What is there to say?

  It is hot. It is dry. You walk on the, ahem, grass and it crunches beneath your feet! It is generally too hot to do anything too much in the garden after about 1030, so one gets a bit done and then heads inside to keep cool.
  This blog pretty much covers two weeks. In that two weeks I have managed to dig up the main crop potatoes, variety Desiree. Good crop despite the drought. It would seem my planting was timed correctly to catch the most of what rain we have had over the last couple of months. I have picked melons, a little on the small side but sweet and very edible. Wautoma cucumbers continue to produce, these and courgettes and poly tunnel tomatoes (only three plants!) are the only plants to get watered and I am running out of rain water. Only the onions grown from seed left in the ground and those are there because the leaves have not yet started to turn brown so there is some hope they may get a bit bigger. Shallots have now all been processed into pickled onions and are under the stairs in jars waiting for Christmas. Picking the odd courgette which for me is fine. One or two a week as far as I concerned is more than enough. A few tomatoes continue to ripen and there are still quite a few to come but with the continued dry weather who knows how they will do. I bought another fifty winter leeks from the local market and planted those out more in hope than expectation.
  On the chicken front another chick has been lost to a predator of unknown type so the rest have been moved to what is hoped to be a more secure compound. 
  No sign of the weather letting up. The Creuse is the driest department in the whole of France and Gueret, the capital of the Creuse is running out of water. The mayor has declared that water for drinking will be pumped from a lake in the city. Dire times. It has been stated that the aquifers are at their lowest level for two hundred years. Does not bode well for the garden!

Harvested Red Sun shallots

Peeled and salted shallots

Rinsed and dried shallots

Jars waiting to be filled

The end product, pickled onions!

Conserve that water!

1000 ltr tank with down pipe feed attached

   The drought continues. There has been some rain and the new 1000 litre water container brought by my daughters boy friend has been set up and is about one third full! Very pleased with my Heath Robinson setup!
   In the poly tunnel I have transplanted some savoy type winter cabbage and wait to see how they do. Harvesting continues - tomatoes, carrots, peas, courgettes, potatoes, onions, cucumbers and a melon! Major effort now to get the main crop potatoes up before the is any serious rain and get the onions dried off for storage.
  Nothing going on on the chicken front. No further losses and those that remain are growing. 
   Autumn is getting closer!

Desiree main crop potatoes

Change is afoot!

    

Batavia Blonde lettuce

So here we are at the end of the first week of August. Autumn just around the corner. Hardly seems like summer has got started! Dry, hot and mostly sunny here in La Creuse, central France. The Creuse is the driest department in France. There are major water restrictions and appeals for people to save water at every opportunity. Fortunately it rained a fair bit just recently and I managed to refill my water butts, however, I fear the dry spell will outlast those. My eldest daughters partner brought me a 1000 litre water container which I have hooked up to my most productive down pipe. Rain water from the  barn roof goes down this pipe. Now need it to rain to fill it up!

   The sheep have now gone. No more sheep. It is likely I will sell up and move at some point but that could be a couple of years away and at least a year. Property does not sell quickly here. The chickens are fine and one of this years hens has come into lay. She produced the smallest egg I have ever seen.

Savoy type cabbage Milan

    August is time to harvest shallots and onions. I think I am a week or two early but I have now pulled all the shallots and they now need to be pickled! Onions I am gradually pulling as the leaves die back. No point in pulling them too soon in this dry weather. The sun might as well dry them off. During the week I have picked courgettes, cucumbers and Noire Crimee tomatoes. I have dug up ANOE potatoes which are now all but finished. One more lot will see them done. Desiree main crop are waiting to be dug up! I gathered some coriander seed for next year. I had very few coriander plants this year. The poly tunnel has been a disappointment although lettuce and a few tomatoes have done well. More preparation for winter with savoy cabbage, variety Milan, planted out. I now need to wonder about whether or not to plant more leeks. 

Start of drying out the onion crop

2019 Red Sun shallot harvest