Tummelberries, Raspberries, Strawberries and more...

Been busy in the garden before it started raining...

Because we don't know what's happening, and because all my raspberries have been popping up through the lawn again, I carefully hoiked up some of the young ones and stuck them in pots. Whilst I was there, I delicately extracted the gooseberry plant (getting a vicious thorn from that damned pyrocanthus deep in my finger AGAIN) and put that in the fig tree's pot, as the poor fig had keeled over with the vicious freeze we had over winter.

I also took up two of my best strawberry plants, and a few of the alpine miniature strawberries (which are now ensconced around the bases of the raspberries), and took a quick jaunt to the local garden centre which, as always, turned out to be a veritable dream of green...

This year I've added a "tummelberry" to my thorny fruit collection; somewhat similar to a tayberry, it's a heavy fruit bearer made from a cross between blackberries and raspberries. I'm not expecting fruit this year (as you don't with any rasperroids), but next year should be interesting - I'm told one stem can produce 3kgs of fruit, even in a dry spell!

I replaced the chive (same problem as the fig, I didn't get it wrapped up in time.) and picked up a bay, some sage and a delightful bright yellow and green lemon balm to go with my mental mint. The mint's spectacular - that has just thrown plants EVERYWHERE!

We're having sun dried tomato and spring onion cheddar with salami on toast, having just reseeded our pathetic lawn. It's about the size of a fairly large rug, but is mostly moss - even though I scarify, air, hand-weed, water and feed it (due to the poor clay soil and lack of sunlight).

I should learn to accept that it will never be a truly verdant carpet...