Attack of the killer wasps!

Phew! What a busy day! I'm just grabbing 5 minutes to write this, but really Steve thinks I'm getting Luke ready for bed. It's almost 9pm, which is late for his bed time, but he fell asleep on top of my bed today. I sent him to sit on my bed after having a tantrum (him, not me) and he fell asleep there. We've just finished a mammoth garden tidying session. I'm always amazed that people with kids have tidy gardens, as ours is always covered in toys, discarded clothes (even old nappies which Luke flings off as and when he feels like it!) It usually looks like a tip.

Today it was sunny. At last, no rain. But... WASPS. Millions of wasps. You couldn't walk through the garden without getting into their flight path. They were really busy eating all the bugs that were trying to hatch on an ivy plant (I think they were baby ladybugs, I hope not). I lifted the lid of the compost bin to throw a heap of stuff in, and hundreds of wasps emerged! It was horrible! I stood and watched (from a safe distance) and wasps were coming from all directions and flying into the compost bin. I looked up a bit of info on the net about it and got some advice. Either there is a nest in the compost, or there is too much green stuff in the compost. The advice was to wait till evening and then put a hose into the compost bin and fill it with water. It will either destroy the nest or make the compost too wet for them to enjoy. We did that (Steve did it, covered by a winter Eskimo type coat for sting protection!) The wasps were none to happy about it. After they had flown away we covered the compost with sawdust and left it, as instructed. Hopefully it will make some sort of difference tomorrow.

I spent the afternoon pulling up giant nasturtium plants that were taking over the onion patch. Me and Steve sat in the garden harvesting all the seeds and good leaves to dry out for herbs and capers. Then I dug up a heap of soil around the spuds, something which I should have done some time ago. One of our giant sunflowers fell over in the winds and died, which was sad. But the others are still going strong and one of them is well over 8ft tall now and developing a flower head. The tomatoes seems to have been hit by a virus or something. All the leaves are turning blue and dying, but the fruit is still there, all be it green.

All in all, a busy day in the garden. Now we are putting the kids to bed and watching a video together.

Oh by the way, I finally got a letter from my DRP today. I'm so relieved that he is ok.