Flowers in the Rain

The fatal combination of some very depressing weather and a full-on couple of weeks at work has prevented me from doing either gardening or any of my rambling blogs about it.

And speaking of fatal combinations: a bit of sun and warmth, followed by a lot of rain, has turned the garden into a total jungle in the space of a few days.

It's meant re-weeding whole sections that we only worked on in March, but I confess it was a bit easier than the first time. Gardening in the rain at least means the soil is soft. And thanks to Mark for taking on the Bastard Slope which had covered itself in uninvited, and now dead, bluebells, leaving room for very little else to grow.

It's also meant that 'No Mow May' is looking like a crap idea, as ever since May ended the weather's been too wet to cut the grass and it's a mess. I hope those bloody bees are happy, that's all.

Now look here, Kitty

It was quite a blow to find that a cat had er, done its business in one of my thriving herb basins. (And no, I am 100% confident it was not our own cat, for reasons I won't bore you with here. The chief suspect is a deceptively cute thing called Winnie). Perhaps you have had this problem. I made a vow that my garden would be entirely wildlife-friendly, and that has to mean all wildlife, so I won't be using anything that might hurt them or any other species. So no chemicals and no cayenne pepper (as was suggested on on the Facebook forums I follow), as this stuff can burn cats' paws, tongue and eyes.

I'm going with the holly branch option, because they don't find it nice to squat on, and also some lemon peel, as apparently cats don't like the smell. I'll let you know how we get on. In the meantime a goodly chunk of tarragon and thyme has had to be dumped in the bin, and I'm not thrilled about this.

Rake's progress (OK, that is a bit forced as a gardening sub-head)

The peas are coming along nicely.

The sunflowers are getting tall enough to be staked.

The chamomile is flowering.

And we're getting lots of salad leaves for the daily lunchtime sarnies.

So in spite of a wet and work-loaded week, the garden has still yielded some results.