Dandelions Galore - My Sunday Photo

Every year one of my small lawns is a carpet of Dandelions.  We leave them be, one for the sheer pleasure of seeing their beautiful golden flowers and two for their ability to turn their flowers into fluffy pom-poms seemingly overnight for Miss CCL to blow their seeds and watch them fly into the distance and of course some that end up back on the lawn!

But most importantly, we leave them on the lawn for the bees, the Dandelion flowers are the first Spring food for them and we need our bees!  I also drink Dandelion tea from time to time, their leaves are medicinal and their roots can be roasted and ground into Dandelion "coffee".

So rather than pulling them up or using chemicals to eradicate them, leave them, enjoy them, think of them not as a weed, but more of a medicinal powerhouse.

And don't forget to close your eyes and make a wish...

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Wildflower Meadow - How does your Garden grow

Months ago this was just a very large patch of dusty,brown earth, 2 old bowling greens.  I remember pelting around it to get to a medical appointment across the road from it, that was then, this is now...

the most glorious sight, a field of wildflowers in the city.  I looked around and saw everyone mesmerised and so very relaxed either photographing it or just sitting on one of the benches around it.

and so importantly, a  habitat for the bees and butterflies.

Close-ups of some of the inhabitants of the wildflower meadow, there are cornflowers in blue and deep pink, so many different colours of poppies as well as golden Californian Poppies and so much more to see as well as the meadow we will go back again and again this summer.

my girl in the meadow, fascinated to follow a butterfly, but still screaming beeee mummeeee when I've reassured her time and again that they won't hurt her, all they want is to gather the nectar and be left in peace to do so.  She was a star as usual though, my girl.

Snapshots of the Garden - How Does Your Garden Grow

With summer in full fling now, the garden has come alive with flowers and bees.  Whenever I see the bees on my Lavender bushes I think someone is going to get some lovely Lavender Honey!  I planted 8 new bushes this year, they are all still small but all have a good supply of Lavender coming up.

The Apples are coming on well on our trees

as are the Blackberries, plentiful as usual - we let them grow in our garden despite the unfriendly brambles, the fruits are divine and well worth waiting for.

The Tomatoes have flowers, hopefully soon masses of cherry tomatoes!

I'm very pleased with my crop of Cayenne Peppers, I grew them all indoors and

all the plants have loads on them.   I just have to Google whether I should leave them on the plants to ripen and go red or pick them and ripen off the plant.

We have Sunflowers too!  The girl and I planted some seeds, some now look like this, ready to pop

and one surprised us this morning which elicited a big WOW from both of us.  Isn't it just beautiful!

A few of the flowers scattered around the garden, the colours really cheer me up.

Summer is finally here.....

Garden, Gardening, Summer, Flowers

B is for ,,, The Alphabet Photo Project

It's the time of year when everything goes quite mad in the garden, suddenly there is a growth spurt and the grass is ten feet high and the flowers are all starting to bloom.  This year I left a couple of the lawns to do their thing - one has dandelions that I let flower and become a blanket of delicate, fluffy pom-poms that we blow till we are dizzy.  Dandelions aren't weeds, they are medicinal plants and the bees love them, leave them in your garden!

The rest of the garden is covered in beautiful, blue, Borage plants that are also covered in honey bees and the little girl is now so used to them, we can actually sit amongst them without her screeching beeeee and doing a very dramatic exit, so last year!

So after all that, B this week is for Buttercup, those bright, sunshine yellow flowers that also pop up on my lawns.  This one caught my eye, not quite perfect but so perfectly intricate.  I was pondering the other day why I never see a bee on a Buttercup, have a read here for some interesting facts on the matter.

B is also for Bokeh, a word I learnt recently, it's the blurry background I've been practising with my new camera, finally I'm regularly off Auto mode!

Linking up with The Alphabet Photo Project on Charly's Podcastdove blog.

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Seedlings

I've started popped seeds into containers and pots again, it's that time of year.  I've got some Cayenne Pepper seedlings nicely growing and potted on into bigger pots, I have high hopes for them but I always do at this stage!

I love growing from seed, there is something so magical about watching a tiny seed burst out from it's shell and force its way up toward the light, new life.

In my recycled plastic egg boxes, I've put basil, oregano, thyme, carrots, sage, tomatoes and beetroot, just a few of each. The egg box acts as a makeshift greenhouse when left on a warm windowsill.  The basil is up and some beetroot and one solitary Sage seedling.  I've sown in stages to give me time to plant on.

Last year we got a lot of beetroot and a glut of tomatoes which is never a bad thing here, some found their way into my homemade tomato and chilli chutney so hoping for another glut this year!

And some tomato plants I made earlier, I'm going to try and measure the yield I get from 4 tomato seeds, these are cherry tomatoes. This was last week and now they are this high!  Time to pot on and give them a taste of the outdoors on our sunny front porch.

A couple of Sunflowers have shoved their way through, they are such strong seedlings compared to some. I'm really hankering after visiting the sunflower fields in France and photographing them but until then I'll grow my own with the little one who I know will love watching them grow as much as I do.

Linking up with Mammasaurus for How Does Your Garden Grow this week.