july in the garden

I’ve given up on growing vegetables in the garden this year. I planted beetroot, radish, turnips, lettuce, all kinds of things, and they all either drowned, were eaten by slugs, or frazzled when I forgot to water them in the cold frame (because it rained so much the prospect of watering anything seemed so alien).

I told myself to let it go. There would be other years to grow veg. There are plenty of herbs out there – rosemary, sage, lemon balm, mint. There’s even a bit of fruit – rhubarb, redcurrants, and two whole gooseberries!

And the whole garden seems to be a riot of flowers – some intentional, others not, but all very welcome.

I’m so much enjoying the sweet peas round my little terrace seats. They smell gorgeous, and I try to keep picking them so they’ll grow even more. I love sweet peas.

And the chive flowers are pretty jolly when I open the back door too.

On the whole though, I must confess the garden looks rather scruffy and overgrown at the minute. With all the rain we’ve been having, my willow fence went rather mad, and was nearly as tall as me, although you can’t tell in this picture.

I’m not sure whether I should have lopped the top off, but instead I opted to weave it in, which means the garden has a rather furry looking hedge right now.

Still, you can see the willow is growing nicely up the sides of my screen, and will soon cover it. It’s lovely to sit in there in the dappled light, listening to the birds.

I’m a bit disappointed about my lack of veg growing, but I’m also quite relieved. Keeping plants alive doesn’t come naturally to me, and takes quite a lot of effort. In the past I’ve not been too successful (I remember the one broad bean pod I harvested one year, and last summer we had one bowl of tomatoes). Something for when I have a little more time I think.

For now, I’m content to sit among the flowers, picking herbs to put in my tea, and the occasional redcurrant.

What are you growing right now?

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