The Garden Diary 2012

3 July -  Once again the diary has come to a stuttering halt, and I'm afraid that it will continue to judder into the foreseeable future as we dedicate more and more of our time to our family. On the weekend we attended a very happy first birthday party for our grandson.  Now, just two days later, the optimism of recent months has been shattered as his mum has learned some terribly discouraging news about her ongoing illness - the family now faces a very uncertain future while maintaining an air of happy and normal life around their fabulous little boy, and they need and deserve all the help they can get from us over the months to come.

The weather today is nothing short of miserable (reflecting my mood this evening) with very low cloud and drizzle, and the forecast offers only limited prospects of an improvement for at least a couple of weeks. This follows what has been the wettest June and the wettest April to June period since records began in 1910. June was also the dullest since 1987. It's hard to believe that in the middle of last week (and on one day only!) the temperature rose to exceed 29C in the garden as south-easterly winds brought in warm air and sunshine, as well as a lot of dust. And of course our hosepipe ban continues ....

Way back in April I mentioned that I had started to prepare a small vegetable plot down the bottom of the garden. Well, at the end of last week I finally planted some vegetables, although I have to confess that I cheated in that I bought trays of plants from our local garden centre. With the grandchildren in mind as well as the late start, I've planted dwarf runner beans and mangetout along two edges and lettuces in the middle.

Needless to say, I have immediately got a battle on my hands as the prolonged damp weather has provided the perfect conditions for slugs to thrive!

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