A bean harvest visit showed a beautifully flowering plot. The morning glories were giving a great display and all the delphiniums are now out.

The dahlias are also awake all of a sudden. I’ve got a load of deadheading ahead of me this weekend.

The Red Alerts are now starting to ripen and I picked the first few. The Ferline are still green, but are getting a nice bit bigger than the Red Alerts.

The snapdragons are opening around the place and looking quite good. Like everything else, they should feel free to seed down.

I did a bucketful of deadheading in the midday sun today. I thibk I’ve momentarily made the cornflowers look more alive than dead. The everlasting peas are mostly done, but might throw out some more flowers if I’m lucky.

My French marigolds look splendid. I’m so glad I pursued sowing them. The first couple of snapdragons are open now. I’m glad to have added them to what might seed down in the plot, but I think standard snapdragons are prettier.

I cut a big bunch of flowers for photos and picked a big piles of runner beans and a fat handful of French beans.

Feeding day: everything got a good dose of tomato food, while misty rain fell on me. The pink Aurora delphinium has now started to open, leaving just the white to come. I discovered that the lilac one in the left bed has had its middle eaten, so it won’t be doing anything this year.

Clearly the wasps have found my gate.

Today’s main job was deadheading again. It was hot and sunny and there was an amount of just sitting among my flowers and staring off into space. The blue delphinium is now opening as one of the stems of the purple delphinium finishes.

The Double Click cosmos have made much bushier plants than the Dwarf Sensation or Peppermint Rock I think. Worth remembering. As a result this one is rather sitting on the zinnia next to it, but it’s not too bad.

The Red Alerts have of course now started to dangle rather with a heavy crop. So I guess canes will be needed after all. The Ferlines are starting to get bigger now.

One of my beetroot had bolted – first time ever for the Boltardy.

I’ve taken out the poppies to bring some room and light to the trellis bed. It looks a bit empty and rubbish now, but needs some attention. There are some good, but suffering perennials in there.

2nd instar green shield bug

A quick trip to the plot to pick beans and a good beetroot. The blackfly are still trying to take over and since it wasn’t too bright and sunny, I gave them more spray. There are so many ladybirds and larvae everywhere, but they just can’t keep up!

I’m struck by how upright the Red Alerts are staying this year. More space maybe? Ordinarily they’d be in need of canes and twine by now. I guess there’s still time for all that as the fruits grow.

The viper’s bugloss and borage are really upright this year too, which is a big plus.

Today’s main job was deadheading. For which there is no straightforward German word. More than a bucket full went to the compost heap.

The random wildflower from Ted X has now opened into a random yellow flower (Edit: it’s corn parsley!). The poppies in Bed 1 had a good day today. I assume they’ll seed down and be there forever now too.

The runner beans have lots of ladybird larvae and I also found a bunch of shield bug eggs with newly-hatched instars. They apparently eat a little sap from the plant, but will neither hurt the plant nor help out with the blackfly.

Having been fed, the French beans are now bucking up a bit and the beans are coming.

The plot has kicked into gear and I had to summon an audience this morning when I went to pick a few flowers.

Bed 1 is an abundance of cornflowers, borage and viper’s bugloss, with some poppies and a few calendula. In the corner where I sowed the wildflower seed, there are a few corn marigolds and some of those blue cornflowers must be from that mix too.

The Red Alerts are doing really well, the Ferlines are coming along behind. I’ll just keep feeding them. The runner beans are still fighting blackfly, but I’ve taken my first harvest from them – much bigger than my usual first harvest. The first French beans were picked too.

The dahlias suddenly have buds. They’ve already picked up a few blackfly, but I was able to wipe them off.

The first Double Click cosmos are open and they’re magnificent.

The first harvest of 2020.

I’ve weeded and resown the second lot of veg and I believe I’ve managed to keep the two carrots that grew in place.

I had brought a bunch of plants from the grow house – which still has a few little things in it. I’ve put some marigolds and zinnias in the left boundary to help fill it in.

I’ve added some clary plants to Bed 3. I think they won’t mind dry soil, but also went in fairly wet, having had a seaweed soak in the shed overnight.

A couple of clary plants aren’t looking too hot, as they have white fly on them. I’ve given them a good spray and I’ll leave them in the pot for now to see if they recover.

Another beetroot has gone wrong. I felt the leaves of the others and they still feel fresh, so I hope they’ll be ok. I clearly need to keep an eye on them, in case there’s something in the soil.

I mixed up a big batch of seaweed solution and watered a fair amount of the boundaries to give them a bit of a boost. There’s no sign of activity from the gladioli yet, and I’m starting to wonder if they’re all going to be blind or something.

I pulled my first beetroot, as I’d noticed the leaves had gone limp, but unfortunately this was because something had been eating the root and killed it. Boo. The beans of both varieties are struggling a bit and so I must keep them fed with tomato food to keep encouraging flowers. The runner beans are smothered with black fly, which I’ve sprayed and wiped off as best I could today. There are also some on the yellow French beans. Is it the white flowers and the yellow beans that have attracted them? The purple beans seem to have escaped infestation.