Welcome to a lovely sunny day! What a relief.
I was talking to a friend who owns a small nursery the other day, bemoaning the weather, and she was saying that her daughter had started to grow her own veg this year but has given up and would not bother again. This is a shame and I am sure she will have another attempt next spring but I am not at all surprised. It has been a really tough year.
I have actually given up in a few areas of my garden, beaten by the weather and the snails and slugs. Ironically, since I gave that talk on annuals in spring, it is the annuals that have suffered the most. No sunflowers survived the munching snails and the zinnias fizzled out. This was a big blow because I grow a lot of flowers for cutting. But not this year.
Last year I decided to sell cut flowers at the gate for charity and it worked out well. I started again this spring with daffodils and have been ‘bunching up’ flowers all summer. The cool weather has suited the sweet peas and they have been fantastic with long stems and heavily perfumed blooms. I also grew a row of Ammi majus for cutting. Though it is an annual it is best grown as a biennial and I sowed it in September and they started to bloom in June, reaching 2m high and have been useful for cutting and adding to the sweet peas. I am sure people think I am raiding the hedges for cow parsley but it has been a useful filler. I will sow again in autumn along with my sweet peas that I sow in October.
Not all has done quite as well. Last year I grew some onions from sets. They were red onions and almost all bolted. So I reverted to seed again this year. I always grow some ‘Roscoff’ onions. I find they do well and they are pink-tinged and an old, French, heritage variety. TV chefs are always using them but I grow them to keep an old variety going and because they usually do well.
They were slow to start and they won’t be huge but I should get a decent crop. Unfortunately I see that some are dying from white rot.
This is the worst of the onion diseases and is present in the soil. Once it appears you cannot grow onions in the soil for at least five years. The plants ‘die’ and go yellow prematurely and the base of the bulb rots. If the onions do form then they can sometimes be rescued but they will not store. I have a series of raised beds so this bed will not be used for onions, or related crops, for many years. I am not sure how it got into the garden since growing from seed should ensure it is not brought in. But the wet weather certainly has not helped. I am pulling them up where affected and will bend over the tops of the healthy onions to speed up ripening.
Things in the greenhouse and polytunnel have been better. The three ‘lunchbox’ cucumber plants have been cropping for weeks. They are grown in 25cm pots and kept evenly moist. Because they crop heavily they need plenty of feeding and I apply liquid fertiliser twice a week and make sure they are picked as soon as they are edible. If you leave a few old cues to mature the plants tend to stop producing more fruit.
In previous years I have grown chillies in the polytunnel borders but they have never done that well. So this year I have them in the greenhouse in 20cm pots. Again, they are fed twice a week. They have grown very well and are producing lots of fruits. I managed to get three plants of ‘Carolina Reaper’ through the seedling stage but in keeping with being the world’s hottest chilli, I think they need more heat than we have had and although the first flowers are just opening it obviously needs a better summer. But we are getting there and I doubt I will need more than one chilli to remind me that I am not really a ‘vindaloo’ kind of person.
Most of the tomatoes are in the polytunnel and I have 40 plants in there and another dozen in the greenhouse. I have a dozen or so different varieties and it is always astounding how different their growth can be. As expected, the first to ripen are the cherry tomatoes. The beefsteaks are far behind as yet. Having picked my first tomato last week it is obvious how cool and sunless the summer has been. I can usually expect to start picking in the second week in July and we are at least a fortnight late this year. I sow the seeds around the 20th March and plant out in mid May.
The polytunnel is also home to a fig (‘Rouge de Bordaeux’) and three grapes, all planted in the soil. I had never really seen the point of figs and have never bought a fresh one to eat, though I like dried figs, but, having been able to pick ripe figs in the past two years, I am (just about) converted. Growing in a polytunnel means that the figlets produced at almost any time will overwinter so I get figs ripening sporadically from June to September. Wait for them to start to split so they are perfectly ripe and they are delicious.
The grapes are also doing well and I was less greedy this year and thinned out the bunches so each has plenty of room. The most important job with grapes is to cut back the foliage frequently to allow light and air to reach the fruits. Don’t strip the plants but constantly cut back the shoots.
I always grow a few potatoes but planted more than usual this year what with dire warnings about shortages because of poor weather and problems for farmers planting them. I always grow some in bags and then the bulk in the raised beds. Growing in bags has some advantages. I can plant them and keep them in the polytunnel at first so they get a head start and will not be affected by frost. If you are careful you can rummage around and harvest a few spuds without lifting the whole plant. And importantly, since I have to prepare them to eat, they can be harvested nice and clean and perfectly shaped. Of course there is the cost of compost to consider but that is used to improve the soil on borders and for planting shrubs or for my autumn and winter pots on the patio.
And on dry days I have been picking lavender. My ‘Grosso’ lavender is planted beside the house in the rubble under the drive stone. It loves this spot, the best drained in the whole garden and although it tends to flop when in bloom, I can forgive it that and now is the time to cut it and trim back the plants to keep them compact.
Have a good week in the garden.