this week in the herb garden

It is blackcurrant time again!
The bushes are heavy with berries this year and the birds don't seem to have taken any. I picked three pounds this afternoon, but I think I will be picking after work every day this week to get them all. Unfortunately there will be no time to make anything with them, so they will be going into the freezer for now. Well... I may keep some back to make some blackcurrant gin!

this week in the herb garden

although the day was overcast and grey, the air was warm and full of birdsong. Today I chose to replant the lavender border. The plants had been in for a few years and had always flowered well, but they did not survive the combination of a wet summer followed by a long cold winter. The new plants are small, but hopefully will grow well and produce enough flowers to use for soaps and creams as well as my popular lavender shortbread!

Before and after photos of the lavender border...

 

this week in the herb garden

Spring has come late to the herb garden this year and, although there has not been much of an improvement in the weather, temperatures at least have risen a bit and plants are beginning to grow. There was wild garlic to pick this week and some of it went into an omelette with red pepper and feta.
The perennial herbs all have new shoots and the nettle patch has almost enough new growth to make a soup. The grass will soon be ready for the first cut, but I am reluctant to get the lawnmower out while the primula and cowslip are flowering there.

a summer of discontent...

I heard on the news this morning that this has been our wettest summer for 100 years! I was not surprised at the announcement, as I have lived through the weeks of unrelenting rain which caused the weeds to grow unchecked among the herbs and turned many of the vegetables to mush. The wet weather has also led to an upsurge in the number of slugs and snails which have laid waste to the vegetables not flattened by the rain! The hens will make short work of those when they are let loose in the garden at the end of next month, but in the meantime they march on...
A few late frosts at the end of April meant that much of the fruit blossom was killed and therefore there are very few apples, blackcurrants and cherries to be had. Only the redcurrants, raspberries and rowans survived to provide any harvest.
I am now hoping for a relatively dry autumn, so that I may clear the herb garden of weeds as plant growth subsides and prune the fruit trees in the hope of a better harvest next year.
It is hard sometimes, not to get despondent when looking out at grey skies and persistent rain, but I am determined to pick this garden up out of the mud and give it the best possible chance of productivity next year...