June sometimes seems to be the perfect month in this garden. The immature broad beans and the pea tendrils that I use for salads are almost ready to pick, the first gooseberries are edging their way towards a crumble, and the roses that grace the garden table ('Souvenir du Docteur Jamain' and 'Francis Dubreuil') are at their most sumptuous.
Recipes
Planting, herb heaven and al fresco dining
More veg
I have planted more vegetables than ever this year, the first 'Green Globe' and 'Violetta Di Chioggia' artichokes went in last month, five different potatoes including 'Salad Blue' and 'Kestrel', 'Ailsa Craig' onions, cavolo nero (black kale) whose dusky plume-shaped leaves I find possibly the most delicious greens of all. Chard has been looking glossy and lush since late March and is doing even better than last year, and the Jerusalem artichokes (the smooth skinned 'Fuseau') seem to the thriving and I can’t wait until later in the year to compare them with my usual knobbly cultivars that arrive in my weekly organic box.
The climbing beans always go in late; I find they just sit in the soil and sulk if I plant them too early, which also gives time for the sweet peas ('Lord Nelson', 'Matucana', 'Midnight') with whom they share metal frames, a chance to shine. It seemed to work last year, and even planted in late June the 'Blue Lake' beans caught up in no time.
Herb heaven
But it is the herbs that are often at their best at this point in the season. I have replaced my leggy, bullying rosemary with the fine-leaved cultivar 'Sissinghurst Blue', which I hope will fair well in a sunny spot outside the kitchen door. With the exception of bay and comfrey, which always do well in this garden, I have taken to growing my herbs in large pots on the terrace. They seem much happier than they were in my soil, which I suspect was too rich and moist for them. It sometimes does well to think back to where plants originated, so they might get on better with the light, gravely soil I have put in the pots - much more in tune to the Greek and Italian hillsides on which they seem to thrive in the wild.
Al fresco
Each June, I eat my first suppers outside at the garden table, making the most of the tender leaved herbs, tarragon, mint and chervil, and trying to find interesting ways with my supply of radishes. The earliest of them ended up in a salad with sheep’s cheese and broad beans, a true taste of early summer.