Surrounded by bounty tonight. Two vases of flowers (lilies, penstemons, sweet peas, scabiosa) and the meal included just about every part of the garden: flat yellow beans, climbing French beans and mint. Garlic, onions, the first crop of pink fir potatoes, parsley and sage to go over the chicken and pancetta.
I am writing this from the vantage point of the 1st of September. All August I promised myself to tidy up my London garden notes and get everything in order. But did I do it? No. So here, belatedly is the news from the food factory in late July.
More peas still on the plants and the corn is roaring away. I brought the old rug from the Primrose Hill flat to use as a mulch for the end of the plot. It’s mightily synthetic and ghastly, but turned upside down it should do a good job of keeping out the brambles and weeds.
Inspecting this end of the garden I can happily say that the artichokes are taking off. They will go to the French house eventually, but right now they are having their summer watering in London. The lilies and little seedlings are well watered too. I had them at the back of the shed on a little table; but there they were suffering from neglect. Amazing how something out of sight really is out of mind when you have so many other chores to do. Hopefully Sotaris will look after them a bit while I’m away.

At the other end of the garden the beans are in all their glory. So many pods that I actually cut an entire bucketful of beans.
And the flower patch is looking lovely. I find it hard to cut everything for the vases, but understand now why Sarah Raven called it a cutting patch. You have to be ruthless and accept that everything you plant should be Flowers For The House.
And what of the potatoes? Well, it has been a bumper year with all this rain and I have all of the pink fir potato crop still to go (if they don’t get attacked by blight or slugs). I wish I could weigh the amount I dug up today, but I had to use the wheelbarrow to get them to the car which should tell you that all is well on the carbohydrate front in the family. Washing them was a laborious task. But I wanted to leave them in good condition in their Hessian sack over the summer.

To accompany the potatoes and beans I actually picked a few beetroot for dinner (small size, but so juicy) and lifted three small carrots just for the fun of it. They certainly thrive in their wooden wine box with soft compost. But I don’t think they will get enough water over the summer to create a crop in September.

There is also kale and salad in abundance and the parsnips and celeriac have survived their hard start and are putting on growth.

The cucumbers need tying in – they will be ready in August, so I mustn’t plant them again next year in the London garden. There is a growing list of proscribed vegetables now. The corn is also a wasted effort. They will be woody or even absent by the time I return. And the tomatoes will be slug fodder only. Just one small tomato was ripe this week, not enough to warrant all that work.

I was musing on all this waste as I did a few last laps of the long garden. The sunflowers right at the end of the plot in front of the water butts have reached waist height and as I was admiring them I moved over and cut even more French beans that I didn’t spot the first time. Just changing the angle of your viewing reveals more produce. Perhaps I should plant purple ones next year.

And that brings to an end the first half of the year’s garden work. I felt a bit guilty for leaving everything to the mercies of the London weather for a whole month. There will be a mountain of weeds to tackle when I return. But at least so many crops have been a success. If I was ruthless I would only grow broad beans, peas, potatoes and perhaps some early French beans next year. I need to concentrate on getting the other garden going. And just four crops is more than enough.

Up before eight. Plug in all the machines, put on the kettle, get out the breakfast food; and tape up the garbage bin. One of the mice has had a fruitful night. It has managed to climb into our large metal garbage bin. Quite a feat as it is a pedal bin that requires the application of a foot to get the lid open. And now it can’t get out. I have helped by sealing it shut with gaffer tape. But can’t consider what to do until I have had a cup of tea.  Another no painting day. I am going to get the house ready for David’s arrival, meet Tony with more strimming instructions, shop for electronic bits, plus food (our supermarket in Vernoux isn’t really good enough) in Valence. And get a list of cars that our Peugeot dealer is assembling for us to see.

Chris came over today to set up the broadband system for our computer. Took ages, but we had a lovely catch up. And almost caught the small mouse that was making a continual dash to the fireplace. It skittled rather beautifully over the floor and made a dash for the wine rack. We never managed to catch the small creature, but it did make hanging onto the help desk department more entertaining. No wireless access alas, but at least a cable works.  The mice had set up on the house last month. I stupidly left a packet of pistachios out. And they found them and gorged on them and then seemed to send a message to all the other tiny mice in the area. In no time there must have been about six in the house. One of them had even installed itself in the grating of the fireplace. It has a glass door, luckily, but I did see it poking its little face out one evening. They are small. But persistent and have To Be Attended To. 

Life, meanwhile, is getting busy. Lynn and her parents visited; it’s a great walk for them – we picked piles of jostaberries for a crumble and had a tour. Bernard came up to measure for the TV cables and give me advice on what plugs and wires to buy for his big changeover of all the switches in the house. A visit from M. Viallet to get the locked door open in the living room. He drilled and hauled and it’s open at last. He will come over on Friday night to attach the new lock. 

Calls to new builders, the new electrician, and a few to David to update him on progress. And the visit from Chris.  I finished the painting of all walls, sorted the bathroom (new shower curtain, unscrewed yet more endless aimless screws in the walls, painted, scrubbed and generally made it very presentable) and cleaned the house. With mouse patrol you have to be vigilant. I managed to find a chocolate that I served to Chris nibbled and half devoured in no time. No more random placing of food on the counters. These little creatures are brazen. Or very hungry. 

I even had time this afternoon to keep weeding the courtyard. I will have to think about strategy. There is wonderful gravel on the ground (it is very useful in being about to hear people coming); but it is thin in places. I know it is expensive to top up. But perhaps it will be needed. Or put down a better weed proof fabric underneath first. We shall see. I did manage to get a bit enthusiastic in my task – grabbing plants and lobbing them into the wheelbarrow. And naturally didn’t watch out before I grabbed a handful of stinging nettle. Ouch. But it was the only one. All the rest of the weeds are of the less painful and not even resilient variety. And it looks lovely now that I have done almost the entire courtyard.  And as I type this I have just noticed there is something missing out there. No tocking of the toads in the water troughs. Odd, have they gone? Or have I become impervious to the din? Perhaps my weeding around the pools have disturbed them. One less ‘issue’ off the list. The mouse eradication is more than enough for now.