After the hot dry weather the garden was started to look shrivelled and crusty. The forecast promised rain for Tuesday/Wednesday. In fact one of the weather websites suggested there would be copious amount of rain and floods in some places. I planned to visit my dad on the Wednesday but wondered if the conditions might be a bit dangerous for driving on the motorway. Silly me for thinking the websites might be right because in the end we had about half an inch, no where near the deluge we’d been led to believe would happen. Still, it’s better than nothing and the plants should all perk up a bit and I will be able to plant some more of the annuals which I grew from seed earlier in the year. It will also be rather wonderful not to have to do the watering today.

There seems to be so much to do at the moment. I need to pot up more sempervivums which are so popular (one lady bought 22 the other day). It’s a good time to take cuttings so I shall do some later. The poppies and foxgloves have finished flowering so I need to remove them. Various shrubs need trimming. The sisyrinchium striatum has finished flowering and is now in its scruffy stage so I will cut it all back.

I have lifted some garlic, just a few bulbs to start the process of turning them into black garlic so there will be some very pungent smells coming from the tunnel. The rest of the crop can wait in the ground a bit longer maybe until the end of July then it will all get lifted. More of it will get cooked.