Summer time

The latest arrivals

Summer has come to Scotland. We haven't had any rain for two weeks and temperatures in the low 20s - yesterday we put up our sunbrella because it was too hot to sit in the sun! Perfect timing for the hatching of our new chicks. We got seven fuzzballs out of the ten eggs incubated, three black ones and four white ones. We're referring to them all as 'she', but we won't know until the wattles and combs appear how many males and females we've got.

Still spending most of the time under the brooder

It's incredible how fast the chicks develop. 21 days to hatch and then walking, drinking, eating on day 1 and today, their third day, they already briefly ventured outside and were flitting around inside, pecking at this and that, scratching around in the shavings.

The big squash and brassica plant out

The wonderful weather meant it was time for the big plant out: 30 squashes and 16 sweetcorn. This time, I'd sown the squashes in the first week of May so they only had a couple of true leaves each and suffered virtually no transplant shock. Hurray! I also put three-litre pots without bottoms around each one as an individual windbreak as they don't like the wind at all. Eventually these pots will also get a bit of copper tape around them as anti-slug defence.

Super pak choi in the polytunnel

The visiting season has also begun and we've had several helpful visitors doing jobs such as gathering grass clippings for mulch and weeding the strawberry patch, which had been full of couch grass.

Thank you, Marian and Gordon

We've also divided up the top paddock a bit more and planted two black mulberry trees. Now this is a seriously long-term project: seven years to fruit!

The tiny mulberry trees are in between the windbreak fabric fences

Inside, tomatoes are setting, the first melons and okras are appearing and chillies and cucumbers are flowering away.

Female melon flower needing hand pollination

The veg garden is now totally full. No space to plant out the celeriacs until the Swiss chard is finished.

Full house

Jim's started digging the new bed, in anticipation of the quinoa needing planted out. His rate of progress is four wheel barrow loads of stones per day removed from the bed.

Looks like a weed but is quinoa seedling

The comfrey has been going great guns and it was time to harvest it today. I used the sickle, which was very handy. Now the comfrey is accelerating our compost and being used to mulch the potatoes.

Time for a haircut

The roses are on the cusp of blooming, but the poppies and irises have beaten them to it.

Yellow iris by the pond

Today I saw the first pea pods on the overwintering peas. Not long now until bonanza time!