The unusually fantastic weather we have been blessed with has lured us out of doors and into the garden and poly-tunnel, with much planting of seedlings, mulching of beds and general maintenance being done around the place.
I have the joy of a garden that has all day sun, well at least until about 8pm in the summer time, so when the weather is good we tend to live out there.
The lawns have been trimmed to perfection, we have built a new rockery with some interesting smallish boulders we uncovered during some work last season, and I have transferred the herbs that were once housed in pots to a new home in the new rockery. It is now a haven for lavender, rosemary, thyme, sage, summer savory, but the mint will have to remain pot bound....mint has a habit of going berserk if it thinks it can have free rein in open ground, you will wake up one day and discover you have mint in every corner of the garden and you will never get rid of it, it will keep popping up forever so keep it in a pot!
The paving slabs have been cleaned, the garden furniture has re-appeared from beneath the dust covers in the shed, pots on the patio have been replenished with geraniums and bedding plants, and the summer evening fairy lights have been strung.
We were actually able to fire up the bbq two nights ago and enjoy some delicious steaks, burgers and pork and leek sausages provided by MALON'S BUTCHERS who have opened in the village of Burnfoot not too far away......and I've discovered, they dry cure their own bacon and turkey! If it's as good as their steaks, we'll be having some of that too!
So with all that has been happening around the place and with the weather so warm, there hasn't been
much exotic cooking going on indoors..it's the weather for salads after all.....unfortunately we have decided to forgo the planting of lettuce this year as they seem to be plagued with greenfly and as we garden organically we refuse to spray anything unnatural.....if anyone has any good tips for getting rid of the green fly I'd love to hear them.
So for this year we have peas, beans, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, scallions.....strawberries, tomatoes and peppers will follow soon and I may daringly try for butternut squash too although I believe they grown slower than sloths move! but anyhow, nothing ventured etc. etc, I noticed today too that the apple trees are blossoming wonderfully and it looks like we could have a huge crop of apples....one good reason to look forward to autumn!
Now that the garden is prepared I can get back to the cooking so let's bring on those wonderful summer foods and get your own bbq ready.....hopefully it will see lots of action this year!
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