Cherry Ripe!

The scent of the garden is almost intoxicating at present, particularly as the warm weather continues. Wild honeysuckle in the hedge outside the back door immediately assaults the senses and its various cultivated cousins around the garden add to this battery; Rambling Rector is still giving me a thrill every time I look at him, and the thousands of flowers pour down an aromatic torrent of deliciousness when I walk beneath him. A friend described him this week as looking like a bridal bower – a bit ungentlemanly, but very appropriate. The updated rose garden is really beginning to come together and do the job it was meant to do, particularly now Blush Noisette has come onboard for this season and added to the fragrance of Zephérine Drouhin. The tiny lavender plug plants planted at the base of the roses are now establishing well and can only enhance the aromatic effect further.

Our day out yesterday and the continuing sunshine meant that the soft fruit had been ignored for a couple of days and was therefore a high priority, as I had noted when I closed the greenhouse and watered the tomatoes last night. The cherries (‘Stella’) have had a real boost since I last looked at them so was able to pick a small batch, the first for two years; being a little tinker and sampling the first one demonstrated that another day or two might actually have enhanced the sweetness a little more, but other than that how exciting is a bowl of shiny red cherries picked from your own garden?! Another half pound of raspberries brought the total to over two pounds so far and the larger loganberries are also now ripening so easily produced a generous pound from the first picking.

Pickings in the small veg beds, however, have so far been sparse. Although the peas and broad beans have grown well I have realised two things today –  if I am going to grow them
1)  it makes sense to grow as much as I can in the space
2) I need to continue watering when it is dry even when the nearest water butt is emptyAdmittedly I was unsure at what point to pick them, and although the broad beans are young and tender  the short row I have grown is neither here nor there and the same goes for the peas, but they particularly seem to have felt the effect of the dryness with some of what were healthy pods looking a little papery on the outside. There will be a little more to come, but I certainly need to reassess the contents of the veg beds if  I going to grow some veg semi-seriously which is what I decided last year. Indeed one bed has only been used as a repository for young plants waiting to be planted out, as I didn’t get round to planting leeks and onions this year. Hey ho!