The beginning of warmth and colour all round. This was a funny month for me, lots of beauty in the garden, neglected the weeding in the beds as I had one leg in a boot after a car bumped me when I was cycling, this resulted in me working my office job for two weeks from home, with limited mobility, but I was able to spend a bit more time in the garden enjoying the colour, if not being very active in it.
In the vegetable beds
The broad beans certainly flew up and flowered very quickly, this was them on 13th June, around a month and a half after sowing them. The deep crimson flowers are stunning. As you can see I was a bit lazy on the weeding here, and in hindsight I should have started supporting them around this time of growth too. I planted a small pot with nasturtium too, as a plant to detract pests away from the broad beans. We’ll see how that worked out later.
In the greenhouse
I did neglect things in the greenhouse, I was overwhelmed with all my tomatoes. I did sow some peas that I got it in the wonderful Grow It Forward initiative, run by GIY Ireland, I also made a second attempt growing calendula again as the other seemed to die off. An excellent friend of mine sent me some seeds too, one of which was spinach, so here trying out the ‘Frankie spinach’, as I called it. It sprung up nicely.
Flowers
The foxgloves and Purple King Allium came into their own this month, attracting lots of bees. Cornflowers that I had grown the previous year, on my balcony, bloomed again at this time too, and tiny immaculate fringed willowherb emerged in the flower beds.
I was inspired by the Alstroemeria, down below on the right that, was in my parents’ garden. It always seemed to have bees buzzing around it and the most exquisite flowers. I’m not usually one for exotic flowering plants, (these hail from South America) I made an exception for this and ordered my own, different variety but still very pretty and attractive to bees.
The Greedy Herbivore 