… after which it wasn’t.
Rain has stopped play. Am I sad? Not a bit, I am really very grateful for the promised deluge. Crops thrive on rainwater moderately than the chemical-laced laborious faucet water that serves my space of London. Temperatures will drop to a cushty stage and I am going to now not really feel that I am slowly melting. My solely gripe with this bout of rain is that I used to be unable to complete my night’s work of ruthlessly clearing area within the veg patch to make room for extra crops; I needed to name a halt because the slight drizzle turned a garments soaking torrent. Have talked about that I am woefully behind this yr?
Courgettes, kales, cabbages and beans should exit when the rain stops, hopefully on Saturday – no level in setting out a banquet for marauding molluscs! This feels greater than a bit late to me however, on this wonky climate we’re being subjected to, it might nonetheless be a bumper yr for house grown meals.
The veg patch has really been fairly productive up to now this yr – I might barely sustain with the purple sprouting broccoli in late winter and had my fill of kales at the moment. By the point these had completed, I had radishes, lettuces, spinach and some peas from the salad backyard; the warmth of the previous week has executed for the spinach and radishes, each now bolted, composted and needing to be resown.
In my third giant Veg Trug, I’ve planted out cucumbers, chillies, tomatoes … and a bit courgette referred to as Patio Star which is supposed to be grown in a container. What a superb factor if this tiny plant produces a great crop! Expectations are low however pleasure ranges are excessive.
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In the meantime, again within the veg patch, I have been bringing house giant plump strawberries in addition to tiny aromatic woodland strawberries, fats pods of broad beans (so scrumptious eaten uncooked) and freshly reduce asparagus spears are nonetheless on the menu. Gardener’s lore says to depart asparagus to develop and re-energise after the solstice so I could solely have another reduce this yr.
Three weeks in the past, these strawberries had been nonetheless flowers, as had been the broad beans. Potato flowers have been and gone – and what’s occurred to the herbs!? They’ve doubled in dimension! My mint crops are monumental and Clary Sage (which I grew final yr as an annual) has proven her fairly face as soon as extra. The yr appears to be speeding onwards with reckless haste.
The summer season solstice is just some days away (Monday twenty first, solar up at 04.32 BST for 16 hours 38 minutes of daylight in case, like me, you questioned), heralding the beginning of astrological summer season. Which faculty of thought will you comply with – that summer season has correctly arrived or that it is all downhill to winter as soon as the times begin to get shorter?
Me? I am at all times an optimist and luxuriate in regardless of the seasons could deliver.
