A few firsts
Lovely poppy anyone? This wildflower garden down by the swimming pool is a constant source of surprises: must bring out my wildflower identification book next time I have the leisure to gaze at the patch of flowers. The poppies and the cornflowers are particularly striking. And all this is to soften you up for what is to be a tedious post of veg close ups. Some pictures are hard to even identify as subject matter worthy of space, but one needs to record when things emerge. That’s what this blog is mostly all about.
Take this aubergine for example It’s in there somewhere, truly. You just need to squint to see it. By mid July when we are settled for the summer they should be more plump and ready for barbeque-ing. We had the first cucumbers this week, sliced into a salad with vinegar, sugar, chillis, coriander and parsley. And each night has been a bountiful harvest of new potatoes, cabbage (leaves thinly sliced and stir fried with our usual pine nuts and dried cranberries). 
And we have even had our first garlic and onions straight from the garden. Not all the garlic plumped out to expected girths, but there will be plenty for the summer I think. Luckily the wild life tend to leave them alone. f They may launch themselves at the courgettes (zucchini) if they care to. I haven’t hid them under cloches, but rather placed them under a set of four poles in the middle of the cabbage beds. Here they are flowering away just in case I get back this sunday and find the whole plant stripped of flowers.
Other achievements this week? Mowing. It takes up so much of my time, but isn’t really worthy of garden merit. But things do look so neat and tidy after the deed is done, so here are the dull old pics to show what I have been up to. Stifle those yawns up the back thank you.
And to finish, how about the first ever glimpse (for me) of cranberries ripening on the shrub. Please excuse the very unattractive background: these plants are crammed under weedproof fabric in the top potager. In July I promise to spend an entire day up that neglected part of the fruit garden. Well, we go up every second day to get more raspberries, but as the asparagus are just putting on their summer growth and the garlic is up, there is nothing else to fuss over. Eventually I shall plant more soft fruit bushes up here. I know, I know, there is a glut of jostaberries already. But that’s the whole point of the freezer and preserves. A year’s worth of fruit from just a short season. What could be better?