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.

Sow good.

Well, helper and I have been busy.  We've been popping lots of seeds into seed trays and hoping for the best.  Simple process - poke finger in seed compost (yes, I buy seed compost), put seed (or seeds, if the packet's got millions) in poked hole, cover hole, water lightly (I actually put them in a box of water to allow the water to come up through the compost, rather than top down...) and put in the kitchen.

They were then promptly neglected while we went away for a few days.  And this is what they looked like today. 

Far box is sweet peas.  Middle one is chinese lanterns on the left and delphinium on the right.  Near one is Gazania on the left and Rudbeckia on the right.  As you can see, some are further on than others, although the Gazania, which thought they'd germinate after 14 days (according to the packet) are actually out after just a week, so you never can tell...
Needless to say, I'm pleased with their progress so far...  Though the next thing is probably for them all to go weedy and fall over and die :)
Oh, and if you're wondering, this is the start of the cutting garden.  We're expanding from vegetables and fruit...