My initial thoughts on this blog were to write about what I'm beginning to harvest from the garden in early July. After all, we've been sowing and growing, hunting (slugs) and protecting, and pruning and shaping (not to mention digging and weeding or potting and planting) for six months now.
And what do my thoughts come back to?
Yes - weather and the state of the garden and plants.
It's not that I would like it perfect, far from it - I was inspired into gardening many years ago now by people like Geoff Hamilton squelching around on gardeners world in his wellies laughing about it being a bit damp! But the reality is that out of the 86,400 seconds in a day, I only have about 1,800 that I can give, and if, as Monty Don mentioned recently in one of his tweets, walking through the garden is like wading through seaweed, we are in a spot if bother!
I think I will have some serious garden planning to consider in the Autumn, to ensure parts of the garden can be easily accessed without sinking up to your knees in mud (okay, a slight exaggeration!)
Now that I've vented a little, my pallet is a little clearer so I'll write my next blog on recent success'
Hope you all get at least a few seconds to enjoy your garden this weekend!
This weather is awful isn't it, Hugh? We've just taken on a new allotment and found it has a drainage problem, so my husband has been making drains all week. I have just been squelching around in the heavy sticky soil trying to get rid of the many weeds. Ah well, that's gardening for you!
ReplyDeleteRain rain and more rain today! Seems to have stopped for a bit, should prob go out and tie up the broad beans, but it's too cold! And they call this summer? We harvested some peas earlier this week, about 2 desert spoonfuls between us! They were very tasty, delicious in fact, better than any we've ever had, but looks as if that's the only peas we're going to get this year. Sniff. Few flowers on the telephone (climbing) peas, so fingers crossed...
ReplyDeleteHi Hugh! I have just taken on half an allotment plot. Rain is causing differnt problems in that having a fairly light, free-draining soil, all the nutrients are being washed out of the soil. Plants are looking pale and sickly and not putting on growth,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments Julia, Margaret and Maggie. I think we all have to hang in there for the sun. On the soil front, I am hoping to source some farm yard manure to improve the soil here, which is terrible too. It will only improve over a couple of years work and I am looking at the no-dig method for part of the garden as it gets so waterlogged. Keep well, Hugh
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