Saving Grace and Giving Thanks...

Keeping up with the speed of natural progress. The ongoing is a forever skyward journey. Acanthus and Sweet Williams outside the door, always a joyful start to the day.

 The garden is the home habitat to many creatures.Toads Frogs, Renet(Tree frog). two species of lizard, a black Salamander,grass snakes, slow worms and vipers. Mice and Moles. We get visits from Hawks, Buzzards, Owls, Chardonier, Hoopoe, Jays,Magpies, Our resident colony of house Sparrows are thriving. We have a pair of Starlings that couldn't be bothered to migrate to Africa every year. They like it here.  So do we.

Leek flower, just opening. . The seed will be saved for sowing next season. This years crop of seedling leeks are not yet ready to transplant.

 Red stemmed Swiss Chard, allowed to bolt.  More Seedy Savings.

 Black seed nearly ripe to harvest, this will go well with my muesli.

 Mullein towering above everything around it,  this is just the beginning. Madame tells me we are to harvest the petals... more on that later.

Hysopp...

Looks happy enough, Calendula adorns the Squash.

 The Chayote plant a survivor from last year. Speedily filling the "pig wire" support. Tendrils fanning out in all directions, looking for something to grab hold off. We'll encourage the plant to  mature as a tower before letting it loose to cover the runner bean support. The Runner beans on this plot were not grown from Rhizomes, but from fresh seed. They  are showing but without the reserve of root energy they are growing much slower than the  established plants. Remember ... Runner Beans are perrenials. Treat them right, you will have a store of this delicious bean ...Forever.  Carrots are doing well. Several patches ensures we don't subject our whole crop to the risk of specialist opportunistic pests.

 My favourite morning sit down, with the sun behind me , a cool shady spot to just watch stuff growing.

 Voila! Hypothesis proven. The established Runner Beans, (their third year), already covering their support.Masses of red and white flowers now appearing. To the left of the beans, Russian Kale , the last remaing plant from the previous season, will be havested this week for immediate resowing. Winter and late Spring greens assured. The Scottish Curly Kale, the Brussel Sprouts and Cabbage haven't missed a beat since we sowed them.