Early this morning I crept up to the potager so as not to wake Jane and Gerry in the guest house. One can crunch rather noisily across the gravel in our courtyard if you don’t step carefully. Last full day of gardening, so I planted out the Nepeta and lupins and rudbeckias. Then did a spot of propagation on the extra six hills giant. Watered the grasses growing flush against the shed. They didn’t get that lovely dose of water from the storm yesterday.

The dwarf French beans I sowed last week are up and already romping away so I planted them out under the sweet peas in the beautifully bare earth area of the vegetable bed.

Want to get on with the noisy tasks – chipping, strimming and lawn mowing. But will hold off till the guest house wakes up.

Coming down to inspect / marvel at my weeding jobs, I was amused but cross to find that our resident deer has left a pefect set of footprints on the perfectly raked soil under the fruit bushes and newly sowed lawn. Grr. And just to taunt me I had a bad dream that she found the flowers growng up around my potting shed and would reduce them to stumps one hungry night. So just to be sure, I netted all the flowers with left over pea netting. And don’t they look wonderfully trussed? I am Daisy proof now.

Afternoon tasks: strimmed, mowed, chipped and watered. Lawn mowing is definitely the reward after the tedious strimming work. Then while having tea with our neighbour Danielle, we all noticed the state of the dessert grapes in the arbour. As a consequence I cleared a sack of sick leaves off the vines. The entire area may be infected with some mighty disease; but then again it may just be normal life in the landscape of this grape arbour. So I should just stop fussing and get on with it.

To finish let me show you the nascent artichoke crop. Lovely.

One of the playful features of this part of France is the rather exciting weather fronts that can occasionally plague us. Well you could call it cheap entertainment, as the lightning is more exciting than the village fireworks displays. I was up in the shed this morning when the thunder and lightning storm hit us. The rain came down so quickly and with such vehemance that I had to stay put and actually pot up yet more basil while I waited for the break in the rain. Great for the lawn and the garden. But not for the well being of houseguests. We lost the electricity twice as thunder clapped directly overhead.

Brief foray to the village for the annual festival, then back to the weeding. I was actually looking for garlic in the last quadrant of the vegetable bed that needed major weeding.
At nine pm I finished a last load to the new compost bin, and came back with just a single bulb o garlic. I thought long and hard about posting the picture of the new compost site. In terms of dull and dreary photos it is right up there with the trainspotters. But hey, maybe someone might find it a thrill.

Created a new future lawn around the fruit trees. This task took me all day until 830pm. Gad am I relieved it’s over. But it does look so clean and neat. PIty it won’t last. Was so thrilled by the new look neat garden that I sowned some grass seeds over the vast expanse of soil. Who knows? Wrong time fo the year to even think of lawn creation, but if it could look half as good as our lawn nearby, it will be a success.

I have all these wet weather shed jobs to do – clematis and rosemary cuttings to strike, need to pot up the basil, change over the flooring from small smelly pallets to larger ones… but it keeps on staying relentlessly sunny. Glorious weather really. But it means I need to get up early to weed in the top potager before it gets too hot. And on that note I’m off. Fork, secateurs for the brambles, strong back muscles, large hat.

Have decided that until I can sort out the watering, some of the plants need to come down to the lower vegetable bed where they can benefit from a bit more tender care. So I transplanted the asparagus peas and the land cress. And then weeded away. It looks rather lovely and bare.

Then just to escape the heat, I finally potted up the basil and upgraded the fig to a bigger pot. Jane is a whizz at growing basil back in Northumberland, so I have entrusted the plants to her for the duration. She will work her magic and get them back into lusty growth.

In for tea. Then an afternoon’s chipping of the sticks from up at the forest. Perfect way to recycle the wood. But gad it’s hot work dragging down the sticks to the machine.

What else? Sowed beetroot and loads of rows of carrots in the newly cleared beds. I pulled some beauties for meals this week, but only have two rows left. And did three pots of salad seeds up in the potting shed. Had my usual end of day watering. Now that Gerry has sorted out the hoses so beautifully I have a happy half hour drenching the vegetables in the beds.

And then in the setting sun started on the soft fruit area – but it’s too big for now. Will have to launch into it tomorrow.

