This and That

We have been very busy this last few weeks.  We had a wonderful cruise to the Baltic countries and then family and friends came to stay for a week.  Since then Doc has been assessing the garden and trying to catch up with maintenance but the harvesting is getting in the way.  But that’s nice.  Home produce is always welcome and a full trug is satisfying and useful in the kitchen.  Rosy tomatoes will always bring a smile to our faces and the smell of the leaves is intoxicating.

The strawberries are abundant and we are full to bursting.  I have decided to try freezing some of the surplus to make jam in the autumn.  Using frozen berries works with raspberries, blackberries, red currants and blackcurrants so we will see if it works with strawberries.  I doubt the flavour will be as good so I will add lemon juice to perk it up.

The sugar snap peas are doing well and lots of pretty white flowers means there are many more pods to come.  We eat them raw or steamed.  I have never tried freezing them but we don’t have a glut - yet!

The courgettes are slow in getting going. The plants are still small though there are a couple of flowers.  I have a couple of spare courgette plants in the greenhouse and they are producing tiny courgettes so that is nice. The squashes and pumpkin are just about the same size as a month ago which is bad news.  I blame the cold May and June. 

The cut flower bed experiment is not quite as glorious as we hoped.  Again, the cold weather earlier in the season did not enable the plants to get established quickly.  The plants sulked when put outside and they needed a boost of warmth and sunshine.  Still, we have picked some bunches and together with some bits and bobs from the rest of the garden, the house is looking a little more loved.  Our grand-daughter liked the Helichrysums or ‘Strawflowers’ because of the papery, crispy petals.  They are remarkably long lasting in the vase too.

A friend brought me a large bunch of yellow roses and I cannot resist posting a pic.  The gypsophilla is homegrown and it looks good with yellow.  The flowers are only starting to fade but they have been amazing.  So far, we have had them 11 days and they still look good.  I change the water every day.  This was a top tip form our daughter.  She is a florist so she should know.  It works!

The very wishy washy pale pink peony is delightful and the scent is heady.  This was a plant that was here when we moved in over a decade ago.  Half of it was dead so we rejuvenated it.  Then it was moved several times and then had to sit for a few years to recover from its trials.  We did not know the colour of the blooms and assumed it was the same as the other peony which was also hiding in a border - a beautiful magenta.  How different could it be?  Anyway, last year I staked it and a couple of large flowers were well supported.  However,  this year the stakes were not quite high enough, there are masses of flowers and it rained on them.  The plant nearly keeled over in exhaustion!  I had to pick most of the flowers and they were a bit of a mess but I have saved a few for the vase.  The plant is huge now so next year we need stakes of nearly a metre to support the almost dinner-plate sized flowers.

The summer is rolling along and the garden is full of colour.  The foliage is starting to billow and it won’t be long before the wisteria needs a bit of a tidy up.  It flowered well this year.  We missed the whole show because we were away.  Gardeners should never go on holiday……..