I spent many very happy hours in the garden today.  The spinach had bolted so I saved what I could and pulled up the straggly bits and sowed more spinach seeds.

In a neglected corner of the garden, behind the veggie patch, are the raspberry canes my friend Kath gave me when she emigrated back to New Zealand.  Well, it was negelected but it has now been tamed and tidied up.There were lots of ripe raspberries but also lots of nibbled ones too!  Is that birds who peck at them? After clearing the area of nettles and weeds I picked as many as I could find and made them in to a smoothie.

This was delicious.  Harvey and I loved this smoothie made with 2 handfuls each of spinach and raspberries, 1 frozen banana, soya milk, vanilla soya yogurt and cashew nut butter.  It was creamy and smooth and so tasty he had no idea it was full of spinach.The strawberries are not ready yet.
June is a wonderful month for flowers, the garden is looking very colourful. The sweet peas are quite spectacular. In this triangle shaped bed, on the way in to the veggie patch, the sunflowers are growing very well, as are the sweet peas. I have enough growing to pick 3 vases a week at the moment. They are so pretty.

They smell amazing.I don’t want that many nasturtiums but they keep the weeds down, while I wait for my rose bushes which are going to go in here. The broad beans seem to have been flowering for months. Finally the broad beans are actually growing too. The first French bean is peaking out. The runner beans are flowering. The purple french beans are on there way too. The lettuces have been magnificent.  These 4 are from Sarah Raven; left to right are Mizuna, Mustard Red Giant, Lettuce Solix and Lettuce Green Oak Leaf.  Their germination rates were not great so I sowed more today. Lettuces and rocket which came from Garden Organics which is my favourite sed company.  We have eaten a lot of these recently and they taste wonderful as they are so full of flavour. This bed is full of courgettes and sweet potatoes.  And nasturtiums which pop up everywhere so i did clear a lot out today. I pulled out all the radishes as they had got too big and gone woody.  I also cleared out some nasturtiums and chopped the Swiss and Rainbow chard back.  I added about half a ton of fresh soil to the top bed, carefully raked it and sowed carrot seeds (the seeds I sowed 3 weeks ago did nothing so I am trying again) and spring onions which apparently help keep carrot fly away.  Did you see that bit – I added about half a ton of soil to the top bed?  No mean feat with a wheelbarrow with a flat tyre! I also planted out these which I have never grown before – do you know what they are?  I am trying 3 in a bed and will also try 3 in the greenhouse when it is built. The busiest bed by far is the pea bed. They have grown so quickly and look to be in perfect condition. Every pea plant is completely smothered in pods and lots look ready to be eaten.I decided a small boy should be enlisted to help pick and shuck them.

Little Fella – where are you?  Strangely he had become very quiet and uncharacteristically very still!Once spotted and prised from the tree he did well.  We both ate lots of the peas raw as they are so sweet and delicious. For lunch we enjoyed a salad made from leaves from the garden and tomatoes.Eaten with tacos to which I added the peas and it was just warm enough to eat in the garden.   It was a very tasty lunch and the best part was eating so much I have grown myself.  I really enjoyed my day in the garden. I really enjoyed yesterday too. I went up to London with Annette and we met Laura in The Delaunay (http://www.thedelaunay.com) which is a ‘Grand European Cafe Restaurant’ apparently. I had a very good steak Bearnaise and frites.  Some greenery with it would have been appreciated but it seems you have to order that separately. The espresso was really good.. We met for lunch and then went on to see Wolf Hall at the Aldwych Theatre.  It was very good.  Quite long at 3 hours for the performance and I would have liked a bit more variety of the scenery but the script and acting was really good.  It was not as confusing to me as the book but I did occasionally have to rack my brains to remember which Thomas that was – why are there so many Thomas’?  I really enjoyed the humour in this production.

A very satisfactory weekend for gardening and catching up with 2 lovely friends, having a good meal out and a trip to the theatre.  I hope you had a good weekend too.