Brown grass and dry soil

Brown grass

   So where is the rain? No where to be seen. It continues to be dry and the fields are now brown and parched. The sheep are finding it hard to find forage and I am now starting to give them some hay. The ducks are fine and the chickens are trying to find any green stuff they can. They love the sweet pepper leaves and make a real effort to break into the area where they are growing. There are not many leaves left on them now! The chicks are now nearly eight weeks old and being on the small side they are sneaking into places I would rather they did not.
   In the outside garden watering is a priority to keep plants alive let alone trying to get them to grow. The main tomato patch is an area of desert with few tomatoes and no healthy plants at all. Even so I am picking a few tomatoes. I have a little patch of six noire crimee tomatoes that I have been looking after and they have a good crop of good sized tomatoes on them. The chickens, I am sure, are eyeing them up! Courgettes continue to crop well and the squash is looking good. They too are being watered every day. Just a very small patch of potatoes left to dig up and that will be the end of the potato crop. Not the best this year but reasonable. Outside cucumbers are now finished. I have started to pull up carrots and they are really good. A home grown carrot really does taste good. Rats have destroyed my "animal" sweetcorn, not a great loss as far as I am concerned. I have just started to water the Bantam sweet corn in an effort to get something out of it. The haricot buerre are in flower and I am hopeful for a reasonable late crop of yellow haricots. In the poly tunnel Wautoma cucumbers are finished and the Chrystal Apple cucumbers are producing well but are coming to an end. The tomatoes despite blight are managing to produce a reasonable amount of fruit. I picked the first Jalapeno peppers and the feedback is that they are HOT!  Have to laugh. All the melons have now been picked and are being eagerly consumed in this hot weather. There is a growing number of empty beds.
  Autumn and winter crops are looking very sad. Cauliflowers and leeks are stunted. The cabbage is growing but looks like it could do with a good soaking of rain to green up the leaves. No sign of turnips yet. I am hoping for some rain but the forecast is not looking good. It will get cooler but no significant rainfall.

Its tipping over!

   The weather has turned from hot to what I would describe as normal late August weather and the sense of autumn is in the air. Cool, but warm. Nice. Anyway still very little rain so that means the chore of watering takes over from grass cutting. The grass still being brown and not growing at all.

Jalapeno peppers

   In the poly tunnel there has been an invasion of chickens. My fault. I left the barrier open. But still the little so in so's destroyed my newly transplanted bed of beetroot and had a good go at eating my lettuce! Man. Wautoma cucumbers are now at an end and the Chrystal Apple will not be far behind. The outside, La Diva cucumbers, are also at an end. I am picking tomatoes enough to eat but I do not think there will be much of a surplus, to much blight. I need to disinfect the tunnel and I have the stuff to it! Job for the autumn. 
   In the outside garden the sweet corn has been attacked and not the chickens this time. The cobs are too high for them. I suspect rats. Carrots, courgettes, potatoes and melons are all being harvested. The squash is looking  good and the poor old winter leeks are just sitting there hoping for rain. As the instruction said on the packed I have sown sown over winter onion on the 18th August. I wait to see what happens. Apparently by sowing the 18th August you give the onion seed chance to germinate in the warm soil but you are giving it a long growing season so in theory one should get bigger onions! Yeah right! Believe it when I see it. Looks like I will get some autumn carrots as at last I have managed to get some more to germinate.
   On the animal front the chicks are now six weeks old and we need to consider introducing them to the main flock. The sheep are being sheep and the ducks being ducks. Lets hope for a bit of rain, not too much but some is really needed.

Better a little late...

   Ooops I am a day late with my blog! The weather continues to be sunny and hot. As nice as

Blacktail Mountain Water Melon

it is prolonged hot sunny weather is not so good for the garden. Its as bad as prolonged rain!. The water melons have benefited and there are at least six that will be edible. We have had one and it was delicious! Other crops in the garden are suffering. I do not water my outside the poly tunnel tomatoes. It would be just a waste of time as I could not get enough water on them. Tomatoes need a lot of water. They are producing some fruit but after the blight hit there is not as much as I would have liked. The bantam sweet corn looks good as does the haricot buerre. The La Diva cucumbers, much to my surprise, have gone over quite quickly despite watering. Courgettes, round and straight and the squash are loving the sunny weather. These I do water. The winter leeks are stood still and the aubergines are a right off this year.  My carrots are looking good. I have been digging up the potatoes. Good crop of Bonnette Noirmoutier, Belle de Fontenay and Desiree. A disappointing crop of Corolle. Guess you cannot win them all!
   In the poly tunnel despite tomato blight there is an increasing amount of tomatoes to pick. The Wautoma cucumbers have been disappointing and are showing signs of going over. The Chrystal Apple cucumbers are at last producing but again they are showing signs of going over. I think the tunnel has at first suffered from high humidity, hence fungal attacks and then too hot from the continuous sunshine. Still, the jalapeno peppers are coming along and the beetroot has done particularly well. 
   My attention is now turning more and more towards autumn and winter crops. Autumn cauliflowers, winter cabbage planted out, carrots, turnips, swede and spinach all sown. I am going to try sowing winter onion seed this season. They will be sown on the 18th August!
   On the animal front the sheep go and  hide during the hottest part of the day. The pasture is brown. Good job these are hardy sheep! The last four meat chickens have been processed, one being a real skinny bird which I quickly BBQ'ed. The other three were decent weights, x2 @ 2.5kg and one at 3.5kg. Unfortunately one the egg laying hens decided it was her time to go to pastures new and took herself off to a corner of the coop and died overnight. No obvious cause, all the others are fine. She was probably one of the oldest. Her time had come. Mother hen and her two chicks continue to do fine. The chicks are now just over six weeks old.
   Hate to say this but I hope we get some rain soon.

