Garden & Veg Patch 1

The veg patch has run to flower and to seed! You can't see much past the broccoli, but the onions and land cress are doing fine underneath and the tomatoes are doing well at the back, as are the herbs and courgette/pepper aubergine in the plastic planters. I forgot to harvest the broccoli and the warm & wet has sent them to seed, which is ok as I've already had quite a lot of broccoli and it gives something for the insects to eat.

Not in the picture is the peas I've not chopped down yet and the brussels sprouts/ cauliflowers that are most unhappy. The pototoes are flowering and look like they're doing fine though.

It's getting a bit difficult to get off the patio since the Evening Primroses grew in the cracks where it joins with the path, and you can't even see the bird table at the end, although Ivor's enjoying it being so overgrown. He's enjoying persecuting the rat & mouse population, although I'd enjoy it more if he kept it strictly al fresco. I've got a lot of spider & vermin catching pots all over the place...

Then when you do make it half way down the garden to the bird table to the path (yes I know, what path! it runs to the right of the table down the middle of the pic towards the little red flowers) you can't actually make it through to the next section due to overgrowth. Which is tricky because there's a compost bin on the other side of that overgrowth and I'd like to be able to use it as well as the one on the patio!

So my next garden task is to work my way from the patio on both sides weeding out bindweed, 6foot nettles and dockleaves (in that order!) as well as the anchusa & other weeds, and then weed out/ tie back stuff so I can get down there. Once on the other side, it should be easier as there's a bark chipping path on each side of the bamboo to the pond, but then it gets truly jungly until you hit the pruning mound.

One of these days, I will hire a chipping machine, reduce the pruning mound (which is approaching the size of a small iron age burial barrow) and use the chippings to remake the circle for having a 4person table down there - but not until I've hacked my way through the undergrowth!

I also want to cut down a shrub that's reaching half way up the chapel wall and suckering all over the place and clean out the pond as it's a bit stagnant and then put a solar powered fountain in there to keep it a bit fresher. You can't really tell it's a pond at present (even if you could machete your way in there) as the flag iris and calla lillies have taken over. I would have done pictures, as it's very pretty if jungly, but I couldn't get in there to take them!