Today was a bit breezy. In a blow-the-containers-over, move the bins, make it difficult to walk kind of way. And yet there was a fair amount of sun and it would have been a perfectly pleasant day otherwise.

Did this used to happen in previous decades? Perhaps it is my memory, but it seems to me that in the last five years or so it has become a lot more common for sunny days to also be rather windy and for calm sunny days to become increasingly rare.

Anyway it is Saturday, and so it is time for six things.

1. Himalayan Honeysuckle

I rather like these shrubs for their unusual flowers. The flowers were quite popular with the bees when they were out. Now the berries are forming, they start out red, then turn black, both can be seen in this picture. It seems that the berries are quite …

The rain has poured most of the day, there are pools of water along the edge of the lawn which is itself very squelchy. To keep with the mood here are six things that are just not going at all well in the garden - on a Saturday.

1 Half eaten Rudbeckia flower

This is Rudbeckia "Goldsturm" This was the first flower - It was nibbled before it was even open.

2 A disappointing Astilbe

I foolishly bought an Asilbe with no information about variety, colour, expected size - my own fault - I can't even say because it was cheap as it was about £6 if I remember correctly and it was in a larger than average pot.

So yes, it put up some leaves and yes it flowered - bright red fading to pink - but it is tiny and would still fit in the pot it came in with room to spare.

I …

Saturday again, so time for another six things following The propagator blog. I'm not going to add rain as one the things, but it has been very wet recently and is raining as I finish this up.

1 Zinnia

I grew this from seed and this is a very pretty one. The plants have suffered badly from slugs and/or earwigs but this flower has survived.

2 Lobellia

I am really pleased with this and it is my favourite thing in the garden at the moment. I have another (perennial) Lobelia which is being badly eaten by something. This one (it is "Starship scarlet") has only minor damage and generally looks much healthier.

3 Japanese anemones

A positive update to last weeks six, where I included one of these, and it was suffering with most of its leaves dying or dead. I removed all the brown leaves and discovered a …

Another month, and with all the rainy days not at all like summer. So here goes...

Flowering

In no particular order, certainly not alphabetical...

• Snapdragon - this appeared along the side patch where even the weeds fear to grow. So quite a surprise

• Sidalcea - this grew flower spikes and in the blink of an eye, the were gone. The leaves are all brown around the edges, so something not quite right with it.

• Penstemon - only had one flower stem so far, but for a time it was the best thing flowering.

• Lemon Balm - well I think it is lemon balm, it has very lemony smelling leaves. The leaves are speckeled and don't look very healthy. The flowers are very inconspicuous and I don't think I shall be keeping this.

• Yellow loosestrife - there is a large patch of this which is growing very well, and is very tall. The rain has given …

Its Saturday so it is time for another six things happening in the garden. An idea hosted by The propagator blog.

I've been away all week and was expecting that things would look very different when I got back, but no... there is still not much new going on, still I've managed to get six things to talk about anyway.

1 Salvia "Hot lips"

The first thing I noticed is this Salvia with its striking set of flowers. This is because it really is new, I bought it last weekend and planted it just before I left, so this is the first time I've had a chance to see it properly. There may even be a few more flowers out than when I bought it.

2 Japanese Anemone not looking so healthy

The next thing I noticed is this Japanese Anemone. I bought it a while back and it sat …

There has been a bit of a lull in new things happening but I've now got enough for another six things on Saturday, the meme hosted by The propagator blog.

1 Penstemon

This is one of the best things out at the moment, its been flowering for a while. It is a piece from a larger plant that I planted since I moved here at the beginning of the year.

2 Clematis

This suddenly appeared out of nowhere yesterday, I was vaguely aware that there was a Clematis growing into the Pyracantha but it is now suddenly so big and with so many buds! It is rather delicately coloured, but I do rather like it.

3 Sanguisorba "Tanna"

This is a plant that I bought this year. The main attraction of the plant is perhaps the light green feathery leaves, but since I finally managed to get a decent photo …

This year I planted seeds indoors quite early (Mar 20th) with the intention that they would be planted out into containers. Previously I've planted much later and directly into the container. So the question is, was there any advantage in planting so early.

Now previously it was a different year and a different location further south, so the comparison can only be taken so far.

Looking at pictures from this day in 2012 and the days around about, I can see that the zinnias had just started to flower and the Californian poppies had been out for about a week. The lobelia didn't start flowering until the 28th.

Back to today, and the zinnia have just started to flower, the poppies have been out for about 2-3 weeks and the lobelia have already got a few flowers.

So there has been no advantage for the zinnia, maybe a week for …

So we are now at about 16 weeks for the chilli plants.

Two of the chillies have now turned red. It was a very quick process, one day they were green, as they have been for weeks, and the next morning they were distinctly turning red and by the end of the day they were fully red.

The chillies range from 3-4 cm in length. Flowering has maybe slowed down a bit as there are very many developing chillies on the plant.