Considering that the British Summer has
been rather wet and cold the gardening has produced some successes.
Better late than never the strawberries
ripened and they ripened over such a small spell of time that I gave some to a
neighbour and the less beautiful specimens were turned into microwave jam – it
was so runny that I liquidised it into strawberry sauce and now I am going to
use it up with other fruits to make crumbles.
The peas and beans have enjoyed the rain so
there are plenty to put in the freezer – just need to blanch them first – I
shall use RM’s technique of using freezer packs, the sort you use in cool boxes
to keep the picnic food safe – to cool them quickly. It looks easier than making up ice cubes.
And the new project – another patch of lawn is going to be sacrificed to make a herb garden – like when the veg patch was created, we are killing off the grass and weeds by blocking out the light. The new patch will be dedicated to growing the herbs that are currently in pots on the patio. The trouble with pots is they like to be watered frequently or the plants wilt. Even in this years very wet season there have been several spells of a few days of hot dry weather so the plants in pots have suffered.
At the moment all there is to see is a patch of lawn covered with black plastic, weighted down with bricks to stop it lifting, or even blowing way!
The rectangular planter has some of this year’s strawberry plants and a healthy amount of runners to plant up in the veg patch over the winter and hopefully become next years supply of strawberry plants.
