Sweet (pea) aroma.

Well, looking at the last picture of the sweet peas, posted on June 11th (ok, so it was, strictly speaking, a picture of the rose, and the sweet peas just happened to be hanging around in the background...) I thought I should perhaps update you on their progress:

I'm going to be bold and perhaps a little unhumble and say that I'm sure they actually look better in real life.  And the smell of them is such a large part of their appeal that a blog post could never do them justice.
Other things that have happened in the garden lately:
Loads of people came for drinks and nibbles in the garden.
The raspberries have been netted.
The cherry tree has been netted (partly in response to the text I received last week from the friend down South we gave an identical cherry tree too, saying she was enjoying her first bowl of cherries of the year - ours are still somewhat green)
Courgettes and squashes have been planted in the orchard beds.  (Maybe I said that already)
Beans have been planted in a new orchard bed.  (Maybe I said that too...)  And one replaced following its predecessor's consumption by unknown aggressor.
Red cabbages have been planted in the orchard, then attacked by the birds, and are now in the process of being netted and, while they wait, are covered in fleecey stuff.
On the flowers front, some of the zinnias have been spaced out a bit more evenly.
Most of the gazanias and rudbeckias that were heretofore in pots are now in the ground. 
The pansies are flourishing in their modules, and should really be dealt with ASAP.

Yet another update...

Remember this rose?  It now looks like this:

 

 Ok, so it's not a very clear shot, but the close-up shot with the camera phone was overexposed.  The fact is, I'm really quite pleased that where I planted a twig, I now have a rose bush.

All along the wall is a mass of sweet peas.  They're growing steadily and will hopefully fill up the netting placed there for them to climb.  Should look quite spectacular...

And the lavender, which arrived in a tray about 6 inches by 10 inches now looks like this.  Sure, we lost a few along the way, but given they started life as mini plugs a couple of seasons ago, it's nice that they've made it as far as this (again, it's not a hugely clear shot, but it's the strip of green at the bottom of the hedge).

 Some of them have even had the courtesy to produce flowers.  Last year we had one single flower along the entire row (I think there are about 60 plants), and this year most plants have a number of flowers each!  What progress :)

Very pleasing, all in all.  The runner beans are poking their heads out of the pots, the toms sown recently are about an inch or two tall.  Nothing from the pumpkins yet, nor the b'nut squash.  The pansies are growing steadily.  We continue to lose a bunch of them, but given they're from seed from last year's pansies, they are completely free.  Sunflowers are a bit ropey - considering sowing some and planting others along the long bed out the front (where the marigold were last year).
Anyway, bedtime.

Burial.

Well, today we have:
Planted some agapanthus in pots by the door.
Put up galvanised wire rather than green garden wire for the sweet peas, and then tied the tomatoes into it too.
Dug a whole load of holes in the rose bed (finding lots of ants in the process) ready to put some pumpkins into.
Watered the boxes.
Watered the veg (main garden)
Dead headed the roses.
Taken marigold seedlings from the miniplug thing and put them in a 5x8 seed tray insert (there were 39 that had come up so far!)
Buried a bird. I think it flew into the window. A timely reminder that we could buy some of those bird stickers for said window...
Had a conversation with Joshua about the bird, including:
J: Is it dead?
Me: Yes, I think it flew into the window
J: (Looking intently at bird lying on ground) I think its legs have fallen off.
Me: No sweetie, they're just underneath him, you can't see them.
J: His eyes have fallen out.
Me: No, he's just closed them (I don't actually know about this one - do they shut them when they die, or what?!)
J: What shall we do?
Me: We'll bury him in the garden.
J: Are we going to bury him now?
Me: In a minute, I'm going to get my gloves first.
J: Why are you getting gloves, is he prickly?
Me: Uh, no, it's just that sometimes dead things aren't very clean, so it's better to wear gloves.
J: Why do we bury things when they're dead?
Me: (thinking, yeah, jolly good question) Uh, because it's nicer.
J: After a while, he'll come back to life.
Me: Uh, no sweetie, I don't think that the glorious hope of the resurrection extends to animals.
J: Who does come back to life?
Me: Well, people. Do you remember what happened to Jesus?
J: Yes, he died.
Me: And then what happened?
J: He came back to life again.
Me: And because he did that, we can come back to life too, after we've died
J: Is that why people pray to him?
Me: Well, yes, it's one reason.

I've also unplanted the pansies from the pot by the door, and moved them into a seed tray, where I'll keep them moist ish and harvest seeds. I hope.
Yesterday, I got a few seeds from the pansies, and some from a nice pink wildflower down the end of the orchard.
All the corn has now been eaten. Officially not doing corn ever again.
I planted a couple of the beef tomatoes into the bed at the weekend, as they kept wilting in the black plastic pots. Three more to do. The tomato from Paul and Penny has been dug up (again!) and I don't think will make it this time. (A moment's silence...)
The lone runner bean is doing its best, but is somewhat stunted by its attack earlier in the year.

Went to Calke at the weekend and was encouraged to hear that a volunteer in the garden (and oldish boy, so I figure he knows what he's doing) had had a bad year for parsnips, so I don't feel too bad now...
There might be some carrot seedlings from the latest sowing showing, but it's early to tell what they are...
The red cabbages planted at the weekend are doing ok, though one's been nibble a bit despite the netting ... slugs? Who knows!