Here’s the latest on the vegetable patches:

Last year’s strawberries are doing a lot better after Steve cut down the tree which was just to the right of this picture. Given enoughb weather variation, we should be in for a feast this year. In the background you can see the “fence” I’ve built to protect them from being over-run by the squash plants I’ve just put in. Hopefully it will serve the dual purpose of stopping the strawberry gannets from crushing the squashes when feasting….

…and here’s the wider view of same patch. I’ve put in all 8 squash plants the Chief Vegetable Architect has entrusted me with. If nothing else, they may suppress the weeds. Back right you can see the 4 blueberry bushes. I explained blueberries to Lily in a Charlie & the Chocolate Factory context, which I’m now thinking I may regret in the ling run when she refuses to eat them because she doesn’t want to inflate lijke a balloon. In the middle are 3 courgette plants. I’m wondering if they need a protective fence, too. Back left of the picture are the rhubarb plants which are guarded by 2 accidental potato plants. I may dig them up soon, as last year the potatoes took over & trashed the tomatoes.

Here’s the other “new” veggie patch. Carrots (not very many of them, mind) back left, runner beans down the middle, sugar-snap peas back right. Tomatoes in the middle, french beans in the foreground, more strawberries right at the front (we *really* like strawberries) Various lettuces under the dome. This end of the carrots in front of the stick, you can see Lily’s sunflower, and her bean from nursery is growing up the A frame.

These are my favourite flowers, shown with my favourite girl-named-after-a-flower who wouldn’t get out of the picture:

We’ve cunningly managed to get them to grow somewhere where they can’t be seen from the house. Nice one.