We're all going on a summer holiday (except for one who's staying behind)

I've well and truly nettled one of my arms after a session in the garden in my short-sleeved shirt. Good job I don't keep bees.

We're doing the things you have to do preparatory to a week's holiday in Switzerland. Little does my 23-year-old daughter know that she will be the keeper of the courgettes and tomatoes while we are away. A crash course awaits.

The courgettes have been cropping well, but it is only now that the first of the tomatoes have appeared, both Sungold and Gardener's Delight. They'll have to be fed and watered while we are away if they are to come to anything.

So it's Switzerland here we come. It's probably not fashionable to go in summer rather than winter, but we don't care. We're devils, us.

Seed of delight

You know how it is with seed packets. You spend ages choosing which to get, you open them with eagerness, you plant the seeds, they grow (with luck). Then you put the packet and remaining contents into a box - and promptly forget about it.

I came across a packet of squash not so long ago, with precisely one seed in it. Why I hadn't used it, I don't know. But it seemed right that I plant it and throw away the empty packet.

Now the squash is growing quite handsomely and I have potted it on. There's still a long way to go, but I'm hoping it will develop into something.

Moral: Waste not, want not. Me old mum would be proud of me.

I'm dreaming of courgettes

After a long day's toil in the field, the first of the harvest produce has been brought home.

May this courgette be the first of many. Already I am dreaming - like other gardeners - of the use to which I can put these veg when they come rolling in day after day. I even made a courgette cake last year, but don't think I will be repeating that.  It tasted perfectly nice, but you had to be told it was courgette.

And here's an idea planted by someone, somewhere along the line:

Have you ever eaten the courgette flower?  It is wonderful, stuffed with ricotta cheese.

We're progressing (part two)

Well, I've put the broccoli seedlings where the new potatoes were and also some kohlrabi I had been cultivating in the conservatory. The last is a bit of an experiment as I have never knowingly eaten it and would be interested to sample the taste.

Also, some french beans have been transplanted from the conservatory to one of the wigwams.  The previous lot had been directly seeded, but didn't take off that brilliantly. Slug pellets have now been brought into use.

And, rather belatedly, we have had some of the lettuce from the garden. Finest lettuce in the world, if you ask me.

We're progressing

Can you see something in this photo? Yes, it's the beginnings of a courgette in one of the pots in front of the doorstep. We're in a fingers-crossed situation and hoping it's going to be the first of many from my four plants.

I've been in the garden a good deal for me today, punctuated by rests for lunch and to escape the heat. All of the new potatoes have been dug up now and they are looking, and tasting, fine. The bare patch where they were growing has been refreshed and watered and my plan is to put the broccoli seedlings in there tomorrow.

I've also cut the lawn and started off some new dill because the stuff I've got is looking past it (probably dead).

Browsing through one of those marvellous books featuring Adam the gardener from the Daily Express, I see he mentions applying Bordeaux mixture. The only thing I know of that nature comes in bottles from France, is generally red and alcoholic. I could do with one now.