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It seems that from listening to and reading people's news that the nation's gardens have been important this year. 

Likewise for me it has been a pleasant, time consuming hobby which has been at times a frustrating, but mostly a great delight.

A damp winter followed by a very dry spring hasn't done anything for predictability this year,

but now after some welcome rain the garden is looking rich and green once again.

Let me take you on "a short tour of the estate" if you want to be posh . . . the garden if you're more down to earth !

"No Mow May" . . . the gardening and wildlife programmes suggested not mowing the lawn for a while to see what grows.

I didn't exactly stick to the principle but I have cut less and avoided obvious groups of flowers in the middle lawn.

There have been a lot of ordinary daisies, buttercups and what look like violets in the grass, plus these large Michaelmas daisies.

The raised beds are filling up with onions, rhubarb, (six) sweet corn in the centre, courgettes and

some rogue potatoes that were planted late last year ready for Christmas picking but have only sprouted recently !

In the other large bed I have herbs and leeks, more courgettes and some dwarf beans . . . plus more rogue potatoes.

Some of the leeks have had to be transplanted here because the spuds were growing up between them.

Further over there's celery, more dwarf beans and a selection of brassicas (cabbage and cauliflower) with taller broad beans over the other side.

With the problem of closed garden centres and reduced supplies of vegetable seedlings this year, many of the plants were grown from seed,

but that is often less successful given my talents and our colder northern climate !

Still, I managed to get sufficient plants to be able to fill the beds reasonably well and there are more seedlings still growing in the greenhouse.

The new raised bed below had done well . . .	tomatoes are filling the spaces now . . .	and there's a grand harvest of grapes in prospect.

- - - o o o - - -

Moving down a level to the bottom garden . . .

Apart from cutting a few paths through the grass, the paddock has more or less been left to fend for itself.

The grasses have gone beserk again . . . but there are flowers hidden in between.

Considering the type of vegetation in the adjacent field, the effect of the lack of grazing on my side is very noticeable.

I cleared the turf on the right in November last year so the growth in the grass on this side is less dramatic (thankfully).

I followed it up by spreading a lot of wild flower seed on the area to the right of the mown path.

What the TV gardening programmes don't dwell on, partly of course because prices vary around the country, but also so as not to put people off,

is the cost of projects like re-wilding a garden or in my case a portion of field.

To put matters right here I'll say that the turf removal cost £120 and the wild flower seed £80 so it was a reasonably big investment in my eyes.

The seed supplier did say not all flowers would grow immediately so patience is a virtue I presume.

Well at least there are some flowers growing from seed I scattered, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for the rest.

Welsh Poppies always grow well up here and there are small patches here in the paddock, in the garden and in the adjacent lane.

A timely collection of seed pods in due course should provide potential for next year's paddock flowers.

Finally, at the end of a busy day, our two relax by the fire . . . who's making supper this evening ?  

Not them that's for certain !