August in the Kitchen garden

Plum ‘Marjorie’s Seedling’

• reliable late cropping plum with robust growth, needs to be pruned in summer to avoid overcrowding. Fruit is beautifully deep blue colour, ready to harvest  ahead of the usual time due to this summer drought and high temperatures. Beautiful to  use in jam making.

Fig

• very easy to grow, regular gentle pruning of oldest wood and creating fan shape keeps them in good shape. The pea sized fruitlets are being born in summer and after overwintering mature into edible figs. The second crop of figs looking green and hard and closely followiing harvest season usually doesn’t ripe in British shorter summers and can be taking off and composted.

Blackberries

• popular late summer fruit packed with vitamin C and antioxidants. Love fertile soil in sheltered position. Garden grown cultivars tend to be more productive and juicier than their native counterparts.