First Strawberries

These are the first strawberries form the garden. Some things in the garden are doing well such as potatoes, lettuces, the greenhouse tomatoes and slugs; whilst others seem very slow such as the runner beans, outdoor tomatoes and carrots. The nights have still been quite cool, cold even, and that must be slowing things down. Here we are in mid-June and it still doesn't feel summerish at times. The basil I planted outside weeks ago, mainly because I ran out of room in the greenhouse, has grown about 1 cm! Some spare Nicontiana (tobacco) plants I got from Luton Hoo are still the same size as when I planted them - they have grown a bit, and yet have lost a bit though being eaten.

Here I am, talking about the weather as if I could 'wish' it to be something else. When I am sitting in a stuffy office all day I have to almost forget about what's going on outside. I love the weather - just accepting it for what it is (on the whole) and enjoying being outdoors when ever I can.

Back to the garden. After an excess of activity in the spring, I seem to have left the garden to its own devices and just let it get on with allowing plants to do what they do best - grow! I think that managing small space can be hard work. I keep seeing odd bits in the media about encouraging people to grow vegetables. It isn't as easy as it sounds. It takes preparation, thought, planning and care. But it is very rewarding when things do survive and grow. Even I forget to keep the slugs and snails under proper control and as a result have lost sunflowers, runner beans and trays of lettuce seedlings.

The strawberries were fine, just added a bit of sugar as we don't keep a stock of cream in the house. Some warm sunshine I am sure would have increased their flavour. Lots more to come by the looks of things.