Summer 2015 in our garden.

As I opened the curtains this morning I was greeted by a blackbird taking a bath in our new pond. A feeling of satisfaction at having helped create this moment eased me very pleasantly into the day; a lot of which was spent weeding out in the garden. Lifting a flagstone to remove couch grass roots revealed an ants nest, many of its inhabitants with wings but not ready to fly. A young robin flitted down to gorge and kept me entertained. Pondskaters danced across the pond as my fingers tickled the ground plucking weeds which despite the generally inclement weather this summer have been coming on a treat. Hairy bitter cress, grounsel and rose bay willow herb seem to pop up daily and the spread of perennial creeping buttercup and ground elder is relentless. In contrast, sunflowers and sweet peas are not flourishing nearly so well as last year. Garden fauna has also been selectively affected by the weather. Slugs are enjoying the conditions and nightly forays out in the garden seem not to dwindle their numbers, yet butterflies have been rarely sited in the garden this year. The low numbers of butterflies has meant I have seen no eggs on our greens this year and only one caterpillar to date. But its not all weeds and pests. It was a good fruit harvest this year with lots of gooseberries, blackcurrants and blueberries. We've been self sufficient for salad greens for several weeks now, broad beans have been successful, as have courgettes and silver beet, and potatoes and runner beans look promising. The harvests have just been a bit later is all. Comfrey is thriving under the old apple tree and its lengthy flowering period has been a good mainstay for bees in our garden, numbers of which seem to be roughly similar to last year. Some comfrey goes on the compost heap to speed it up and some will go to make a nourishing tea for the garden. The lavender is also very popular with the bees at the moment. Poppies were buzzing with bees earlier in the year. Honeysuckle is doing well, borage is at last flowering, cornflowers and marjoram too, and buddleia in full blossom ready for a late flourish of butterlies and an Indian summer I hope.