How does my garden grow?

I keep telling myself not to be complacent about the garden. Yes, things seem to be growing well, but there are all manner of catastrophes that might befall it yet. Things could die of drought, or be drowned by too much rain, or be flattened by high winds. They could be eaten by slugs or snails or caterpillars or aphids or birds or one of many other pests out there. They could catch one or many of various deadly diseases. And let's not forget the potential for destruction by one small, lunatic cat.

It was only when I was showing my neighbour round the garden and said, Of course, it might all die, that her startled look brought me up short. Is this pessimism really warranted? More to the point, why am I being so pessimistic? It's completely out of character. Maybe it's because it's so important.

I'm giving myself a year's trial. If, at the end of a year, the new lifestyle isn't working, I'll have to abandon the dream and go back to my old life (by which I mean, try to get a job). A lot hangs on whether the garden produces a good harvest or not. It might also be that I've been very stressed about other things recently, so less inclined to optimism generally. Either way, it's time to stop being so negative about it all and appreciate what's actually going on in the garden.

The potato plants are huge...

Potatoes. Beans in the foreground.

... and flowering...

Flowers on the first early potatoes. The maincrop aren't flowering yet.

... as are the tomatoes (just)...

I had several goes at getting this tomato flower in focus. It's not quite there, but you get the idea.

... and the broad beans...

I think all of the broad beans have flowers on them now.

... and the earliest of the peas (the ones I sowed directly outside, then thought they'd died of cold).

This is the second pea flower I've found. I don't mind so much that the sweet peas didn't germinate when the edible pea flowers are so pretty.

These peas are quite big and already flowering (I just said that, didn't I?) and I also have medium-sized, just-germinated, and only-just-sown peas. I finally got the last of them in the ground a few days ago, which I believe is the very latest you can get away with. It remains to be seen whether I have, in fact, got away with it.

The runner beans my neighbours gave me last weekend (I must take some plants round in exchange!) are climbing:

Runner beans, just starting to wrap themselves round the canes

The carrots and onions are looking quite convincing:

Carrot and onion seedlings. And the odd stray potato.

Several red cabbages have so far survived slug attacks:

Young red cabbage. Small stones have been gathered from the surrounding flower bed to deter slugs.

There are many strawberries, taunting us with their pale greenness:

We wait with eager anticipation for these to turn red.

and the blackcurrants are rapidly ripening:

Soon I'll be making blackcurrant jam and cordial and wine. Possibly not all of those, and possibly not in that order of priority.

When I look at it, there are many things to be happy about in the garden.