Vegging out - July
Week one - it’s really wet
It is hard to believe, after recent drought years, that the water butts are all full at this point in the summer and there is no need to water anything but pots. It makes for more relaxing evenings, but the down side is that the tomatoes in the green house aren’t getting much sun or warmth so are slow to fruit and those that have fruit aren’t ripening. Similarly outside, the courgettes and cucumber are flourishing but not showing much sign of plump fruit. Just as well, as there are so many plants. I’m searching the web for recipes: courgette cake, loaves, gratin, tian etc.. Not to mention cucumbers - apparently they are good grilled.
The fruit bushes however are going great guns, the blueberries and raspberries are still coming, particularly now I’ve found the entry point in the fruit cage for the one bird who is always in there.
I’ve harvested all but one of the blackcurrant bushes (which not in the fruit cage as the birds don’t go for blackcurrants) and made jam.
The blackcurrant bushes have since had a much needed prune.
Week two - its still cold, wet and dull
The parsnip seeds on damp kitchen towel are showing little roots. Success! Over the course of the week I plant up the germinated seeds into the cardboard tubes from toilet rolls, and these are in the greenhouse awaiting some top growth. In the raised beds the climbing peas are proving very popular with our little granddaughter, who loves to pop the the pods and eat the peas raw, but plenty make their way into the kitchen and are very tender and tasty.
Outdoors it is still miserable weather - what an extraordinary summer so far! All of the courgette plants have powdery mildew to some degree, which doesn’t usually strike until the end of the season. It can caused by waterlogging ,apparently. Meanwhile the courgette fruit are very slow to grow to a good enough size for a meal. Similarly the cucumber plants, both outdoors and in the greenhouse, have grown with unprecedented vigour and plenty of embryonic fruit, none of which are swelling. The tomatoes in the greenhouse still aren’t ripening and it looks as though the pollination rate is not as good as in previous years, because the development of fruit is patchy This is worrying - there is a distinct lack of pollinating insects about.
It is a mixed picture so far this month. On one hand, sweet peppers are flowering (hopefully not too late for the fruit to develop and ripen), so are the runner beans and sweet corn which are also showing good tassels. On the other hand, as well as the poor weather we have had another visit from the cat, who has left his calling cards on the seedling’s raised bed. On top of the netting! What a cheek!
Week three - finally some sun
What a relief to get some warmer, brighter weather. In fact, on Friday it was just too hot to be out in the garden in the middle of the day even though there are courgettes to be picked, at long last. The sweet corn is fattening up, the climbing French beans are filling out too, and the peas keep coming.
Watering has begun in earnest. Following advice from the gardening gurus, I’ve started to water in the early morning rather than in the evening. This is to deprive the slugs and snails of dark, damp conditions overnight to do their worst. It makes a lot of sense - seems that the slug problem is everywhere this summer.
In the greenhouse, the parsnip experiment is highly successful. All the seeds in toilet roll tubes are showing shoots now. Even the seeds in the tray have germinated really well, but they still need to be potted on whereas the ones in tubes can just be planted out tube and all. A brilliant method suggested by Judy.
Spurred on by the success of the parsnip sowing I’ve sowed a pot each of basil and coriander, also 2 varieties of purple spouting broccoli. Initially the plan this year was to plant as much as possible in the ground, to save on compost. But that has been spectacularly unsuccessful, thanks to slugs and, probably flea beetle, not to mention things not coming up at all. So it is back to raising in pots under glass.
On the 21st a tomato finally ripened! YES!
Week four - time for a rethink
It is all ticking away quite happily and there is usually something to eat from the garden, including cucumbers now So my thoughts are turning to next year and the problems that need to be solved before then:
Compost - I’ve loved my 3 bin compost system for years - but the bins are wooden and falling apart. So am I, having damaged both shoulders digging them out last year. They are positioned under a hedge and roots are coming up in them. So it is time for a rethink, moving them somewhere else and having a system requiring less work. I happened to mention the problem to Amanda who kindly offered me a Dalek type bin that she no longer needed because she has a hot bin which she “was given by Jill because she didn’t get on with it”. That would be the hot bin that I gave to Jill because I didn’t get on with it! Finally it has found a happy home - the advantages of being in a gardening club.
The wooden raised beds - are falling apart too. The wet weather this year seems to have accelerated the rot and they are not salvageable. Time for another rethink. The current four are 4ft x 8ft coming at right angles off the path. To simplify things I would like to have one long bed 4ft wide (so that I can use still use my hoop system for covering with netting etc, if needed) running the length of the path. This will give space to run a narrow border for perennial veg and pollinator plants running parallel. Just got to find someone to do the work later in the year when most of the beds have been cleared.
Climbing legumes - trying to grow the French climbing beans, runner beans and peas all in one 4ft x 8ft bed has resulted in a tangled mess. The pods are there but difficult to find and the slugs wreaked havoc early on. So I’m thinking of reverting to growing them in individual wigwams inside sections of a sliced-up water butt. This means that watering and slug protection is easier, and the young plants can be protected from late frosts with a bit of bubble wrap around the outside. As it happens, one of our water butts has sprung a leak so needs repurposing.
Back to the present, as the little parsnip seedling are showing roots at the bottom of the cardboard tubes it is time to plant them out. They are still tiny and very vulnerable looking so I decide to only plant 8 as a first go, and scatter slug pellets around. Next morning, with trepidation I go to check. Only 3 remain! So disheartening! I have plenty left to plant but how to protect them is a real problem. The only thing I can think of now is surrounding them with Strulch. Let’s give it a try…