I can't believe it has been over four months since my last visit!
We have been enjoying home grown 'Salad Bowl' and Mizuna leaves for some time, and certainly won't have to buy lettuce for the forseeable future.
However, it is hardly salad weather.
After 'enjoying' a warm spell which lasted long enough for all three of the water butts to run dry, we have entered a cool, damp period with high winds sufficient to drive the rain through one of the window vents downstairs (where it is not protected by the eaves) necessitating a laying out of plastic sheeting and keeping a bucket on the window sill.As far as the garden is coming along, we are watching our crops with interest.
The broad beans 'Aquadulce' have survived the worst of the weather thanks to multi-staking and being held up by miles of garden twine! We have had a few of the young pods whole, and are now letting the remaining pods swell for beans.
The dwarf French Beans 'Stanley' really haven't done so well, and are looking quite pitiful. Ditto the runner (pole) beans.
The presence of mice in the garden (I've seen them!) probably accounts for at least part of the problem, and I will have to stick to starting them all off in pots rather than sowing direct in future years.
I also need to look at ways of maximising the use of catch crops in order to make the best use of limited space.
The curly kale is doing well, as is the perpetual spinach, and these older types of veg seem to tolerate our changeable summer weather.
The same cannot be said for the courgettes, which are showing signs of powdery mildew in spite of the wet weather. Presumably the virus had got a foothold during the very hot weather is spite of frequent watering (no wonder the butts ran dry!) and has now decided to try its luck.
Now we are past mid-summer the nights will pull in, and nothing will have enough sun to fully ripen.
I really need to do some more research into older (non-GM) varieties that will tolerate our unpredictable conditions and which will produce reliable seeds for future years, so no F1 hybrids, thank you!
It really does feel as though the seasons have shifted.
Spring comes early with high daytime temperatures occuring as early as February-March, balmy days being followed by a drop in night-time temperature and frosts.
Summer starts in April, although the days are still short and the nights cool/cold/frosty, with a fortnight off for snow and ice, especially in Scotland and the South of England. High summer lasts from early May to mid-June so that we get about six weeks of dry warm weather and drought and doom-laden prophesies, but three days into Wimbledon fortnight we are into monsoon season, which will last throughout the Olympic Games and the school holidays except for the occasional deceptively warm spell! A mild, damp Autumn will be upon us by the end of August then Winter will crash in on us at the beginning of October and that will be that! Thermals and Sou'westers on. A wet Christmas, snow in Cornwall, flash floods in East Anglia, and back to the deckchairs and sunglasses for the end of February and the start of the whole dispiriting cycle once more!
You really do have to stop planning and just take each day as it comes, gardening as the weather allows and hoping for the best.
