Rabbits in my Garden

Usually we live in harmony with our pet rabbits they have large enclousures and get turns to have a run around, but when one escapes there's trouble. Cottontail got out thismorning, he's our favorite boy and just wanted to visit the girls and his babies but on the way there he dug up the roots of several cucumbers which I discovered as I showed a friend around the garden. So he's now in the bad books. He use to have free range of the whole yard but would always eat seedlings as they poped up, not old brassicas we'd finished with so we put a stop to that last autumn by putting him in a cage, I felt awful but couldn't sacrifice my garden. They're beautiful pets and their poo is a great addition to the compost heap, just look how irristable these babies are too. They'll be off to visit the kids at Playcentre this week and destined for new homes at Christmas.

I haven't had much time in the garden this week as the kids and I have been sick of and on, but I did manage to pot up some wee Christmas lily seedings which I sewed in early spring. It will be interesting to see if they are true to seed, I hope so. One of my peach trees is getting alot of attention too, it has quite bad leaf curl which I've been picking off and burning though it's still growing more. My gardening friends are divided on the fate of my tree one says it will kill it and others say it'll be ok. Not wanting to use anything that's not organic I have had nettle and seaweed spray suggested, seaweed might be easier as my nettle seedlings are only little and I'm keen to make tea for myself out of them.

After the rain

I love the garden after the rain, the plants perk up and look happy and bright. I took the cloches off the melons so they could get some natural water. I have them on mounds with black plastic to keep the weeds down and cloches over them to keep them warm, after three years trying to grow them I hope I've got it right this year. I took the seedlings out of the glasshouse too, a bit of rain will often trigger them to grow. I'm waiting on some Asparagus seed and lemongrass to take off. On the down side the rain sure gets the slugs going, some beautiful " Summer Queen" lettuces are full of them and the strawberries seem to rot quickly when it's been raining. We have a rule here if you're going to eat strawberris or peas you have to weed them as you go. The kids are quick to tell tales on each other if they see someone eating and not weeding. My oldest, 13 spied the strawberry in this photo and said "bags that one", little did he know I'd eaten it not long after I took the photo.