What I've planted for the summer

I was a bit late planting my seeds this year because we were away over Easter and then the weather was still so cold that I didn't fancy going out in the garden and digging out all the seed trays and pots! But now summer seems to have come overnight, and my sunny windowsill is full of seedlings that are nearly ready to be moved outside.

When I plant seeds I always end up planting too many in case some don't germinate, and then I can never bear to get rid of any of the seedlings! So I now have twelve broccoli plants on the go and I'm not sure where I'm going to put them. I've never grown broccoli before but we do eat a lot of it so I hope that it turns out well.

My two garden favourites are tomatoes and sunflowers, both of which are always successful. This year I bought a mixed pack of sunflowers which are coming on very nicely and I'll be planting outside this week, I have a couple of sunny spots in mind. The tomatoes have a way to go but they are doing well, again I planted a few different varieties and I have loads of seedlings. The plants are going to keep me very busy this summer!

I'm also keeping a close eye on the gorgeous lavender bush in my vegetable patch. A few years ago my parents bought me a rosemary plant and a lavender plant, with the intention of putting the rosemary in the vegetable patch and the lavender in a separate planter. However they got them muddled up, so I now have a beautiful lavender plant in my vegetable patch! I prune it every year but it keeps getting bigger and bigger and is threatening to take the whole thing over! I really love it, it's beautiful when it's in full bloom and it attracts lots of bees to the garden. I save the lavender to make lavender bags.

The vegetable patch is now mostly weeded and ready for planting, I'm just waiting for the fallen blossom to disappear and then I'll be raking it over and planning where to put everything. I also have some flower seeds which I'm going to sprinkle here and there, I've not been very successful with flower seeds in the past so I'll have to see how they go. 

What are you growing this year?