June and July are the most colourful months in my garden!
In my garden June is the month to harvest berries, picking, eating and
drying herbs and vegetables but also the month to enjoy flowers
and chaos.
Maybe this is the difference between the dedicated allotment gardener, focused on harvesting and preserving as much as possible, and the somewhat lazy foodie interested in rare and tasty fruits, herbs and vegetables.
I make sure some of my plants flower because it’s interesting to discover the entire lifecycle.
First of all nature rewards you with a period of explosive greens and
growth followed by flowers.
This is also important to support all kinds of insects, in trouble
because of lawn fundamentalists and boring landscapers.
You will discover very small and fast wasps, bees, all kinds of
colourful beetles and the natural “drones” : bumblebees.
Unfortunately you will also face attacks by slugs, aphids and plants
that start to fight for space… So you might need to help!
Blossoms are not only decorative but can be very useful in the kitchen.
Good examples are fennel
blossoms.
This is expensive in shops but the wild fennel grows very well in most
gardens and the stems and fronds are also tasty.
After flowering you can harvest the seeds and the plants will seed
themselves.
You will not only have more food next year, organic seeds, plants that
might over grow the weeds but also a lot of plants to give to friends!
:-)
Picture time!
[caption id=“attachment_501” align=“alignnone” width=“711”]{.wp-image-501 .size-full width=“711” height=“960”} Figs (Ficus carica)[/caption]
[caption id=“attachment_499” align=“alignnone” width=“754”]{.wp-image-499 .size-full width=“754” height=“960”} Lemon Thyme (Thymus citriodorus ‘Doone Valley’)[/caption]
[caption id=“attachment_497” align=“alignnone” width=“776”]{.wp-image-497 .size-full width=“776” height=“960”} Sea Kale (Crambe maritima)[/caption]
[caption id=“attachment_495” align=“alignnone” width=“960”]{.wp-image-495 .size-full width=“960” height=“720”} Prunes (Prunus domestica)[/caption]
[caption id=“attachment_493” align=“alignnone” width=“960”]{.wp-image-493 .size-full width=“960” height=“720”} Lovage (Levisticum officinale) - smaak naar selder[/caption]
[caption id=“attachment_491” align=“alignnone” width=“960”]{.wp-image-491 .size-full width=“960” height=“642”} Houttuynia cordata[/caption]
[caption id=“attachment_489” align=“alignnone” width=“960”]{.wp-image-489 .size-full width=“960” height=“720”} Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis)[/caption]
[caption id=“attachment_487” align=“alignnone” width=“960”]{.wp-image-487 .size-full width=“960” height=“720”} Wild Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)[/caption]
[caption id=“attachment_485” align=“alignnone” width=“960”]{.wp-image-485 .size-full width=“960” height=“720”} Tasmanian Mountain Pepper - (Tasmannia lanceolata)[/caption]
[caption id=“attachment_481” align=“alignnone” width=“960”]{.wp-image-481 .size-full width=“960” height=“671”} Lavandin (Lavandula x intermedia)[/caption]
[caption id=“attachment_505” align=“alignnone” width=“720”]{.wp-image-505 .size-full width=“720” height=“960”} The garden[/caption]