Summer Berries

Fruits of the fruit cage . . .  strawberries, blackcurrants, and finally the redcurrant bush has got large enough to actually produce some redcurrants!

No raspberries - but have planted some new canes so hopefully they'll take for 2019. 

There'll be no blueberry harvest this year either - it's in a pot, and mea culpa it probably didn't get enough water in this hot weather - lots of very shrivelled blueberries!  At least the bush seems to have survived now we've started watering it properly.

I Said There'd Be Jam!

We've been harvesting strawberries now for nearly two weeks, and as predicted last year we reached the point where it was time to make jam . . .  there's nothing quite like the smell of strawberries bubbling away on the road to jamness.  

Added a sachet of pectin to the mix this time, which made the whole process much less angst ridden, although do rather feel like I cheated.  The mix only made four jars, but expect there'll be another jam-making session in the offing in due course!

Apart from the strawberries, we've also got gooseberries that are nearly ready, and raspberries that should yield quite a crop themselves in due course.  

We picked the first of the blackcurrants today though - again there'll be a few more to follow, but probably not enough for jam this year!

Update: 6th July 2010
More strawberries - four more pots of jam!

Fruits of Our Labours

It's been a beautiful weekend - could have been June rather than April today. The garden is looking lovely, the daffodils have for the most part given way to tulips, and the magnolia is looking absolutely beautiful. Around the lawn there are lots of cowslips and violets as well, and any day now the azaleas will start coming in to bloom.


We were intending to put in another veg plot this weekend, having decided that we wouldn't be doing anything major with the fruit plot (as we thought we'd left it all a bit late to get hold of some raspberry canes.) However, Martin's folks turned up on Saturday with 10 raspberry plants, and sorting out the fruit plot became a matter of urgency.

Martin built the frame for the plot that afternoon, while I moved one of last year's raised beds to make more room. Today we finished de-turfing, levelling, and planting it up - the raspberry canes on one side, and two blackcurrants, two gooseberries, and a blueberry on the other. The 'fruits of our labours' are pictured below, and hopefully in due course we will see some real fruits, although probably not that much this year . . .

We're still in the process of finishing the central path area - this is being filled (gradually) with stones taken out of the various vegetable / fruit plots. Also planning to move the strawberry plants into this plot from their current raised bed. Need to add some stakes for the raspberries as well.

Last year we actually had two apple trees in this area; we moved these a few weeks ago and have started the process of espaliering them. They seem to be coming along ok - at any rate they're about to come into bloom, so hopefully we'll see an apple or two. Bought a desert cherry tree as well, although that's nowhere near flowering just yet.

To end on a flowery note, here's some apple blossom . . .