My mind is elsewhere

Lordy, is it over a week since I've added to this ??

Spending some quality time up at the lottie this week, building raised beds but let's see if I can remember what I've been doing on the plot in that time.

Tomatoes - struggling on. At least I'm getting to pick them now, but very few and far between. Next year there there will be a maximum of 10 plants in the greenhouse and mainly Totem (bush). I've got fed up with all the tying and side shooting of cordons, oh and watering. I'm either going to have to set up an automatic system, or really get my act together. This year was not good.

Aubergines - there are still 3 fruit hanging on for grim death. Still very small and not at all what I'd hoped for. May only bother with one or two plants next year.

Gave the fuchsias a good old hair cut. Far to many dodgy looking leaves and found a bit of rust too, so gave them a good old thin out. The Diascia is still romping away, very impressed with that.

The pansies, wallflowers, turnips and spinach appear to have been well protected from Sluggy and his pals. No damage to speak of. I do have a morning inspection and will have to replace the pellets soon though. It's been quite dry this last week (apart from a drizzly day on Saturday), so the sluggies have obviously been hiding somewhere warmer and wetter or perhaps they're just concentrating on the marigolds which really have suffered this year. It's a good job there are literally hundreds of blooms cos at least half of them are slug brunch. Will make a better effort to protect them next year.

Hestia runner beans are just starting to bear fruit but it really is a struggle. Chillies too, there's one or two I could pick now, but overall really disappointed. I'm sure this is because I've spent so much time at the lottie and not given them the attention they need.

I cut down the majority of sweetpeas at the weekend to compost. They were straggling all over the place and making a proper mess. I've left one batch for seeds though.

I must have a look at the blueberries. I'm sure I noticed some ripe ones there the other day, picked another handful of strawberries last night too. Nothing to write home about. Going to try them in hanging baskets next year I think to give them a bit of breathing space.

The petunias that actually get watered are still going strong, but must admit to have ignored most of them. The pink ones in the diascia pot look very attractive next to their pink neighbours.

The Jerusalem Artichokes are massively tall now, I'd say 11-12' tall. No sign of any flowers though.

In the front border the Love-in-the-Mist is pretty much done now, but I've saved some seed pods, there are still a couple of poppies blooming as well and I've saved plenty of those for next year. The nasturtiums are still doing well in the front, but I really want to hoik them out to make way for the pansies and wall flowers, they can stay for a bit longer though while I'm still concentrating on the lottie. The jasmin in the front has been hidden by the nasturtiums, I found it by accident the other day, it's looking very health though lol.

Jobs to so - hedges need a trim, grass needs cutting, winter annuals need planting up, fuchsia cuttings needs to be taken .......... let's just hope for a long warm September !

:-)