We have a small garden in Fratton , Portsmouth, in the heart of a very densely-packed urban area. I started this blog to chart our year, loving urban wildlife, growing herbs, fruits and vegetables, and cooking & eating what we grow.

From the end of April until the beginning of July, we had mixed weather - some of it stormy, some of it hot - yet everything survived and grew.

The old perennial herbs seem very tough - and we've a whole new jungle of rosemary, thyme, bay, chives, sage and mint - alongside our new courgettes, tomatoes, chillies and basil. We also bought a small oregano plant, which we put in a large pot (the turquoise one) which has gone batshit.

We decided this year that we were happy for most of the garden to be a bit 'wild' and as friendly as we can practicably make it for bees, butterflies and other insects, and spiders.

The sunflowers self-seeded under the apple tree from bird-seed we feed to the wood pigeons and songbirds.

The strawberries are having a reasonably good year.

We also had the first of our asparagus crop, from the plants I raised from seeds three years ago. I let some of them grow into fronds because they're so beautiful to look at, and benefit insects.

And the star of the show - our Bramley apple tree. It's having a great year, after a serious pruning back a couple of years ago. Welcome back!