I’m very pleased to be cropping a decent amount of vegetables from the garden at last. My spinach and cut and come again salad leaves have gone beserk so I shouldn’t need to buy any for quite some time now.

My beans are showing real promise, tying in the new growth to the supports has become an almost daily job now and they are quite the envy of my Dad whose beans are struggling this year. His aren’t ideally placed to make the most of the sun all day and he didn’t put as much time into preparing the soil as I did which goes to show it’s worth the effort.

I’m also reaping the rewards of putting in the same effort with preparation for my strawberries. Last year, in their first year, I removed any flowers to stop them producing fruit so they could put their energy into growing into strong healthy plants – This year they are laden with fruit which I can’t wait try!

Now our lawn is looking thicker we’ve noticed a few weeds starting to grow so its time for a summer feed and weed where we’re a bit late starting our lawn care programme. The granular types such as Evergreen complete are really easy to use, just scatter on and let the rain we’ve been getting over the last week do the watering in for you! If you’ve already done your feed and weeding the cut and feed will give your grass an extra boost and help it recover from any damage done over the past year.

I finally succumbed to temptation last week and bought myself a plant I’ve been coveting for ages – an Astelia. These sought after plants are shaped like the New Zealand flaxes and also come from the same area, but the strappy grass-like leaves are a beautiful spring green colour with a metallic silver lustre. I’ve planted it in a pot and placed it in pride of place on my decking where I can see it from the kitchen and it will get the semi-shaded conditions it will thrive in. It looks great with my Maple and ferns.

Its fathers day the week-end after next – Don’t forget to get your Dad a card & a little something. If you’re stuck for ideas we have plenty of Dad-ware (giftware for dads) & if hes a planty person we have some lovely unusual things in at the moment, pop in & see one of us for some ideas!

We had another busy day in the garden this weekend. A couple of weeks ago my husband noticed some bare patches in the lawn so we thought it an ideal opportunity to try out some patch magic lawn repair. This week after mowing we definitely noticed the difference; the bare patches are full of new grass & are hardly noticeable now.

I spent some time cropping my first radishes & sowing some more along with some turnips, leeks & basil & thinned out the lettuce seedlings that have finally made an appearance. The ready sown salad leaf & spinach seedlings I bought are romping away, I should be able to start picking some leaves next week... Yum!

The rest of the garden is coming on too, my dahlias are finally making an appearance & the perennials I put in a few months back are really coming on. I particularly like the geranium ‘Brookside’. It’s a good doer, scrambling around & producing the most vivid blue flowers, once it’s finished its first flush I’ll cut it back & it’ll bloom again within a few weeks.