Catching up

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Today is beautiful and sunny, a summer's day straight from a picture book.

I remembered that I had put my name down for a Sunday flower rota and went to raid the garden for suitable offerings.

Strong contenders were Dahlia 'Olympic Fire' and 'Bora Bora'. I settled for  orange 'Olympic Fire' and teamed it with lavender.

Olympic Fire

'Bora Bora' is really showy, an orgy of pink and yellow. Whilst I like it, it does look best on its own and in large quantities which alas were not available.

Bora Bora

Don't be fooled by the size of the picture, the flower heads on this dahlia can easily reach the size of a baby's head.

Oriental poppies are a bit of in indulgence for me. Whilst incredibly beautiful to me, they do not flower very long and don't make good cut flowers. Once finished flowering, the foliage just becomes a mess and has to be cut right back. Still, when in flower, they are stunning, so they are with me for good. The variety I grow is 'Patty's Plum', as the name suggests a plum coloured variety.

In autumn last year I had taken root cuttings, applied slug pellets and for months I watched anxiously for signs of life. In winter I promptly forgot about them.
To my surprise I saw signs of growth in Spring - and plenty of evidence of abuse by slugs. I probably potted them on a bit too early (and really should have gone for P9 rather than 2ltr pots) and was much more on the ball with slug pellets. Slow to establish they now are proper little plants, ready to be planted out in autumn

My final job for today was more seed sowing. It is easy enought to be caught up with harvesting July's bounty to forget that if you want to eat your greens in autumn and winter you need to sow now. I have sown more

• lettuce 'Merveille de quatre saisons' (have grown this lots this year and am still not tired)
• oriental spinach 'Mikado' (not tried before)
• rocket (nearly too late for it)
• coriander (dito)
• mixed salad leaves 'Niche'