Physalis - planted

 It has been the perfect day today for planting out my Physalis seedlings . Blue sky and warm , with a bit of cloud to take the edge off the heat while I finished the frame to give them some support .

 I,m sure my mother used to plant them into the ground and let them scrabble about without any support  ,and she would get lots of fruits too , but I am going to try growing them the way they do in the fields in Columbia and Peru . Rather like I also do my tomatoes  up in the solar shed , just gently winding the stems of the plants around the strings to give them support .

              The strings are wound around and over the cane at the top .....

   ..... the ends of the strings are knotted with very big knots which are buried into the ground .

The ground is so dry that I was unable to push the Hazel poles into the ground very far , so in the end I also used  bamboo canes to make the frame more rigid .

 It doesn't cling nor climb around the bamboo canes like Runnerbeans ,rather the stems and branches will be wound as to lean horizontally against and along the strings .
 My only worry is now I,ve heard that Physalis can grow to be eight feet tall ! If  it begins to look as if this is the case , then I will have to get some taller canes .

                           Look !  There are flower buds coming already !

      So I watered them in and spread some bark chippings around their feet to discourage the snails .....and fingers crossed they'll still be there tomorrow .

                  Then I watched the bees popping in and out of my Foxgloves .

This one looks different with it's stripey tail .
    I also spotted my first Humming bird moth of the year on the Centranthus rubra , more commonly known here as Cornish Valerian .....but try as I might ..I could not get a decent picture of it this time round , it was darting about our Cornish hedge so fast !

I do love our native purple Digitalis purpurea and I will let them be and flower where ever they come up , but I am also so happy that some of my foxgloves are white again this year .... I was worried that the bees would not like them as much as they do the native purple ones . I have started off a tray of Apricot ones for next year and the year after . I think my husband got them free with this months Gardeners World Magazine . Fingers crossed again for germination  ! I keep going to see if they 're coming up yet , lol !
  Lastly ,  .... Please God can we have a little rain tonight , my water but is empty and the garden is so dry ....Amen .