Any gardener will tell you that one of the hard things about going away for five weeks over the summer is what will happen to the garden while you are away – non-gardeners won’t see the problem!

I’ve spent much of my spare time over the last couple of weeks trying to get ahead of myself in the allotment; picking and processing gooseberries, raspberries, and red and white currants, transplanting out cabbages, leeks and broccoli plants.

I know its late in the season for that but my style of gardening means that I have to wait for the self-seeded poppies and foxgloves to finish flowering before I have the space – I have to think of the pollinators, after all!

The ‘alliums’ currently being enjoyed by bees, wasps and lots of tiny pollinating beetles are actually last year’s bolted leeks, though I’m not admitting that to everyone!

Yesterday’s rain was a mixed blessing – it helped the young plants I’ve just moved but I really wanted to spend the whole day working in the garden.  There were bean plants to tie in and more fruit to pick.  ‘First world problem’ my children would say!  It did give me the opportunity to make some more redcurrant jelly, at least.

Ed has been (gently) press-ganged into looking after the allotment while I’m away.  There shouldn’t be masses for him to do but there will be peas and courgettes to pick, along with salad leaves, and it looks like we’re in for another fantastic blackberry crop  – bramble jelly here we come!

For now, I’m enjoying the Constable-like clouds and fields of golden wheat the train to London is passing through and looking forward to the very different landscape of Kashmir less than 24 hours from now.