IT IS HOT!

   Another week goes by and the weather has been hot hot hot! The ground is very dry and the grass, well , what grass? Even the weeds are starting to give up. My small sowing of sweet corn is struggling and I do not think there will be any. If maize is struggling, its hot and dry!

   Nothing done in the vegetable garden and or any part of the garden. Cut a cabbage, the last one, lifted a few AGATA potatoes and dug up a few carrots. 

   The chickens are not enjoying the hot weather but they have been laying a little better. Round about two eggs a day over the last seven days with only one day with one egg.

Someone enjoys the weeds...Tabitha Sophies cat

The garden still give

     

Agata spuds Grehound cabbage Touchon carrots

Two weeks since the last blog. Agata potatoes lifted, the last pointy (this one a Greyhound) cabbage cut and some Touchon carrots dug up. The weeds continue to grow although they are showing signs of suffering from the lack of rain!

   Looks like my blog will be every two weeks rather than every week as my activity in the garden has dropped to next to nothing. I did manage to cut some hedging though! 

   Egg laying is pathetic to say the least with maybe one a day if I am lucky. I lost another hen so now have four left. They are being kept shut in for their own safety. I am stopping putting the average daily lay in the blog as the egg count is so low.

   It is sad to see my veggie plots go to weeds but the priority is to my move and there is lots to do! I do wonder though with the drought we are now suffering as to how much whould have grown successfully this year.

Stopped

    Well any work on the vegetable garden and the garden in  general has pretty muched ceased. Some lifting of potatoes, watching out for Colorado beetle, cutting the odd cabbage and pulling a carrot or two is about the sum of my activities. The weeds and hedges are growing and I look at the grass thinking that I need to mow and I need to cut the hedges! My time is now spent on my move rather than the garden.

    I lost Mrs Brahma hen this last week. She has been off colour for a while and I think the heat finished her off. No real sign of any illness. Her comb was bright red and she was still getting about without any sign of effort. Chickens are very good at hiding any illness. So down to five hens now and the beggars are not laying! Average daily lay this last two weeks is 2.

   My field was mowed for the last time under my ownership and it was mowed rather than cut for hay. I did not need any bales and I guess the farmer did not either.

    This is how it is going to be over the next six weeks or so but I will have to spend a day cutting the hedges that is for sure.

Mowed field

Even less

    This is late posting mainly due to there not being a lot to say about what has been going on in the garden mostly due to my sorting stuff out for my pending move.

    So, grass cut, cabbage cut and potatoes lifted. The odd onion pulled. Talking of which the onions are looking quite good! Weeds are growing well and I guess at some point I should try to remove some.

   I think the heat is hitting the chickens. Average daily lay this week was 2.4 eggs. A drop on last week and I suspect I have another broody hen!

Wheat harvest under way locally

Slowing down

      It is strange to be winding down my vegetable garden. After eleven years to nnow let it go and not be working the soil and not sowing and planting out and thinking of what to be doing for the autumn and winter.

      Over the last week I have mowed grass and lifted AGATA potatoes. Not that impressed with the AGATA potatoes. A reasonable amount of potatoes per plant but on the large size and that is not what I want from a first early potato! The weeds are growing well and I need to harvest my shallots which because of the weather have finished growing rather early this year. Too hot and dry at the wrong time! Onions are now benefiting from the latest bout of rain and I am hopeful for a decent crop. My two rows of carrots planted early in the year are giving me a decent number of roots, certainly for the amount I need. Parsnips are a complete waste of time most of which have gone to seed. The golden batam sweet corn is looking good and as I have probably said before sweet corn is tolerante of a hot dry spell. 

     So just to put some gardening stuff in this weeks blog I have included some work done on Sunday 3rd July. Usually my blog week goes from Sunday to Saturday. So on Sunday I decided it was time to tackle some of the weeds. Summer cabbage, onion and a potato patch cleared. To my dismay I discovered Colorado beetle on my main crop Desiree potatoes so now it will be a daily check for beetles and eggs and no doubt squishing of said beetles and eggs! 

    Egg production up this week. Average of four eggs a day. I have decided to let them out to room the garden with hope that they may eat some of the Colorado beetles (some hope that is! Lol!).

Cabbage before weeding

Cabbage after weeding

Onions before weeding

Onions after weeding

Rain, glorious rain...

    Ok, you can have too much of a good thing. Too much sun, too much rain! Man! No a lot achieved. It has been a damp to wet week. Lifted some Agata first earlies. So far not impressed with this variety and if I were planting next year I would not bother with these. Good ole Touchon carrots are producing again. I love this old varity and have had success over multiple years. Cut off the broad been stalks. Left the roots to so as to fix nitrogen in the soil from them. Violet garlic lifted. Poor crop but at least some! Elephant garlic has been a disappointment with most going to seed and the rest not producing any sort of Elephant garlic at all! Did some tidying up of the chicken run area. The forsythia as usual was trying its take over bit along with the lemon balm. Looks like it is going to be a damp week so very likely not a lot will get done.

    Chickens are not laying well and the suspect of all things is Wilba the cat!! Empty egg found on the drive way of my daughter house. The egg split neatly in halve and the contents devoured! Never would have thought a cat would eat an egg. Well an average of 2.9 eggs a day this last week up on last but still not as good as it should be.

No, it is not in the garden HONEST!

Yes more sun

    Vegetable gardening can be a fickle thing. You can go from success to failure in such a short time. Over my time here in la Creuse I have had successes and failures and I have had tremendous fun trying to grow unusual veg and trying out things like Hugelkultur and no dig beds. This year is one of failure I fear. Grass mowing, vine pruning and new potato lifting done this last week. The grass is brown and I was really just mowing off the weeds. A good start to the year with warmth and rain and an early planting out of lettuce was sucessful. Summer cabbage plants also planted out and fingers crossed I may get something from them. Now the sun is beating down at very high temperatures. I have lost my squash, pumpkins, tomatoes and cucumber plants despite watering.  Water melon plants are small and as I will have more than likely have moved by the time they produce I doubt if I will bother to plant them out.  A very poor germination rate of beetroot and other seeds.  Parsnips have gone to seed more so than usual and the shallots have already died back and are very small. Onions are small but are hanging in there but I am not expecting great things. Even the garlic has been poor. Success was had with over winter broad beans but the early sowing of peas was not a great success. On the upside strawberries have been good and it looks like I will get a decent potato crop. Not as large as last year but still decent. The sweet corn is going well and maize is a little more drought tolerant I think.  Early sowing of carrots are at least giving a crop that can be pulled. 

  The hens do not enjoy hot weather. Egg production over the last week has been poor with an average of 2.1 eggs per day. 

   So as the days go by I have to start to wind down my veg garden as the day draws closer to calling it a day on my time at Watermeadows.

Wilba cat on the poly tunnel roof!