RASPBERRIES

Looking forward to the raspberry season. The first year most of the crop was spoiled by the horrid raspberry beetle, but since then I have installed a raspberry beetle trap and it seems to eliminate most of them. The poor guys think it smells like a girl and drop into the soapy water and drown. I imagine the rows of raspberry beetle wallflowers wondering why no-one ever asks them to dance.

A long, hot sunny day in the garden. It was so hot I was driven into the shade and thought to tackle the wilderness that was once a path by the hedge. The VIP refers to it as 'going into the jungle'. It certainly is pretty wild in there, but, do you know, I think I'll leave it that way. Lots of happy wildlife haunts, self seeding flowers and fruits and gentle surprises, like the old rose with the delicious scent and the desert gooseberry. I gorged on the berries and got heady with the scent before getting rid of the brambles so it was pleasanter to wade through. I haven't braved the great crop of Mahonia berries, although I believe they are edible and rick in vitamin C, anyway, the blackbirds love them.

Organised plants for our plant sale tomorrow - we are on the edge of the thunder storm front, so keeping our fingers crossed we are on the right side.