Wildlife gardening

Spent a pleasant afternoon in the lovely sunshine getting rid of all the chickweed that surrounded my veg and came across this gorgeous dragonfly sort of resting on my broad beans.  It didn't move while I was weeding around it.  I only usually see them buzzing around the pond so I was dead chuffed to get a picture of it.

The raised beds look pretty good now I have banished all the weeds to the compost heap.  I had to pull out quite a few poppies which had self-seeded as they were overshadowing the struggling veg - I have left as many as I could that did not interfere with anything else.  They look so lovely:-

Having a good weed gives you a chance to inspect everything as you go along, surprisingly, the lettuces haven't been touched by slugs yet (famous last words) and I have only  lost one red cabbage  to them.  I took all the cat-proof nets off as the plants have spread enough now not to leave any soil for the cats to use as a toilet.

Harvested  some peas, only a handful - not enough for a complete meal so I added them to the tomato sauce with some meatballs.  Not the ideal way to get the taste of fresh peas.  These were just a few spare pea plants that I had left over after planting at the allotment.

Took off the mesh cloches which were covering rows of cabbages, kale and broccoli at the allotment - as they were pushing against it - I suppose this will now be a birdy free for all - dinner is served moment, we shall see.

Finally, another wildlife moment - ants nests.  I found two whilst I was loosening the soil around the veg.  Lots of egg carrying activity going on - sorry ants, but fancy making your nest right in the middle of my onions!  I have a nice big bite on my leg - they obviously weren't happy at being disturbed.