Daisies always make me smile.  I put off mowing the lawn for as long as possible because of  their little bursts of colour.  I'm always over the moon when my little patch of daisies come up, a little mix of oxeye, fleabane and feverfew.

I've been reading up on them and their various medicinal properties. Oxeye (sometimes called goldenseal) is particularly good for congestive problems and mouth ulcers, feverfew can be brewed to make a tea to help with migraine among other things and fleabane is good for digestive problems. Apparently, it's a myth that fleabane can rid you of fleas, just in case you have an infestation! Mind you, I've never experimented using these flowers to make remedies, I only use the leaves from herbs to make tissanes at the moment.

I have been harvesteing my lemon balm for drying, as it makes a calming drink and is also an aid to sleep, which I've been having problems with.   I would like to have a supply of home produced leaves for the wintertime and have been thinking about getting a dehydrator for some time, well procrastinating actually and it doesn't help that there are so many to choose from. I quite like the reviews on the L'Equip FilterPro Digital. It's bpa free, which is a consideration, but nearly £200, which is a wee bit pricey I feel. Mr. says go for it as if we go for a smaller, cheaper one, we'll regret it later.  Any dehydrator users out there, suggestions would be most welcome.

The mint in the garden isn't quite as far on as it was last year, but the allotment is providing an extra supply, which is great as we use a ton of it in the summer months in cooking and salads. It also makes another of my favourite teas and a sprig is lovely in elder flower cordial topped with sparkling mineral water.  It's been gloriously sunny so I've been drinking quote a lot of it.

Elder is now in blossom and what a fantastic show it's putting on this year. I don't think I've ever seen so much in the hedgerows and fields. As we're getting low on supplies we will be out this coming weekend foraging from our tree (yes, we do think of it as ours!) and making a few more batches for the freezer.

Thinking about daisies earlier brought back a memory. We were on our way back from our holidays and stopped in a lay-by as it was chock full of oxeye daisies and I wanted some to take home as they looked so pretty. I was a very bad mum, as I know that you shouldn't pick wild flowers, as some are rare, but oxeyes are so common I knew it wouldn't  hurt. I asked our then twelve year old daughter to go pick some, just in case anyone saw...  Bad Mum!  She handed them to me and we had just started the car engine when I gagged....the smell was atrocious, like really strong pee.  Well, they went out of the window double quick.  Lesson learned, oxeye daisies are not a flower for bringing indoors.

I've been potting up like crazy in the greenhouse as the plants have outgrown their pots. We're not quite ready to plant these out as we need to manure the bed first. 

The wilderness that was our plot is now under control, all mown and prettified. You can see how overgrown our neighbour on the left is.  They turned up while we were there and tried to rotovate it!  It didn't go too well. Even worse, they got out the weed killer!  We don't use it on our plot, apart from a cider vinegar homemade version, as we want to be as chemical free as possible.  This was certainly a bit of a downer for us.  All they had to do was strim and mow and then they could have cleared it easily, but there you go.  We are now planning to plant out the beds on that side of the plot  next weekend, just to give them time to finish spraying, we hope.

The strawberries under the net in the foreground are coming thick and fast...and big!

The first homegrown fruits are just the best. We ate some straight away and the rest went on my breakfast this morning, bran flakes, Greek yoghurt and a drizzle of maple syrup..yum.

Oh, and the planters in the garden and providing lovely juicy radishes already and delicious cut and come salad leaves.  Everything else in their is coming up and we can't wait.

Hoping your gardens, if you have one, or balconies, or just pots by the door are are providing you with pleasure, or food.  Enjoy.