Well, it did for one day....

     Did what I hear you ask? It rained. Yes, it rained, well, steady drizzle for a number of hours and a bit of a down pour over night. Cooled off the weather a bit but did little to affect the garden.
   The main function of the week was to plant out 170 winter leek plants. I would like to say that I grew them but no, they were bought from the local market. Tomatoes (increasingly), cucumbers, beetroot, potatoes and courgettes are being picked, cut and dug. The bed of Bonnette Nourmoutier  has now been completely dug up and I have started on the Belle de Fontenay bed. With the continued hot and dry weather I am endeavouring to dig up the main crop potatoes, Desiree. As they are they are dry and the skins are firm, good for storage. Hopefully I will have them all  up in a few days. The first jalapeno pepper in the poly tunnel has been sighted!
    On the animal front a battered and somewhat de-feathered cockerel appeared in the garden one evening. I fed him but he has seemingly gone away. We believe he belonged to the people at the top of our road. I did not see him in the morning.
   It is very hard to know what to do in this hot and dry weather. The ground is dry and hard to work, even digging up potatoes is hard! I guess I should be attacking the overground bushes and hedgerows. Oh well.

Sweet Bantam sweet corn

Ain't half hot mum!

  The weather continues to be dry. There are been no significant rainfall for quite some time. That means two things. One, the grass stopped growing (hooray!), two I have to water more of the garden than I would like.
   In the poly tunnel nothing much has changed. I am now picking a few tomatoes and the number is increasing every day. I am picking cucumbers and pulling beetroot. Even managed to cut some cabbage. It has been a poor year for cabbage.
   Outside the poly tunnel weeding continues albeit with difficulty as the ground is now becoming very dry. The last of the Bonnette Noumoutier potatoes have been dug up and I have moved on to the Belle de Fontenay bed. The onion crop is going to be very poor this year. Lack of rain has meant the bulbs have not swollen as much as they should have. The shallots have been harvested, sorted and topped and tailed ready for pickling. Nice crop. Still need to look at the tree onions to see what crop I have there. Winter leeks have been purchased (150 plants) and most have now been planted. The are more than enough round and straight courgettes! I have not yet pulled any carrots. Must do so and see what they are like. They look good. The first ripe tomato has been picked from the outside plants and guess what? The chickens have already noticed. In the melon bed blacktail water melon and troubadour melon are springing up all over the place. I guess as long as I keep watering they ought to do well. They have really liked the hot and sunny weather.
   On the animal front I accidentally killed one of the chicks. The other two are thriving and growing fast. The sheep are being sheep and are enjoying being able to wander over the large field. Looks like the chickens are getting back into laying eggs. It has been a poor month for eggs, only some one hundred and thirty eight eggs in total (includes broken ones).

Troubadour melon

Blacktail water melon

Those feathered pests!

Caught in the act!

Newly planted lettuce bed. What is that I see?

   Well those feathered pests finally got their own way! They have managed to destroy my lovely lettuce bed. I have now cleared the bed and replanted with bought (oh I hate having to buy lettuce plants) lettuce plants. See that chicken in the lower picture? Already eyeing up the lettuce.
   In the outside garden the round and straight courgettes are now starting to come in. Also the outside cucumbers, La Diva, have produced a couple of cucumbers. I do like the la Diva and Wautoma cucumbers. Digging of potatoes continues with the Bonnette Noumieters just about finished now. Next lot are Belle de Fontenay. I have protected with netting my fledgling haricot buerre and a planting of savoy type cabbage. The cauliflowers are now well established. I am watering every day at the moment. Soon be time to pull carrots methinks and harvest the shallots.
   On the animal front the chickens are being a pest, the mother hen and her chicks are sweet. The mother hen is now not so aggressive with me and the chicks have really grown some. Finally we have finished sheep shearing. 
  Least with the sunny weather the grass has stopped growing. No so the weeds and I am playing catch up.

The last fleece

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.