Gardeners are good at nurturing, and they have a great quality of patience, they're tender. They have to be persistent.

    The title for this weeks blog is a quote from Ralph Fiennes. Seems appropriate.

The sun has got his hat on! Hip! Hip! Hip! Horray! Well that was fine a couple of weeks ago but now not so. Water restrictions are in place and the river that runs along my property boundary is low although looking back a couple of years not was low as it was then. Still a couple of years of not enough rainfall, drying winds give cause for a water shortage. I still have water in my water butts and in my one thousand litre water container but it is getting low.

   Cutting, pulling, picking, gathering, digging all being done this week. Carrots, courgettes, cucumbers, potatoes, the odd tomato, onions and lettuce. Coriander, parsnip and moss curled parsly seeds all gathered and put into little labelled bags for next year. Not only harvesting but also planting done. Plants bought from the local market, leeks and Batavia Blonde lettuce, have been planted out. A few beetroot seedlings transplanted in the poly tunnel and some moss curled parsly also spaced out in the poly tunnel. Beetroot has been a disappointment this year with very few plants managing to avoid the chickens to be planted out. The first Blacktail Mountain water melons have appeared. That is good. They have four to eight weeks to grow. I grew bush courgettes this year not really knowing what they would be like. They are producing small but very nice tasting courgettes and being a non hybrid variety a number are strange shapes! 

    So there we go. A busy week but hey ho as always plenty to do and the sun keeps beating on. Beer, pass the beer....

1st Tamra cucumber

Blacktail Mountain water melon

Sun, sun and a little rain

Giant Pacific pumpking 130720

      The week has started well. Sun is shinning and its not too hot. Looks like a little rain to come mid week. The Giant Pacific pumpking is swelling up nicely and I will publish regular updates on its progress. Last measurement made it 25cm long and 25cm diameter (bigger that the picture!). I am expecting to see ripe tomatoes any day now. There does not seem to be many at this point in time but they are mostly heritage varities and home gathered seed too.

     Mowing grass is now too much fun! The ride on is saving me time and energy. Makes me wonder why I did not buy one before now.

   I am starting to harvest the over winter onions. I guess they are about three to four weeks earlier than the spring sown ones but i am not so sure that it is really worth while doing again. Started to gather parsnip and moss curled parsely seed.The beetroot is not yet in flower but is close. Started to dig up variety DOWLEEN potatoes (a spud from Brittany) and they do have a distinctive taste compared to the AGATA variety.

Row of tomatoes

Grasshopper

Grasshopper

   Friend of foe? This large grasshopper was spied on a water butt.

   Ok got some jobs done this last week despite the high temperatures (31C one day!). Dug up the last of the AGATA potatoes. I have been pleased with this variety and now eargerly wait to see what the DOLWEEN Brittany potatoes produce. Tied up tomatoes which are starting to recover from the hail storm the other week. The last of the tomato plants have been planted out. These may be more of a hope than anything and may not have time to reach maturity. One never knows! 

   Having a grand old time with new ride on mower. Lots of grass cutting done and I have even managed to mow a small field! (the proper term is topping). More lettuce transplanted along with the remain three replacement Marketmore cucumbers. Again these might produce something. I have had to cover up my swedes as the chickens have taken a fancy to them and destroyed a row. That bed is one of the chickens favourite dust bath areas. I have harvested the banana shallots as the leaves were pretty much dead and I need the bed for winter leeks. A resonable crop, just about three and a halve kilos of shallots. The Giant Pacific pumpkins are spreading over the garden and there are a number of pumkings set. Hopefully they will grow big!

   On the chicken front Mrs Buffycross is sitting tight despite the hot weather. Her previous brood are growing fast especially the coqs of which there are four. They are over eight weeks old.

Banana shallot crop

Giant Pacific Pumpkin

Where did that week go?

   Ok I have no excuse, not even the weather! Not a lot done this week. Cannot figure out why other that maybe a beer to many one day? Naaw surely not. Anyway little done in the garden and weeds keep growing. So what little did I do? Cut grass. Weeded. Transplanted some moss curled parsly and gathered some ealry purple sprouting seeds. Tomatoes tided up and shoots removed.

    Big event at Watermeadows. The ride on lawn mower arrived! My eldest grandson was a great help in putting it together and after a mis-start (we did not think we had to put the cut grass cutter on but you do!) the machine is up and running and I now have a ride on lawn mower shared with my next door neighbour.

Ride on lawn mower being unpacked

   Another event has been the arrival of chicks. Six hatched out of twelve and are doing well. The chickens are being their destructive self and are having a go at my tomatoes and dust bathing amongst my swedes!! Time to put up some protection.

