We arrived home from Sweden to a beast of a garden! I’d forgotten how quickly things grow at this time of year but on the plus side, there are plenty of flowers and happy bees.

This calendula survived the Winter and continues to flower.


I transferred our hydrangea to the ground (from a pot) during the Spring. The flower heads have been much smaller this year, I’m not sure why. I thought more root space would mean a larger plant overall.


Love these tricolour Erysimum! I’d like to buy several more when we eventually get a larger garden. We also have a bright yellow one that has tripled in size over the last year.

Our front garden is home to quite a few harlequin ladybird larvae (in the photo above). This is what they look like before they stick themselves to the leaves and morph into actual ladybirds. Hopefully they’ll eat all the aphids on our crabapple tree!

I thought we would arrive home to bare blueberry bushes but we have fruit after all. I’m surprised the birds haven’t found them but hey, more for us!
We don’t have allotment anymore so I’m growing a small amount of veggies at home. Kale, salad leaves, spinach, herbs, carrots and peas this year. Not sure if it’s a bit late for planting peas but time will tell. It feels good to have my hands back in the soil.
I was just thinking the same thing yesterday about whether I could plant peas this late! I have been incredibly slow/not organised this year with the veggie garden. I didn’t plant peas in the end but did scatter some old carrot seeds in case they are able to germinate.
It only took 3 days for pea shoots to push their way through the soil this time around, which gives me some hope. My packet says sow until June so I’m late but not too late. I did exactly the same thing with carrot seeds… they were already open so it’s worth a shot. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for yours!