Strawberries, new potatoes and fresh salad – by the bucketful. It's the summer so it must be nearly Wimbledon! We've had massive rainfall since the drought came to an end, so the garden has leapt into life. The young plants that were virtually dormant in the dry have sprung back to life with a vengeance (so have the weeds of course!)
The runner beans are running up their strings. The carrots have been thinned and weeded. The beetroot is burgeoning, and the broccoli is safely (we hope) growing in its netted cages.
Several young rhubarb plants are just getting going.
Our fruit trees are looking good and growing vigorously so they need constant trimming to keep them close to the wall. The apricots look well, there are plenty of apples and the plum crop looks Ok although the blossom was badly hit by cold spring gales. The new greengage tree we planted against the wall has perked up now with 3 strong new shoots.
We have just one giant pumpkin plant this year – now sending out impressive tentacles and just about the pass the new sweet peas.
In the greenhouse we have the usual massive crop of grapes with a vine that would take over the world if we did not constantly cut it back. As always, the tomato plants are super vigorous but it will be a few weeks yet before we have any tomatoes.
Out in the orchard our young maple tree is once again growing at a great rate – about 1 meter last year and it looks like the same again this year. The small box of wildflower seeds we bought from Wilco has completely transformed what was the “city garden” - it's now 3 feet high with masses of flowers about the come into bloom. These flowers have quite amazing energy.