Summer arrives

    The heat arrived with a vengence this last week. Days at over 30C although looking in years gone by it has not been as hot as it has been in the past at this time of year.

     Most of the week has been spent cutting hedges at my daughters house and they really needed to be done, however, some work has been done in the vegetable garden. Hopefully next week I can concentrate on the vegetable garden as there is a lot to do (not unusual really!). Courgettes have come in with a vengance with round and straight ones seemingly growing to cutting size overnight! Shallots, banana and round have been dug up and dried and the round ones await being made into pickled onions! First picking of haricot vert done. I have sown some haricot buerre whose season extends into September. Second sowing of haricot vert now showing.  A small bed that had some mint in I thought I had cleared. The mint thought otherwise. See photo below of the towering mint! Of course normal job of cutting grass done just in time too as rain fell the day after it had been done.

     I discovered that the Golden Batam sweet corn has cobs set and they can been seen in the photograph below. Cabbage, courgettes, haricot vert, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots all now being picked and eagerly eaten! 

    On the chicken front four new birds have arrived and are being integrated into the flock. Coop cleaning out done. Egg production is up slightly with an average of 2.9 a day.

The Bolls mint that got away

One or two courgettes

First picking of haricot vert   425g

Golden Bantam sweet corn

Rain drops keepfalling on my head!

   The weather continues to be damp even wet and cool. Looking back over the week on my log there are several blank entries and other days will little done in the garden. The last of the ANOE potatoes have been dug up. A good crop overall (18.5kg to buy 53 euros). Now onto the BF-15! I finally got round to pruning the grape vine and probably just in time to be honest. More haricot vert sowed and I have bought some haricto buerre seed as the season for those extends into September. Worth a go. Tied up tomatoes in the poly tunnel. I also went out, during a dry spell, into the main field and pulled up as much ragwort as I could find. The grass has still not been cut and bailed yet but I am hopeful that it will get done this following week. The weather is looking very good. I decided that I had to mow the grass which I did one late afternoon. To be honest it was a little to wet but I was going to take the opportunity!  More strawberries picked and the first ripe tomato picked from the poly tunnel. Hopefully more to come inside and outside the poly tunnel. Everything looking very green and growing well.

    The chickens are being chickens and the chicks have now got proper wing feathers and can be seen flapping away exercising their wings. Slight drop in the number of eggs per day, 2.6.

First Burpee tomato

The different Champeau chicken eggs

One day soon...

    Maybe one day soon it will it get hot! I have had memory photos coming up saying how hot has been. Thirty seven degrees centigrade was not unusual. Temperatures has been languishing in the lower twenty degree centigrade at best and more often is the middle teens! And it has been damp, yes rain. Many crops in the garden are really enjoying the cooler wetter weather but a bit of sunshine is sorely needed.

   Weeding, grass cutting are the norm. I have sorted out my strawberries and removed runners and small strawberry plants which means the bed is now fully populated. I have made a trial strawberry bed in the poly tunnel and I also have twelve plants in pots as reserves! Over fifty plants gathered. Great Lakes lettuce planted out along with Sanguine beetroot. More Touchon carrots sown as the weather favours sowing of carrot seed....cool and damp! Crops gathered this week include lettuce, cabbage, mangetout and new potatoes. The first early, ANOE, potatoes are close to the end of the crop, second earlies BF-15 to come next! My attempt are growing Brussels sprouts again from seed has failed so I gave in and bought a dozen plants from the local market. These have been planted out in the brassica bed. In a vain attempt to grow some early purple sprouting I sowed some seed in an outside the poly tunnel bed and they have germinated. Probably too late to be honest but nothing ventured, nothing gained and there is still a long way to go to the end of the season. Second sowing of haricot vert has not done well. I suspect critters rather than failure of the seed as the first sowing has been very good. Anyway, resowed in the gaps and am prepared to sow another bed come the end of July. 

  Nothing untoward on the chicken front. Chicks are growing and I get the idea Muma hen wants out of the enclosure. Found her perched on the fence line! Daily average is up marginally, 2.8 eggs, so maybe more eggs are coming! 

Blackwater Mountain water melon

5 Dessert melons

Courghette row

Still cool and damp

     So the weather continues to be on the cool side with rain showers. There has been a couple of nice days but the weather favours the garden! I have been hampered by pulling a muscle in my lower back while digging up potatoes. Sure is hard to get out of the chair!

   ANOE potatoes dug, picked peas and mangetout, pulled a lettuce and cut cabbage. Had to cut nine heads of cabbage as they had split. They will be fine stored in the cool . Dug up my lets put it in and see Violet garlic and a usuable crop has resulted. In a last ditch effort I have sown Champion Red Swede, Sangiuna beetroot, and early purple sprouting seed in an outside bed. Who knows they may do something! More Touchon carrots sown (they have done particulaly well this year) and more Great Lakes lettuce. As is normal this time of year went round the tomato plants tieing up and removing shoots. The plants are looking good and tomatoes have set. Of course, grass mowed. The battle against the dreaded Colorado beetle continues with adult beetles, larvae and eggs squished when spotted. As I write, famous last words, the amount of beetles etc currently is not high.

  On the chicken front one chick has been lost. Found dead where the hen and chicks were overnight. Egg production is still on the low side with an average of 2.7 eggs per day, same as last week.

Golden Bantam sweet corn

Golden Bantam sweet corn