July in the Garden - raspberries, redcurrants, and a lettuce thief.

A couple of years ago I bought two raspberry plants. They were only smallish and cost me a fiver for the pair. I now have a veritable raspberry jungle. They spread like mad once they get settled in. There is a bit of work to do tying them to canes, weeding, feeding, and watering but the crops we get are amazing. Definitely my best ever investment for the garden. The biggest job in July is picking them, there are so many!

They have been steadily ripening all month and I get a good-sized bowl full every single day.
If you check out the price of raspberries in the supermarket I hope you'll agree they are well worth the effort..  Hubby worked out July must have yielded about £60 worth at the price they sell per punnet on our market - and ours are organic so that's an undervaluation!






The other fruit I am have been harvesting this month is redcurrants. I bought a single bush a good few years ago and so far it produces more fruit each year. There's a little work in pruning and just a bit of feeding and watering but apart from that it has been trouble free. I have learned to pick them when they are really dark red or they are very tart indeed. But once really ripe they mix in deliciously with the raspberries.

Normally in July I would have salad crops such as lettuce to harvest. Unfortunately I had a little mishap. My veg beds are surrounded by 1 foot high fencing to keep our beloved guinea pig out. She's allowed the run of the rest of the garden. Sadly, after a weeding session I left a small gap in the barrier. Cue the case of the vanishing lettuces - the whole lot, which were young plants, gone - and one very smug looking, and rather rotund, guinea pig.  I have sown more but they are only tiny right now - will only get a late crop this year.

So, I have been buying those trays of growing lettuce that you can sit on the kitchen window-sill and cut from. Only, instead of putting the remains in the compost bin, when I have cut all I can, I have started planting the remains in the garden and watering and feeding along with the rest of the crops. Give it a week or so and hey presto it has grown back ready to cut again. I have cut this one four times now and it's still growing back again.