Harvest begins!

Since the end of last week, we have begun the harvest of strawberries and raspberries from the garden. With the onset of warm weather, the berries have been turning red overnight, or probably, overday. Last night we picked a big bowl and put them in the fridge. This morning our whole fridge smelt of ripe berries. So delicious!

Other garden progress: we've lost another red pear : ( so now our harvest will be only one. Amanda tells me about the blackcurrants and gooseberries she has; my redcurrant and gooseberry have produced exactly nothing. Although the redcurrant has also been affected by sap-sucking bugs.

The apples are ripening nicely, turning pretty shades of pink where they are getting some sun. They are getting bigger, too, and have a faint clean apple smell about them. I think I may finally be winning the battle against the sap sucking bugs on the apple trees. The leaves are still badly curled but when I check them now there isn't a sickening nest of creatures under there.

Of the many tomato plants, so far only Shirley has flowers. No fruit. However the bought-in eggplant has a baby fruit on it. I've planted out some cucumbers in pots and put them down near the shed with some netting hung over the fence for them to climb up. I put some Qld Blue pumpkin in pots there as well, and one into the garden on the shady side, hoping it will climb the fence. The bought-in chilli and bell pepper have flowers and so should soon have fruit. The blueberries are starting to show signs of turning blue, slowly slowly.

But in terms of what to eat, lettuce, kale, chard and chinese broccoli should be next on the list. They're all looking good. And diligent use of the slug pellets means that the lettuce has survived in the garden.

Flower surprise: sweet william is in flower. I planted these last year and they were swamped by the kale but this year they have shot up and are flowering. Sunflowers are also trying to flower despite the attack of bugs and snails. Sweet peas have flower pods on them so will flower soon. The teasel is now over six foot but not any more attractive than it was. Really, what was I thinking? No flowers on the bottlebrush yet, although Keith and Alison's bottlebrushes are flowering already. Maybe this is the year that we set ours on fire to truly replicate Australian conditions.