Scorchio!

Today was a belter - blue skies and a scorching sun - I now know why these Mediterranean types take a siesta! Anyway, on with this weeks update.
As per, here is a pic of the borders from the potting shed - and no, I still haven't bought a polarising lens for the camera.

Anyway, having finished weeding and running the soil miller over the two long borders last week, it was back to the fruit bed today - lovely lovely weeding. We had an upper canopy of nettles, thistles and willowherb with a ground cover of shepherds purse, dockens and creeping buttercup, with a couple of patches of ground elder thrown in for good measure. And to make matters worse, I forgot my gloves so the nettles were, quite literally, a real pain. However, persistence and a lot of sweat  gets the work done and here is a picture after I finished todays patch.

And just in case some of you out there in the ether think I might be over-exaggerating the weeds  that result from 24 years of neglect, here is what is on the cards for next week

The soil  miller is on the ground and the tip of the red handle is 6'4" high to give an idea of what awaits me.  However, it needs done so that we can get some bare root fruit bushes and raspberry canes in this Autumn.
Down in the greenhouse, the tomatoes are still green, and healthy and the fruits are beginning to grow a bit, the first two mini-cukes are ready to be picked, the chard is flourishing (both Richard and Sally are now converted to the Chard Cause), but the capsicums seem to have hit a wall as far as development goes. There were three tomato plants in small square pots, so I potted these up nto large pots today and they can join the rest of the plants in the greenhouse. There is a cell pack of lettuce ready to plant ou, another one just germinated and a cell pack of Florence Fennel that is gernminated but needs another few weeks before it is ready to go out. The aubergines are flowering but no fruits set as yet.
Richard, Sally and myself had a brief chat about rotavatorsa dnthey have asked me to research the various models available. Looking at the garden, you might think a larger model would be best, but given the longer term plans, I am currently favouring something like a petrol Mantis Tiller, as this could be used in all the borders, between plants, in the fruit bed, the veg beds etc and over time various attachments could be added. However, I will look further at other options.
On the what's new front, the purple buddleija is starting to flower

but the white one is at least a week away and the plants that were on the cusp of flowering last week are still on the cusp this week. I can report however that the various Scabious like this hot dry windless weather and even I have to admit that they do look nice when they are not being battered by Mother Nature. The sweet peas are beginning to motor too.
Sally has been asked to buy some slug pellets as the snails are sttacking the "SkyHigh" dahlias, but other than that, it was a perfectly pleasant day, and the plants seemed to be enjoying it too.
Later...................