A garden plant for "free"

This pink and orange snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus) was rescued from a dry crack in a pavement back in June or July and replanted in John Innes No. 3, since when it has grown about 20 times larger.

"All right, Mr. DeMille, we are ready for our close-up"

The hens (from the left) Zaza, Berthe, Becassine and (in front) Tallulah, back-lit like film stars.

These are not the same hens as last year - the gone but not forgotten Hilda and Evadne - who were killed by a fox in December. I made the run more secure before the four new hens arrived in February.

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There seems to have been a lot of fox activity in the garden during last night: signs of digging in the compost bin, things knocked over, a long-extinct bird (probably a pigeon) on the ground by the bay tree, and droppings that appeared to contain a claw of whatever the fox ate recently. Actually, it looked like a chicken claw so I wonder if someone round here has lost a hen recently.

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The yield this year from the Gardeners' Delight and Golden Sunrise tomato plants is fan-tas-tic. Every day, yet more handfuls ripen. Here are a few of the early ones, photographed one day in August in a heart-shaped ramekin by Le Creuset.