Summer garden abundance

There's the usual mixture of triumph and tragedy in the garden this year. The mice have had almost all the allotment strawberries. I think I shall take them out. I spent ages nurturing them last year and netting them this year, all to no avail. Every berry has gone now, ripe or unripe. I found piles of them rotting gently underneath the broad beans. Frustrating. The ground will be better used for something else. The garden strawberries have done quite well though. They're nearly at an end now. I haven't made any jam but we've had more strawberries and cream than you could shake a stick at.

The raspberries are ripening and I've picked masses of tayberries. Leafy things are doing well, especially the weeds, they've been absolutely phenomenal this year. The salad is making up for it though.

The wineberry flowers are buzzing with bees which surprised me a bit. They're tiny and its quite hard to spot when they're open, but the bees seem to know. It's good that the soft fruit is staggered slightly otherwise I'd be a bit overwhelmed.

Broad beans are doing their usual thing of all being ready at once. I've frozen quite a few although my favourite way to eat them is raw while they're still small and bright green. I've taken out the first lot of sugar snap peas and now it's a wait until the next batch are ready.

This time of year is a pleasure, when there's something from the plot or the garden at every meal. Blueberries or raspberries at breakfast time, handfuls of mixed salad leaves for lunch - sorrel, mustards, rocket and lettuce, then broad beans, courgettes or artichokes at dinner followed by something with the fruit.

Everything isn't perfect in the garden, there are no peaches at all this year, most of the cucumber plants didn't survive and the garlic has rust, but there are enough successes and good things to eat to make it all worthwhile. How is your growing going?