I've now covered one of the lawns* in cardboard, made two 4 foot square raised beds out of scaffold boards with bark mulched paths and have sown for Britain, albeit a bit late for some things, but they'll have to cope. The peas, chard**, pak choi (two varieties), are planted out, the french beans, cavolo nero, edamame*** are pushing up in the seed trays. The bunching onions and baby leeks are progressing nicely. The tomatoes are gangbusters with flowers and fruit starting to set (but then they did have a head start on everything else), the aubergines and sweet peppers are taking their time. The butternut squash and courgettes are taking over the greenhouse****. I need to get them into their final location! But I've realised I've nowhere to put the sweetcorn
I've repotted the chives that were languishing at the back of the patio, potted up the gooseberry and rosemary cuttings I took last year and given the Jerusalem artichokes and asparagus a top dressing.Bought a number of fruit trees from Lidl - the couple I had before from there have been fine and the other lawn has been turned into a mini potted orchard. The cat seems to have forgiven me (lying on the grass was one of his favourite occupations) and he seems to be enjoying lying hidden in the shade of the trees! Lil will be pleased to know I've also fed my blueberries! This week I was cutting back a bit of the neighbour's giant fig tree (not sure what variety, I think Brown Turkey...the fruit looks like Brown Turkey and it bears a lot of lovely sweet and squishy fruit!) that overhangs my garden in an attempt to get more light, and I thought "what the heck", so I'm trying to see if they will root, though I appreciate the timing isn't good. This winter I'm intending to propagate the red currants and black currants.
I've read and watched loads on permaculture and planting perennials (and of course St Charles Dowding and no-dig) and am now the proud possessor of cuttings of Taunton Dean and Daubentons (perennial kale), a teeny tiny purple tree collard, skirret seeds (sown..fingers crossed!), chinese artichokes and walking onions! I'm very excited about all these things, some of which I never even knew existed a month ago!
Broad beans seem to be high on the self-sufficiency, grow your own food list. I'm not a huge fan of the big lumpy things and can only manage a few before I lose the will to live. If only edamame grew better for me I could quite happily munch on edamame all day. I draw the line at runner beans...childhood nightmares of diamond shaped nasties
However, one of the things I've learned is that if you want to be self-sufficent in your veggies you have to change your diet. Ostensibly this means eat seasonally, but it also means learn to like what grows well!! So I'm intending to plant broad beans in the autumn. Does anyone have favourite broad bean dishes to encourage me? I read one online involving broad beans, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and salt mashing altogether and serving on sourdough which got even my broad bean phobic tastebuds interested. So I think it might be possible to learn to love broad beans given the right recipes!. *lawns plural she says grandly! Postage stamp garden with a brick path down the middle, hence two lawns!
**bloody impressed with the pack of rainbow chard with a sow by date of 2009! Several seedlings!
***I struggle with soya. I've tried all sorts but I love it so keep trying: out of about 100 seeds I've now got 14 seedlings
****more grandeur...it's a plastic walk-in affair, but it has opened my eyes...I am now coveting proper greenhouses
it's not cruel using a legal trap [inserted picture of dead rat in a mk4 fenn] 