Now don’t think I did all this weeding just because I was looking for my lost gardening glove. But it’s true. Somewhere on this vast farm lurks the right hand of a perfect pair of gardening gloves. and I’m baffled as to where it can be.

By 10am it was hot, so we heaved ourselves off to the market at Vernoux. Sat in the shade of the cafe, met friends, and couldn’t resist a spot of shopping: bought heaps of leeks. 68 in total. For a grand investment of three euros. They went into the gaps of the cabbage bed. Never thought I had that much space.

And from there it was but a short step across the vegetable garden to the mess that is the blackberry bed. In just a few short hours (hot, sweaty, all the rest) There is fruit in there somewhere. I managed to assiduously avoid the nettles lurking about the plants all afternoon. And naturally at the end of the day stood back to admire the handiwork and succeeding in leaning on the last nettle plant which nestled all the way up my leg. It is tingling beautifully as I type.

Later that evening sat on the terrace and watched Daisy the deer eat the mulberries that had fallen from the tree just below the house. Cheeky deer; broad daylight too.

Up early (ish) to harvest a sack of potatoes from the top potager before it got too hot. Another blue sky die for a swim day. Minor weeding up there. The place is an entire jungle and needs a good sort out. But part of me wonders why I weed if I can’t put down weedproof fabric. At least I can reduce the height of the worst of the weeds.

But instead it was back down othte house to do chores, and collect seeds from the lovely grasses that grow on the lower terraces. They will stay in a large paper bag until I work out when the best time to sow them is.

Retail event of the month: bought a chipper. Bring on the woodchips.

One single raspberry up in the weed fest that is the top potager. Only thing clear of weeds are the asparagus, and that’s because I put down a weedproof frabric first.

Must dig up more spuds. Twas a shop fest sort of a morning today: I bought in some lettuce seedlings from Gamm Vert (well I was up at the shops doing a beer and water run, and just couldn’t pass up the chance to rebuid the stock of salads for the summer)

And spent a happy half hour in my super clean potting shed: potted up some new yellow swiss chard seeds and while I was admiring the nascent flower bed, decided I could get a few more free plants from the catmint. so I happily propagated more nepeta six hills giant.

Random notes: I noticed on my drive to Vernoux that the good gardeners of Silhac village which I pass through have acres of dwarf French beans. Note to self, must start lots and lots of these earlier next year.

It’s hot right now, so I don’t seem to charge about with any fixed sense of purpose. I tend to wander past things and have a stab at propagating or hacking. That’s what happened to the vile elderflower tree near the pool. I had been meaning to hack off some of the lower branches that have sprouted from the base after its radical prune in the winter. But I noticed that Nicolas had got there first. He very kindly bent back the long branches, making it easy for me to nip them off with secateurs. I loathe elderflowers. Not because of the flowers or berries which are very worthy. But simply because we have so many of the wretched things self seeding all over the garden. One slap bang in the middle of my Rose New Dawn shrub in the herb garden; another under the vines and a mighty one at the base of the barn - I am obliged to snap off branches each time I pass and then endure the stink of the sap until I remember to scrub my hands.

Berry harvest after lunch; took a box and sat down under the shade of the soft fruit trees to collect fruit. Quite a haul of black currants, a few jostaberries, too mahy white currants and amazingly, two blue berries. Will buy more of those bushes next year. They do well here. Despite everyone’s dire warnings that we were too low to grow them.

The rest of day was devoted to weeding interminably and getting the fabric down on another quadrant of the lower vegetable bed. Then in the blazing 7pm sun I planted up twenty five lettuce (half salvaged) and netted the lot. A contemplative watering and in for the night.

Bastille day – to celebrate I trimmed as much wisteria as I could reach (and that isn’t far, I do miss the roofers’ ladders which were here for months). Took out a forest of branches from the tree at the entrance to the house. Deutsia, philadelphis, syringia. Who knows? But it’s a dud. All flower and no scent. And the flowers were brief indeed. So with Nicolas’s help I hacked and chopped and it still looks monstrous and a bit top heavy. I even found an oak sapling in among the branches. Poor thing was starved for light. It will need another go. But no time. No time.

Back to the week’s main activities : weeding and weedproofing. I found some lettuce hidden under weeds that Daisy missed. So I saved them and will plant them later in a better protected row.

