Red, Ripe and Ridiculously Juicy...

Whilst most of the north of the country is recovering from the effects of the horrendous flooding that has risked the future of crops for many of our individual producing twitter friends we have been basking in the relative temperate climate with enough sun in the past week to ripen the first abundant crops of cherries and raspberries.
It's now squirrel alert time as we are well aware that the little grey bush tailed rat that frequents our street will be along to stock up on cherries if she thinks she can.  We are on watch during the day to keep her away, much helped this year by the arrival of 2 barking dogs with our new temporary neighbours who have moved in next door to bring the house into the 21st century ready for the rental market.

Tomatos are setting their second trusses so feeding routine is weekly now, beans are beginning to grab the bottom of the canes and will climb fast in the coming 10 days.  The lychee plants are growing well, on their third set of leaves and becoming much more robust in the stems, its always so interesting growing something completely new and watching how it develops.  Seeing the similarities and differences between it and other plants we grow.
Of course alongside all of this the garden is full to bursting with salad, radishes, beets, spring onions, shallots and spinach, in fact not sure i can remember the last time we went to the shops.
Our produce labels have arrived and the printing for business cards and adverts is underway this week giving our home-made quality foods a top level professional finish.  Finally in this quick round up we have started outlining the structure of our latest book based on our experience of the urban smallholding and self sufficient semi detached home but with a twist...