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

 

Cool and damp

     The weather does seem to be a major topic these days. This last week has seen the weather get cooler and wetter. Not that the vegetable garden minds (nor the weeds and grass). Everything is growing well including the colorado beetle and grubs which I look out for to squish every morning and evening and whenever I am walking through the garden. They are definately more prevalent. 

    The broad beans are now finished with around nine kilos in the freezer. Very pleased with the broad bean crop this year. Their bed has been forked and weeded and haricot vert sown, sanquine beetroot transplanted and the last three Black Mountain water melons put out more in hope than really expecting anything from them. They will have to take their chances as no special treatment has been given to them as I did with the other plants. Also put out were some probable chilli plants with some sweet peppers. They have not grown well in the pots and I believe the seed compost was rubbish. By now they should have been quite large plants. Cabbage cut, ANOE potatoes dug up and mangetout picked. Nothing quite like frying up a pan of cold new potatoes with a couple of scramble eggs! Champeau breakfast!!

   On the chicken front we have chicks! Eight out of ten hatched. One did not make it completely out of the shell and one we had to rescue. We believe it was the last to hatch and did not get under the hen succcessfully and got cold. I rescued it and my daughter warmed it up with a hair drier and it recovered. Twenty four hours in the incubator to make sure it was ok and alert enough to rejoin the group. It is now back with mum who has accepted it without issue. An improvement of egg production this week with an average of 2.7 eggs a day. Still not as good as it should be!

   Plenty to do and as always not enought time or decent weather to get it done! Hey ho!

Mother hen and chicks

Hot then wet

     The weather takes the biscuit again this week. Starts off hot and sunny ends up wet and cool. Grand growing weather, grass, weeds and oh the veg too!

     So, this week has seen the usual tasks being done....mowing grass, hoeing and weeding! Along side also picking broad beans, cut a cabbage, pulling lettuce, picking peas, digging new ANOE potatoes and picking delicioius Maris de Bois strawberries. I have been very pleased with my strawberry "no dig" bed despite the pain of weeding it. The strawberries have been excellent and the plants are continuing to produce more strawberries. Runners have been thrown out so that means I will be able to fill up the bed with new plants. Fingers crossed next year could be a bumper crop! Some transplanting done. Three spaghetti squash, the last of the tomato plants, a couple of Burpee tomato shoots that I managed to get to root and my very miserable looking Perfection cucumbers. I have been very disappointed with the cucumber plants this year. The season marches on and the Colorado beetles have appeared. So it is out and about squishing beetles, eggs and larvae when found in an effort to at least contain the outbreak. 

    Chickens are being chickens and unfortunately I had to despatch a hen who to me had given up on life. She had had an injured leg (too amorous cockeral!) and seemed to be recovering. The broody hen is still sat tight and it is possible by the next blog entry there maybe some chicks. Egg production has been poor more likely due to the hot weather. Average daily amount: 2

Pea vines

Broad beans

Burpee tomato plant

Oh no!

    Not good. Ran out of english beer! How can I garden in this heat without the thought of a cool english bottle of IPA at the end of it! Oh well I guess I will have to manage till I go shopping again.

   Good morning (12th June 2021) from a sunny and very warm Watermeadows in Champeau de Bas, La Creuse! 

Mara de Bois strawberries

First dig of ANOE new potatoes

   I am feeling quite please with myself with the no dig bed constructed last autumn now producing delightful Mara de Bois strawberries. More than I thought there would being it is the first year.  The first dig of new potatoes has been done with 1.70kgs dug up with the help of my youngest grandson, Toby. Prehaps a little disappointing at the quanity but hey not bad! This was eighty two days from planting to the first dig which is at the top end of when they should be ready. 

   Ok that was the exciting bit. More weeding, more grass cutting. I have set up a framework for my cucumbers which are being very reluctant to grow to a point where I am happy to plant them out. If they do not buck up soon they will go out regardless! My Touchon carrots have done well this season and I have three rows germinated with another row sown this week. I have had to sow a couple of 5 Dessert melon seeds to replace a sickly  plant in the hope that they catch up. Nothing ventured nothing gained! Autumn cabbage plants bought from the local market, Chou Brady, planted out in the brassica bed. I have transplanted some Great Lakes lettuce in an outside bed but I am not hopefull. Too hot! I have dug up my Champeau Violet garlic (Champeau violet because the bulbs were from garlic grown at Watermeadows last year and not bought in ones) and it is drying in my porch. Oh my my the smell of garlic waffs into the house!

  Busy busy time with lots to do as always and never enought time or energy to do it all! Hey ho all work and no play.....

  On the chicken front Mama hen is sitting tight! I have had to despatch one sickly hen. She had suffered a top of the leg injury some time ago and looked like she was recovering but over the last week or so gave up on life. Otherwise all is ok with an improved average of eggs laid this week of 3.29 daily.