huge, I don't add weeds to my compost bin, and if I purchase any compost I try and use good brands, I'm using Westlands at the moment.

We have lived here 16 years, it is a small space, easy to maintain, my different beds have been well looked after, the redesigned garden added 3 beds, 2 veg and 1 flower all at the back of our old lawn, hubby built them, I filled them with quality soil, again I'm in control.

I grew up in Somerset, one of 9 children, dad had a huge back garden all full of veg, I understand neat rows, the ability to hoe around the plants, always working to ensure everything grew well, my older brother Mel also loved the veg garden, sadly I don't have any photo's, I have asked my sister to send me copies, she has all mums photo albums, sadly she will ignore my request, I'm visiting soon, maybe she will let me look through them.

The one plant I have introduced is a creeping buttercup, only in the back fruit bed infront of the greenhouse, it was a mistake, I am pulling up runners in hope I can stop it spreading too much, I do love the tiny yellow flowers. The heat has stopped us doing much, so a bit boring here at mo. 

June round up

 Very little on craft, I have not included the cost of the tunic material to make the cushions, hubby paid for it. I have credits shown on my garden list it's for the raised bed and metal table and chairs I sold, I managed to get new hurdles for my raised veg beds and a couple low metal fence edging panels. 

I got more new clothes, 2 pair of shorts and 4 T shirts, all on sale.

My half year figures are better than expected, selling two items helped bring my spend back to where I wanted it. I have loads of nice clothes, I don't need sandals, so again I'm happy with the half year figure. 

3 Books read this month. 

We managed to turn a 'no spend month' into another expensive one, we did sell both our wooden and metal furniture sets for a decent price and we got 10% discount off the new set, it was always planed to get new, just not yet. Plus a few things inside.

We are eating small harvest, a few bits have gone into the freezer in order not to waste anything, we have been enjoying the strawberries this year, they are huge and so many of them.

My weight has settled at the lower end, still too high, I am more active and tired most evenings. 

Herbs and flower's

 More plants, both my sage and thyme have gone very woody in my huge herb pot, I have cut them back many times, now is a good time to replace them. I got another Gaura, this one pink as I love their flowers, I've never grown these before. I also got two low metal fences to replace some flimsy ones, for under the Magnolia tree.

As you can see Friday was a cloudy day, here locally at Garson's garden centre, Titchfield, which is my favourite plant place, we treated everyone (daughter and her 3 children) to a drink and cake, loads of happy faces.

Another small bunch of cut flowers from the garden, including a big daisy as well as my fleabane ones, the zinnias are starting to bloom. I am enjoying having real flowers inside, the sweet peas are in a lull, loads of buds still to come.

Anyone who has ripped their nail this low will know it hurts, I have really weak nails which I try to keep tidy, I went to turn a pot without putting on my gloves, and caught myself, lesson learnt. 

I am struggling reading The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling, I'm on page 201, at the start of part two of the book, it's really slow going, I am hoping it rises up to the spiel on the back of the cover.

Saturday was another cloudy start, no rain just grey skies, the blues skies and heat arrived, it stayed windy all day, we sat in the shade for ages. We had homemade pizza for tea with red wine and chocolate, living life to the full here, I did give the garden a good soak before we settled down to our evening.

Today hubby is making a roast dinner, from my garden we have new potatoes, broad beans and cabbage, sadly no carrots yet. I have lettuce, and salad leaves as well, my runner beans are flowering, tomatoes are really behind and my cucumber plants have died. Strawberries are almost finished, now picking blueberries and a final pull of rhubarb, the raspberries are beginning to turn red.

Today is another day at home together, depending on the heat I may get my sewing machine out, I have cushions to make for hubby.