2023 - What I did today

Planted out 4 more kale (2 red Russian, a nero and an unknown), 3 Brussels sprouts early half tall and then all the remaining coreopsis, zinnias & belle du jour, just shoving them in gaps in the veg beds. Then my neighbour turned up with an entire tray of cosmos so managed to find corners for them too.

Early morning watering containers and removed arm pits from toms.

Took 2 containers of plant feed from the water butt, to water the tunnel & hanging basket. The water butt needs emptying for moving anyway. Unfortunately everything else in pots is going to have to go thirsty until we get rain. Getting very close to running out.

Planted out:
Marina di Chioggia squash
Waltham butternut squash
Dark Opal & Genovese basil with the tomatoes

Planted out, even in this heat, CFB and DFB, it was either plant or wither. I'm running out of places to plant. Note to self, don't sow so many beans. Tied up trombas. Armpitted and tied up tomatoes and cucumbers.

Started off with one of those indoor jobs that apparently couldn't wait any longer - painted a wall in the living room that hadn't been painted for about 30 years and still had some bits of pizza adhering from about 20 years ago.
Then planted 2 roses, put extra supports in the cabbage patch to raise the netting a bit, tied up peas (lots of flowers have appeared) as they have outgrown supports and in danger of flopping over. Added support to broad beans though will likely be a meagre crop again this year. Then harvested raspberries and strawberries.

Still too hot and dry to do much in the garden (that's my excuse anyway).
Tied up the toms and cukes, found the first baby tomatoes & got ridiculously excited, wandered around under the apple trees, spotting baby apples, grazed on raspberries and picked a bowl of them, chatted over the fence to a neighbour who tells me that his parrot shouts "Quiet" when my dogs bark.
Praying for some overnight rain.

Planted out:
3 x Courgette Rugosa Friuliana (a yellow warty one)
3 x Tromboncino 
Nicotiana Sylvestris and Sensation 
Sunflower Valentine
Snapdragon Apple Blossom 
Morning Glory Grandpa Ott 

That's the last of the squash planted so I'm very happy to finally have all of the summer crops out in the ground. I just have some small module trays of flowers left to pop in whenever I notice a gap.

Are you finding sunflower Valentine a bit wimpy compared to other varieties? Don't know whether it's just the packet of seed I have but both this year and last the plants have been a bit pathetic.

Valentine sunflowers are a bit slim, but that's why I like them. I grew them for the first time last year and left them alone to do their thing and loved that they didn't need any staking and were skinny enough to grow amongst the sweetcorn and squash. They also flowered right through until late autumn for me.

Think of them more like a verbena bonariensis, happily bobbing above your other plants.