Ladybirds, blackfly and bees.....and bean poles.

Insect life was particularly noticeable this week in the garden.  Ladybirds feasted on blackfly, so helping our plants to survive.

Ladybird and blackfly on borage

More ladybirds on swiss chard

 Bees were everywhere, enjoying the echiums, borage and phacelia, and pollinating our veg as well.

Spot the bees on phacelia

Some of the phacelia has finished flowering, and is being removed to make room for sweetcorn.

Making a space for sweetcorn.

We have experienced some irritating vandalism since last week's efforts with the bean poles - one of the wigwams was pulled up and left lying near the plot. So we hope we have fixed them in even more firmly this time around.

We've been here before!

Bring on the watering cans!

At last it's time to plant out the tomatoes and courgettes.
However, some of the ground is so hard and dry that it needs watering before any planting holes can be dug!

Tomatoes need a lot of water after planting too.

We bought new hazel rods this year to make the bean wigwams.

Wigwam under construction

Here's one we made earlier

In our fruit area, the thornless loganberry is doing quite well. We have fixed some wires onto the wall behind it so that we can fasten it back tidily.

The loganberry needs support

We have a fine show of californian poppies at the moment. They don't mind the dry conditions at all.

Californian poppies with phacelia behind to set them off