The Merry Month of May - the end of

End of May

 I do love this time of year. My garden is looking at its best. Different varieties of roses and honey suckle are blooming and perfuming the early morning and evening air wonderfully. I bought some new bearded irises this spring and one of them has come into flower. Of non perfumed flowers they must be my favourite. It is a pity their season is so short.

I picked my first strawberry this morning.

No, this isn’t it, these ones are for tomorrow. I ate it as soon as I found it. The strawberries are definitely late this year but, it has been so cold. The last couple of days seem to have been the warmest we have had so far and how lovely it has been.

I cleared some of the debris from my strawberry patch this morning so that the ripening strawberries won’t be sitting in mud and I put some little groups of slug pellets down as I do hate finding my ripe strawberries full of slug holes with the woodlice moving in for their share.

Now the question is – should I put netting over my strawberry bed?  I don’t like trapping blackbirds underneath and I really don’t mind sharing a couple but I do object when they eat the ripe half out of all the red strawberries on the patch. Perhaps I will net but lift it up well and leave a few escape holes.

My herbs are looking particularly good this year and I can now dump last year’s stumpy plants and start eating this year’s. I have two different lots growing in tubs at home – moss curled and Italian flat leaf.

Like the strawberries, my potatoes are also a bit slow. They are growing nicely but I really don’t think I will be harvesting my 1^st Earlies for a few weeks yet.