Sun but it brings its problems!

Green Top Swede

   The sun has really got his hat on. The weather has turned to being hot. Now we turn from the ground being too wet to being too dry! I tell you you cannot win in this gardening lark!

Water Melon patch

   In the poly tunnel the cucumbers go from strength to strength. The Wautoma variety has produced two cucumbers and more to come. The Chrystal apple variety has lots of male flowers and very few female. Still, I am hopeful for a good crop. The tomatoes are well formed and have turned from dark green to light green. Cannot be long now before they are ripe. Blight is a problem but I think the fruit will ripen before the blight gets a real hold. I am now regularly pulling beetroot and I have cut what little cabbage there was! Not the most successful effort this year. More beetroot sown in modules along with Great Lakes iceberg type lettuce and Little Gem lettuce. The chickens managed to get into my lovely bed of Great Lake lettuce and destroyed at least six beautiful lettuce. They do like their green stuff these chickens.

Wautoma cucumber

   In the outside garden the tomatoes are really suffering from blight and I am not hopeful of getting many tomatoes. Potatoes are being dug and it is a good crop. The melon patch is exploding with water melons and troubadour melons which are growing madly. The onion patch looks ok and the swedes and parsnips well established. I made a mistake with my first sowing of sweet corn. I bought seed that was to grown sweet corn for animals! Looks good though. I have now sown a "human" variety and it is established. Hopefully there will be enough time for it to mature. Should be. Gaps in the sweet corn and the haricot buerre patches have been filled. Hopefully I will keep the chickens off the haricots! I have picked sugar snap peas and haricot vert which the chickens had missed! Winter cabbage, Piacena, savoy type, has been transplanted along with some early sprouting purple broccoli. So here we are about the middle of summer and the winter crops are starting to be planted. I need to keep an eye out in the local market for leeks as they need to go in in mid August.
   The weather is set to be sunny and no sign of rain in the forecast for at least a week if not longer. That means hauling about watering cans full of water to not only water the plants but the animals too. All is calm on the animal front. The chicks are now developing bigger feathers and are becoming more adventurous.