Diversity is healthy

Diversity is healthy.

Diversity is good for the soil, good for the plants

and good for us. The June garden is a tapestry of colours and a great variety of above and below ground edibles.

The leafy greens (and reds) include various lettuces from green to speckled to deep crimson red, kales, both purple and green, smooth and curly, red orach , Rainbow chard with orange red, yellow and green stalks, not to mention the weeds – dandelions and chickweed being my personal favourites.

Then the roots crops – radishes, turnips, beets and carrots, and purple potatoes are growing fatter by the day.

All round the deer fence the pole beans are starting to climb ; Purple peacock, scarlet runner, calypso and dragon’s tongue. In the middle, the bush beans, black and white orca or ying yang beans, speckled Jacob’s ladder and a smooth brown bean from Lyann’s in Royston compete with the Homesteader peas. The crisp sweet edible-pod peas have almost reached the top of the fence, with pods just waiting to be picked.

Camomile and lavender flowers are ready for harvesting for tea as well as lemon balm, raspberry and strawberry leaves.

The best medicine of all is the garlic. The scapes have been harvested and made into pesto and stir fries and the plants have one more month of fattening up before a July harvest.

The birds are enjoying the strawberries and the slugs enjoying everything else, except the garlic. Luckily nature is abundant and there is food for us all.