First earlies

I just settling down to dig up a row of potatoes when the heavens opened and I became soaked.   Sunday afternoon and it is overcast and a bit wet.

But it didn’t slow me down too much. I have enough potatoes to accompany the roast chicken tonight.   And I have prepped everything for the gravel work tomorrow.

I had to remove the weedproof fabric and the pine cone mulch that had lived in this part ofthe garden for a year. This is the area just in front of the potting shed. I’m planning to have a gravel mulch here; and maybe plant up some tulips later in the year to use as a cutting garden.

It is weed free, but it needed leveling and raking over. Now it’s ready.

The middle bit of green is a planting of ivy and virginia creeper that are supposed to creep upwards. I wait patiently to see.

And the path in the potager is also ready.   Here too is a weedproof fabric, and I removed the grass cutting mulch that has covered up the unsightly fabric all spring.

Thank goodness I did it before it rained. It turns into a slimy matted mulch when wet.

I placed most of it on the side path, which is too steep to gravel, and other bits went in between the potato rows.

There are some pesky weeds growing out of the base of the stone wall that edges the strawberry bed. So they had to be yanked out and removed. And I found all the little brambles that were hiding in the thicket of strawberry plants.

Bring on the gravel.

I didn’t just play in the dirt and mulch today; I started out by picking two kilos of jostaberries from the bushes in the soft fruit orchard.

They are ripening beautifully and are very juicy.

I was just going to freeze them; but decided to turn them into jam instead.

I think jostas are not a commercial crop because they have to be so carefully picked over before you cook.   There is a stalk at one end which has to be pinched off, and the pointy bit of the end of the flower at the other.   So it takes time.

But I managed twelve pots of gorgeous tart but sweet jam after a good 25 minutes of cooking.

I must get my labels sorted so I don’t confuse my crops in pots.