Happy July to you.
And there was I mithering everyone last week about where the sun had gone. Well here it is, and no mistake.
This last week or so feels like I'm finding out what worked and what hasn't quite of the things I've sown and planted - those squash were sown a little late, while the tomatoes caught up nicely. Swings and roundabouts. The newly planted mulberry has (after a late cold snap scare) thrown itself into enthusiastic leaf; the medlar is sluggish, almost unchanged by sun or rain, but it plods on at least.
More than anything in the garden, July is a month for herbs - I'm picking some of pretty much everything from
lemongrass to
chocolate mint to
anise hyssop to
salad burnet to
rose scented geranium. As well as wanting them for the kitchen, picking helps keep them healthy. If any of your herbs are starting to reach for the sky, clip them back a little and the plant should bush out with new leaves lower down…this is particularly important with most varieties of mint as their flavour often loses brightness and balance when flowering. A good example: if you have strawberry mint, rub the leaves today and it will be everything you want from an early English summer - strawberries, sweet, bright scent etc etc - and do it after the Wimbledon men's final on Sunday and your hands will smell of cat's pee.
I've put together a few collections at frankly silly prices, a double-header of two of my favourite underground harvests, and a look at Scotch lovage (such a great variety) and a recipe for gooseberries that I hope you'll enjoy.
Enjoy the sun.
