cukes are us

It's our first cucumber of the year :-) They are really little b*ggers to grow though. A millilitre too little water, and the plants go all sulky and wilted, a millilitre too much and the baby cukes start to shrivel up. Grrr. But hopefully we should be able to harvest at least 3 or 4 more, which just about makes it worth it.

Other garden news: one of the pepper plants got COMPLETELY eaten by a rogue snail. (As did my best sunflower.) Arrrrgggghhhh. The other one is still okay though, although it's a bit small - as are many plants this year, which is a bit rubbish. I decided it's a combination of the dodgy weather, our rubbish soil, and my incompetence. Ah well, it'll be better next year. The aubergine plant has its first flower, and we're now harvesting tomatoes nicely. I planted a second lot of peas, so we might have some more by the end of the summer if we're lucky.

We also bought some more plants last weekend: a Knautia macedonica and a Cosmos atrosanguineus. Both very lovely dark reddish flowers, so I'm starting on a dark-red section now. I'm (finally?) beginning to understand in my head how I want to plant plants together, and also have plans for expansion! We're going to gradually get rid of some of the lawn and make more beds - veggie and flowery ones.