Jane has been performing heroic deeds on the weeds in the strawberry bed. It seems to be a theme for visiting houseguests. Jan did a day’s work here earlier in the year. And later when there is a second crop in September (hah!) I will dig them all up, put down a good layer of fabric, and then plant the poor plants back into the soil. They can’t endure this choking each month as they do now.

Actually had time to lay one of the quadrants of the vegetable bed to fabric, and then started on the lettuce bed. And there are radish and beetroot in their somewhere.

Each pass I would kill yet more red bugs on the cabbage. Gendarmes they are called I think, and their babies which are bright yellow. But they have the same trick as their parents, at the first sign of threat they drop on their backs and plummet to the earth. Black under bellies, black earth. Go figure. So it’s hard work getting them all. Not to mention the vile green goo on your hands afterwards.

Today was to be a morning of more weeding and refining the netting around the vegetable bed. I put up the plastic cloches over the emerging swiss chard shoots. And then in a flurry of activity pulled down the old peas and broad bean supports. This makes things look rather bare, but oh so much tidier.

As I plodded up and down the bed I would randomly squish bugs off the cabbage plants– some of which are resembling crochet blankets. Very holy.

Then as the heat became a bit much and I found myself up at the potting shed (senior moment, no idea why I was there) I potted up some French beans. Must remember next year to put in lots more. And earlier. My ‘crops’ of French beans are in single digit figures. No glut there.

Then back down to the vegetable garden where I was poised to sow a new row of carrots: but found I had brought out a packet of yellow swiss chard seeds instead. I’m not planting that in the ground. They are going into the safety of the shed for a few months first before I dare to send them out to the jaws of resident deer.

We had guests for lunch and had to endure a rather emphatic rain storm. Not good for lunch under the vines, but perfect weather for mushrooming. So after our four course feast it was up to the forest to try our hand at scavenging. Girolles galore. This despite the fact our previous owner had stalked off half an hour before us and nabbed the best ones.

Then back in the late afternoon to rummage about the seed box. I want to try and get more carrots in the ground, more beetroot and more beans. But they arent’ going in until I have cleared a plot, put down weedproof fabric and then cut a hole for the seeds. This weeding is soul destroying. And preventing me from being creative in this large garden. I spend all my time head down, grubbing out unwanted weeds. I start to see them in my sleep.

So lovely to be back: especially as there was a heavy rainstorm in the night and now it’s bright and sunny and calm. The vegetable garden is still intact thank goodness. And the little Swiss chard plants which were pruned so heavily by deer teeth last week are even showing signs of recovering. And I have just the netting to protect them. Will have to buy in lettuce plants to get them off and running again. No time now to grow them from seed.

And the flower garden too is putting on plenty of growth. I can even detect some signs of flower heads on some of the plants. The grasses are bulking out well too. But the Verbascum (Aaron mix, not the head high yellow weeds) are still sulking and crowded and not doing much but getting wider rather than taller. Must be patient. It looks as though we had rain this past week as the water butt is full to the brim. And my tiny basil seedlings have that Ardèche drowned look. Will bring them all into the potting shed now that I can keep an eye on them. The blast of heat from the Perspex roof should see them back in the right growing atmosphere again.

Major achievement today: the vineyard is pruned. All long wavy vines are now cropped neatly to just above the wire cordons. It even looks like a proper vineyard (if you exclude the low mat of weeds in between the rows). Jane came down to help and with two the whole process went rather quickly.

Then under threatening skies it was back to the lower vegetable bed to do some fine net working. Off with the large tennis court type net around the perimeter (only took about six hours to put up) and on with a more targeted netting directly over the most precious crops. It is more discreet and hopefully will save the lettuce and chard from attack. Even the lettuce is growing back from the cropped crowns. Amazing.

But before I could actually put the nets and the cloches down I had to do a major weeding first. I just know that when crops are inaccessible due to nets you just never feel its worth it to grub up weeds with the same alacrity.

So I weeded and weeded and the rain came sheeting down but I refused to stop. Rather refreshing really until the goretex jacket proved permeable to the wet and I managed to get completely soaked to the skin. Good soaking rain I muttered through gritted teeth. But at least the cabbage bed was (mostly) weed free by the end of the day.