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| A queen wasps nest, a work of art in micro engineering. |
Seven pm and it's still 21c. It's been a very hot day, I didn't sign up for hot weather in Ireland, we moved back from Spain because it was too hot for me, the only consolation is I know it wont last too long. The other half is loving it, as are most of the country.
The up side is that plants are now growing like crazy.
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| Thalictrum. |
The early summer flowers are looking lovely,
even the Delphiniums are blooming,
the lupin has doubled in size, this will have to be split in the autumn before it takes over the whole bed,
there are lots of Aquilegia,
all different colours,
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| Astrantia with double flowered campion |
the Astrantia is looking great
and the arum lily has at last started to flower, it got badly set back with the late frosts we had in April.
Irises are just starting to flower,
one of them was a pot I bought from a table sale last year for just two euros, the pot was so crowded I was able to split the plant and it's made two beautiful clumps.
Rosa rugosa are flowering , the main roses are not far behind, hopefully the rose garden will be in full bloom an a few days time.
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| Dianthus. |
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| Chives with a blue aquilegia and geums. |
The vegetables are all growing well,
just about all of the carrots germinated so they will have to be thinned out,
the garden early potatoes have been earthed up once,
and we are now having new potatoes from the tunnel, there are still plenty of strawberries coming from the tunnel,
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| Cambridge favourite strawberries. |
next to be cropped will be the Cambridge favourite, they have now set their fruit, it looks as though the strawberries in the barrel will be the latter cropping ones.
We are also set for a bumper harvest of gooseberries, last year the wild birds got most of them, this year all the soft fruit has been protected by a netting tunnel.
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| roast chicken, peas, broad beans and new potatoes, rhubarb to follow. |
It's great to be able to sit down for a meal and know that it was all produced by us, no air miles or boosting super markets profits. We have a choice of veg, peas, broad beans, spinach, chard or asparagus. Soon it will be cauliflowers and calabrese, it's just a shame that all the plants are ready at the same time, it can get boring having cauliflower every day.
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| Tradascantia in flower. |
The early onions in the tunnel are now ready to be removed and stored, the garlic is not far behind, that will then give us two spare beds for something else, we have a couple of butternut squashes waiting for a place, these can go where the tunnel potatoes were, and we still have one courgette looking for a bed.
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Dodecatheon or shooting stars.
A couple of years back I bought two Amaryllis looking very sorry for their selves, they had been reduced to 99cents, they flowered twice the first year I had them, they then got moved into the sunroom, this year they have reward us with a mass of bloom, not bad for a few cents. |
