It has been a very satisfactory time from a gardening point of view. Lots of sunshine, reasonable warmth, a few light showers (could really do with a bit more rain) and general growingness.

The top of the allotment is looking wonderful, like a really, proper allotment. There are rows of potatoes growing nicely, rows and rows of onions, rows and rows of peas, now with wire mesh to grow up. The beans are struggling along (they could really do with some rain) - and the good news is that I *think* the seeds from the new packet of soya beans might actually be germinating; if so, I'll be able to fill the bean bed right up. Everything in the greenhouses is going well. I'm very pleased. The potatoes in the bed at the very bottom are also growing well. As is the rhubarb. We have digging plans for the autumn and the winter, and the thought that we might put in a proper bed for the rhubarb to grow in.

Back in the kitchen garden, things are also going quite well. We have had our first, very light pickings of the peas and the broad beans (interestingly, in the case of the broad beans, not from the overwintered plants, which are still too early to pick, but from the early spring planting). And I now have a ratatouille bed - I had a few extra tomatoes and have planted them in with the zucchini plants and the spare onions. I've now mulched that bed with newspaper and dried grass. Over the weekend we planted out more beetroot seeds, some scarlet amaranth seeds and I put some Chinese cabbage and pak choi seeds in the propagating tent (though they may not do all that well - I think I watered them in a bit vigorously! Still, there's time yet to do it again.) We've also planted up another carrot box, a parsnip and radish box and a mesclun box. The Builder has been mowing and clipping and whippersnipping with enthusiasm, so the kitchen garden and the orchard look very tidy. He's also lit another bonfire to get rid of as much of what's left of the garden rubbish as possible. Then, when that's burned out and we've moved the ash for later use on the garden, we're going to level it out and put the new greenhouse up where the bonfire is (When I say "we", I mean that I am going to supervise!).

The flower garden is just looking beautiful. And it smells wonderful. Oh - and the fish pond is finally beginning to clear.