Thinking about rain....

   Well, since I last published my blog it has not rained (a few spots that only just about made to the ground one evening!). The ground is now starting to dry out more than a couple of inches down. I am having to water every evening and my water store, five large butts, is lasting two to maybe three days but the produce is demanding more. Cubits (courgettes, squash, melons) require regular watering as do the peas and they really need quite a bit of water. The lettuce I am watering twice a day and in the poly tunnel I need to check three times a day to make sure the plants are not drying out. Now I have started I have to keep on going. Pah! One of the downsides of gardening I guess!
  Still attacking weeds. Lots of hoeing. Now sowing seeds for the winter - swede, Kohl Rabi, cauliflower. Another week or so and I will have another go at sowing winter/spring cabbage. 

   In the outside garden the potato harvest has begun in earnest. The second earlies, Rosebelle, have now been dug up and replaced with autumn and winter leeks (Jaune de Poitou and Blue de Solaise) and the main crop of Belle de Fontenay potatoes need to be lifted too. Better do that before it rains! Too late! (see below) Started to pick courgettes. The shallot harvest has been gathered and has been laid out to dry (pickling shallots RED SUN and french, JERMOR, what I call banana, shallots).

2013 Pickling Shallot harvest variety RED SUN

Autumn and winter leeks

      



The Hundredweight pumpkins have set fruit (fruit or vegetable?). 

First One Hundredweight pumpkin

Guess what? My new barbecue arrive and yes, it rained. (19th July) As I write this I am looking out to the front of the house to a steady, gentle fall of rain. I really need to be careful what I wish for.

The sun has got his hat on, Hip! Hip! Hip! Horray!

   It is the 6th July and the sun and heat has arrived! The last couple of days has been sunny and hot and the forecast is for it to continue. That means a lot of watering to be done. And it has continued. I am writing this on the 12th July and every day since the 6th has been hot and is forecast to continue. There has been a thunderstorm and a shower of rain but really nothing much at all. First time this year I have had to refill the water butts from the well.

New metal tomato poles

   In the poly tunnel my tomato's have leaf mould. Not good. I have had a lot of problems with mould in the poly tunnel. Not surprising really as it has been wet and warm and so very humid. I just hope that the tomato's can produce before the mould gets them. As it happens leaving the doors open all the time on the poly tunnel has slowed up the progress of the mould.  In the poly tunnel the toms are started to turn red with a vengeance particularly the Latah variety. Outside the bed of ninety have been staked with new metal tomato poles and tied up. That was a mammoth job.  I have sown beetroot in modules which was quite successful last year and more lettuce. I have also added more coriander and a row of White Lisbon spring onions. Great Lakes lettuce and some Little Gem has been transplanted In the outside garden I have all but given up on the brassicas and my Oregon sugar snap peas have not germinated well. Out of four sowing of peas, admittedly different varieties, only two types have germinated well. The courgettes are coming along well and I expect to start picking them in three or four days (written 09/07).  Well, that did not happen. Guess I should have watered them. My late sowing celery is now out in the outside garden and I am hopeful that given the longer growing season here they will manage to mature ok. It is time to start thinking of what to sow for the "hungry" gap. ( end of March to the start of June).
   The beast (motor mower) has let me down again. The handle has broken again. I just hope it can be fixed as the break is above the weld from a previous break. It is not as if I had used it excessively since the last fix! The beast was fixed and the grass mowed. I even bush wacked three of the sheep paddocks. The sheep did seem pleased to see the grass cut, lol.
   The grass in the big field has been cut and baled. The summer is moving on.

Cold night but then....

   Its the 26th June! 0815hrs and the temperature is two degrees Celsius! Almost a nip of frost.
You would not have believed it would you?  Melons have been transplanted. Watermelon, Petite Gris and Troubadour. Cucumbers have been planted in the poly tunnel and outside. The row of Orbis and Cheltenham Greentop beetroot have been thinned out and darn it the chickens have found the beetroot and started to eat the leaves. Parsley and Marjoram have been transplanted. Busy time still. Chickens are making a nice job of destroying my brassica's no matter what I do.
  I am always surprised at how much sowing there is still to do. Lettuce, radish, peas, cauliflower need to be sown to have a succession of crops. 
  In the poly tunnel there are signs of a ripe tomato's! With sun forecast over the next couple of days of sun due (30th June and the temperature hits 30C (1st July hits 31C) for the first time this summer) it will ripen rapidly I think. The Latah variety is living up to its hype. 

1st LATAH tomato picked 3rd July 2013

I have invested in one hundred metal arty tomato poles. They look really neat. Now I have a hundred tomato's to tie up and remove shoots from.

Some of the Violet garlic crop

  First batch of peas picked and frozen. Just over twelve ounces frozen. 
   As I sit looking out at a cherry tree I can see birds picking off the cherries. They are fully ripe now and the birds are making the most of it. There is a blackbird in the branches and a magpie on the ground picking up fallen cherries.
   The last of the garlic has been dug up and is drying in the porch. A good crop worth some 70 euros if you go by E'Leclerc 's price of 1.50 euros a bulb! 
   We are picking strawberries. Not masses but handfuls every few days and also a few raspberries. Certainly the best strawberry crop since we have been here. The Mara des Bois are particularly good.
   New arrivals at Watermeadows. Two goslings have joined our table chickens and turkeys.
   With the new tomato poles in place I have spent time removing spurs and tying up the toms and weeding between them. It is surprising how much growth they have put on. Already there are tomato's set. The metal poles are lot easier to tie the tomato's too than sticks cut from the woodland. I have planted some basil in between and plan to also plant some parsley. These are companion plants so should have a beneficial affect on the tomatos. We shall see!