The big news from the garden is that a second asparagus fern has appeared followed a couple of days later by a third, so I am now hopeful that all five crowns will prove to be viable.

Earlier this week I raked, mowed and soaked the lawns and shortly after there was some heavy rain, and the grass is really starting to grow.  I stand by the view that grass is be one of the least rewarding things to grow as it is fickle and takes an inordinate amount of effort.  However, if our garden is to be a model of what you can do in a small patch then neat, green lawns really do make a visual impact, so I am going to keep putting the effort in this summer.

This morning Lynn and I worked together tidying the wisteria and pyrocanthus and largely re-filling the green bin that had only been emptied the day before.

The sugar snap peas at home have been the best we’ve ever grown, with healthy plants and heavy crops.

Sugar snaps

Over the last few days I have put in some effort in the garden.  We have bought some plants to fill in the newly (and yet to be) weeded borders and used these as a catalyst to really get moving on clearing the beds so that we can start to develop a colour scheme for each bed.  We have loaded up on compost, for planting out, potting on and taking cuttings.  I am keen to propagate a number of plants this year, including rosemary and heathers to provide additional plants for hedging.  The borlotti beans from my pound shop kit have all sprouted nicely and are now out of the propagator.  They will be ripe for planting out fairly imminently, if we can get a wigwam built on the allotment

The home cabbage bed and the salad box are well worth showing again, and we now have life in the asparagus bed (although I’d like to see more than one of the crowns sprouting).

Home cabbage bed

Salad box 30 June

Asparagus fern

The lawn efforts have continued with a bout of raking and mowing followed by a good soaking of the back lawn.

I had a long afternoon/evening in the garden and as well as finishing off the planting up round the back, I also got the front beds fully weeded and tidied and got the planting done in time for Lynn’s return.  I also got the power washer out to get the drive cleaned.  This was a gloriously mucky job, I hadn’t realised quite how high a pressure there was and managed to spray muck in a variety of places, including all over me.

Despite my earlier complaints about the lack of reward for working on the lawns, I had another go at them today, putting on some summer treatment, I’ll follow this up with a programme of raking and mowing over the next month or so.