Summer Holidays

There is an anxious time in every gardeners year, this is when you go on your Summer holidays. So many things to do, worry about who will water the plants, how big will the courgettes get? If veggies are not picked then they will probably stop cropping. The fruit on my plum tree has just started to ripen all at once! pounds and pounds of lovely sweet eating plums will not wait for me to get back. Today I picked them all (thank heavens for dwarfing rootstocks!).

Halved them and bagged them up in ziploc bags in the freezer. Ready for jams, pies or crumbles when I get back. Maggoty plum ratio - about 1 in 20 - not bad!

One small success is my first crop of Hinomaki Red gooseberries. A two year old bush having its first crop this year. Stunning to look at and very sweet. Quite promising for next year.

So, dear readers, Buddy is going into kennels while we are away. I must admit to being a little anxious this time as he is now 14 years old and just beginning to show his age a little. He is an outgoing, confident chap and I am sure that he will make friends easily. I am off sailing around the UK, Scotland and Ireland on the Queen Victoria. I am excited to be meeting a fellow blogger Peggy in her home town of Cobh, during my very first visit to Ireland, having only corresponded via her Organic Growing Pains blog. I will be dropping in for one day to say hello - in person! I will be back on August 1st.