Busy

I intended to have lots of poppies in the garden this summer as I knew I wouldn't be very far ahead with organising the planting I want. So last year I left all the poppy heads on the ground to dry and cast seed, knowing that early this year I'd be moving lots of soil, which they love. 

This is the first of the mad frilly poppies which I love looking at and the bees love exploring. By the time they're in their prime (early July?) I hope they'll be competing with sunflowers. Late last year, something I bought came with a free packet of sunflower seeds and no instructions. Before I went away a month ago I planted them in pots then, because I knew they'd be fast-growing, gave those that had germinated to the children next door to look after for me. They have, diligently and excitedly, and today was the day for planting them out. We started in my garden but H was much more interested in pulling up weeds than planting. He was impressively careful for a five-year-old. T chose the places for her and me to plant out three sunflowers.

Then the children discovered a handful each of strawberries I'd missed!

We hopped over the wall (well, the children hopped and I lumbered) to plant out some more. I'd hoped we could plant them either side of our shared garden wall so the sunflowers could talk to each other but their garden doesn't have room, so I showed them how to take the plants out of their small pots without damaging them then they planted three into much larger pots. I also helped them plant out some tomato and bean plants. We worked out how many plants we'd planted, which involved me carrying ten on my hands behind my back. 

The rest of the (not-yet-counted) sunflowers will be for me to plant out tomorrow.