Harvest Home

The late spring has caused some knock-on effects in the garden -- while some blackberries have been ripe to pick in the hedgerows from almost the beginning of the month, the plums are coming on full stream just now, about a week later than I expect, and the French beans are only just starting to set. But then most of the annuals I sowed in the spring germinated sluggishly and many are only just coming into bloom, the nasturtiums being particularly feeble.

The outdoor tomatoes are at their peak now, but to date I've only harvested one from the greenhouse. The courgettes had a little spate in the first half of the month and have now gone back to just rotting from the tip, but the overwintered peppers and this year's chili plants are laden with ripening fruit. The apples are having a second round of drop, though as the birds are eating some of the fallen fruit, it may be that some ripened prematurely -- the ones that were big enough to be worth using were only a little sour when used in a pie.

The climbing rose I had to cut back to knee-high so that we could get the fence replaced is now as tall as I am once again -- I think I shall have to cut it back hard after flowering more often.