Perfect summer day

I did the sort of light gardening that's so much fun: deadheading and tidying round clumps of flowers that have become unsightly, and I finally decided to hoik out the euphorbia!

I love the orangey-green coloured flowers, but it's turning into too much of a thug, so it's card is marked. I realise that I care more about the Japanese anemone, echinacea, rudbeckia and thyme plants that it is invading, so it's time to get ruthless.

So, armed with gloves (as apparently the sap is an irritant; can't answer for that, but it looked blue when it touched the leaves!), I started to yank out great chunks of it. I've cleared round all the plants that needed saving, but realised that I'd had enough sun [I went out about midday, as I needed some sun on my bones], so the plan for tomorrow is to get out there earlier and wreak more havoc!

I was planning on putting some of the seedlings as ground cover on the bank, but I'm now going off that idea; at least the lambs' ears is very easy to pull out when it gets where you don't want it.

I've also (belatedly) followed Sarah Raven's advice & chopped the artichoke down to ground level and given it a good soaking; fingers crossed that she's right when she says we'll get a fresh new batch of leaves, and maybe even a second crop.

My little transplanted plants mostly seem to be doing OK [a few of the tinier ones were OK this morning, but seem to have vanished by this evening], and I've given them all a good drink before I closed up the shutters for the day.

My only sadness is that my beloved husband is on his way back to England for three weeks; that's going to be hard, as I shall miss him terribly. That's just too long to be apart and happy about it.