   I guess I need to get the old nose to the grindstone before the weeds take over. Onwards and upwards!

HARVEST

    It is now the end of June and we have tipped over into now moving towards autumn (summer soltice was the 22nd June the days are starting to get shorter!). Harvest in the garden is well underway. Lots of new potatoes, some beetroot, some peas, some carrots, some lettuce, some radish and the promise of plenty to come. I have sowed some winter cabbage seed (Hope and Gorly of Enkhuisen) with fingers crossed for plants to put out later in the summer for the winter. Of course the usual tasks of weeding and mowing grass!

Bush courgette Verde Di Milano

Garlic crop Violet

   Every had that feeling that you spoke too soon? Well that has happend this week. Everything in the garden has been looking good. So what happens? The weather. A couple of hot and sultry days meant more thunder and lightning with heavy rain. Late night/early morning 26/27th June 2020 the heavens opened! Very heavy rain with lots of thunder, wind and a delightful light show of lightning. The result. Damaged plants. Undoubtedly they will recover but it is very sad to see lovely plants shredded and broken.

Rain and sun, sun and rain

       The weather continues to be "grand growing weather". Its warm and wet and the vegies are loving it. There are pumpkins on the Giant Pacific pumpking plants and squash on some of the squas plants. Continue to dig up AGATA potatoes and the colorado beetle are becoming more prevalent despite lots of squishing of beetles and larvae. Fortunately the potatoes are pretty much done with growing but still it would be nice to give them a little longer. Courgette have started to appear. This variety which is a bush type I have never grown before. It will be interesting to see how "bush" courgettes work out compared to the usual ones. I have also sown a couple of "round" courgette seeds to see it I can get some to produce some round courgettes.

  More of the general maintenance done. Weeding, tomato shoot removal, tomato tying up, cleaned out the chickens, weeding the front drive, mowing the grass, pruning the grape vine etc. My last Black Mountain water melon has been transplanted in the poly tunnel. Never grown one on in the poly tunnel before. It will be interesting to see how it does compared to the ones outside the poly tunnel. More Great Lakes lettuce transplanted. These have been put between my rows of cucumbers. Now if I can keep the chickens off....

Two courgettes on my bush courgette

 

Turn your back...

   Another week dashes by. Here we are in the middle of June. Well, least here in my part of the world we are being allowed to move around a bit. I have been shopping for the first time in over three months. Not a lot of difference other than most people wearing masks and one metre space markers at the checkouts. The checkouts staff are protected by sheets of what I guess is clear plastic sheeting. Anyway I digress.

    The weather has been mostly kind. A little sun, a little rain, not to hot, not to cold.  Not too much of anything to stop stuff growing. In fact it has been perfect growing weather which of course includes the weeds and the grass! So the week has been taken up with weeding, tying up tomatoes, digging up new potatoes (variety AGATA), pulling the odd lettuce and oh yes I nearly forgot planting out Black Mountain water melons. A friend has given me a load of well rotted horse manure. Ideal for a water melon bed. Dig a hole fill with horse muck and chopped up comfrey (good green manure comfrey), mix it all up cover with old roofing felt, cut holes for the plant and a plant pot (used to water the melon) and hey presto one has a water melon bed. Melons love to have warm roots. The photo show two out of the three beds I have made. A forth plant I have to put out I think I am going to put in the poly tunnel. Never grown a water melon in the poly tunnel before. 

   The haricot bed has not been doing as well as I would have expected. I suspect part of it is because of old seed. Anyway gaps in the haricot verte and barlotti rows resowed and another two rows of each sown to hopefully get some succession of the crop. More gaps in the sweet corn bed. Do not know what is going on there for sure. Also the sweet corn bed has now been completly sown.The tomatoes are looking good. Strong, currently healthly plants with first truss flowers starting to show. I have transplanted Mamouth Leaf basil inbetween tomato plants in some of the beds. The tomatoes in the poly tunnel are half as big again as the outside ones. Only the one bush tomato outside has fruit on it  so far. The summer cabbage looks good with my new variety Glory of Enkhuisen living up to the seed notes in that they are going to be HUGE! Winter bassicas looking good. They are enjoying the cooler and wetter days that is for sure. My Champion of England red top swede looks well establish and they to have been enjoying the cooler, wetter conditions. New potatoes are doing well with some twelve and a half kilograms of potatoes dug up so far. Worth about forty two euros if you had to buy them in the shops here in France. (My AGATA seed potatos for 1.5kg cost 4 euros 70 cents.)

   On the chicken front the chicks are growing fast and we will soon be able to see whether we have hens or cockerels. Egg laying is averaging six a day. 

   So on we go!