It used to be called "Flaming June"...

We wont be spending so much on watering the garden this season, so the change for the cooler is a mixed blessing.  Summer solstice almost upon us.  Got our first taste of early new potatoes yesterday, most satisfying, delicious.We will dig up a plant when needed the bulk will be left in the ground to swell and mature. The  flowering has just begun. The main harvest comes when the flowering is over and the plants start to yellow off and die back.
The runner beans have discovered the support sticks. The first of the red flowers are showing. Recent rain has accelerated the growth of my onions . Thinning out the carrots and turnips provides some succulent roots. The peas are looking fantasti Looks like we may be bottling a few peaches and nectarines this Autumn.  I will be transplanting the first of my frisé kale seedlings today.   Lettuce is our main "giveaway" crop this year..The Swiss chard has gone to seed but still provides plentiful leaves and shoots. The seed we will collect later for resowing. Seed from the best of last years beetroot is maturing well. Old seed from a packet we had bought last year didn't fair very well. I'm going to miss sating my taste for this delicious root this year. We will just have to make more of a fuss over the few that have survived.  Better results ahead.We wont be short of sprouts this winter. Last years brassicas were trashed by the monoculture planting of colze, oilseed rape. The field next to ours had a massive infestation of cabbage fleas. and white butterflies, there was no escaping. Once their crop was cut, I tried a late planting of some protected sprout plants. Too late in the season. Every year brings a new challenge with new lessons to be learned.
White currant bushes are aching with the weight of fruit. Red currants are thriving, I will be taking cuttings from my blackcurrant bushes in the autumn, I have intercropped them with buckwheat (blé noir),  and a late crop of broad beans., One of my "Mudskool " experiments. It's all interesting stuff. We are enjoying an abundance of strawberries this year. I will bring more runners on this season.
Jerusalem artichokes seem happy enough.   A good set of pears and mirabelle plums. The walnut tree promises a good harvest so too the filberts and red hazels. We have tomatoes and aubergines growing in Jean-Paul's tunnel and Marie-Therese's greenhouse as well as a half dozen plants in Anne-Sophie's makeshift greenhouse. I have been given a  bunch of rooted tomato cuttings I will chance to grow outdoors. There's more than enough of plenty to do.
My discovery this year of mineral deficiency in my body came as a sudden dramatic shock. Rectifying my immediate needs with supplements. Early spring next year will see me dosing the garden with Epsom salts as most of our fresh veg come from our home plot it should fix my problem at source. Magnesium salts aid plant absorbtion of nutrients from the water and assist in the vital distribution of minerals and vitamins in our own bodies. We will see some improvements yet. I'm off out  now, I could go on , flowers herbs and trees all deserve notice as well as acknowledging the buzz I get  from the  privilege of just being surrounded by all that good stuff. Enough for now. I'll be back.
I. Wazir.