August

1^st August

Well it may be August but the rain continues. A constant light drizzle all day. Of course the good thing is that I don’t have to do any watering at the allotment. Imagine how many trips to the trough I would need to water the entire plot, and to have to do it maybe 2-3 times a week if there was a serious hot, dry spell. On our travels today we stopped at the allotment for courgettes and picked 5 including the first 2 of the yellow ones and yes, 2 of them found their way on to our plates for dinner, as well as 2 older ones. We are easily managing to consume them as we go, but then not every plant is in the full swing of production yet – that will probably happen whilst we are away. We leave on Thursday for 2 weeks in the Lake District and I can foresee a huge glut of overly large marrows by the time we get back. I would like someone to pick them while we are away but I really want to have an accurate record of how many have been picked for my records (how sad am I?) so I will have to ask and instruct someone reliable.

I haven’t really mentioned much about the garden for a while maybe because due to the weather we have not been spending much time in it. The flowers are doing well. The silver leafed cinerarias are generally coming along fine, and as for the salvias, some are in a good bloom whilst others have nibbled-off tips. The ageratums are in bloom and they are not as large as the picture on the packet suggest (one shouldn’t be surprised) but that may well be due to the fact they are cramped and were potted-on late. However, they are multiple headed and provide a good contrast and point of interest at the bedding level. The fuchsias are in full swing and looking good and the sweet peas are still doing well along the fence but struggling up the wigwams – are they too close together there? The container of nicotianas is absolutely stunning, a real success. My wife and I are so pleased with it. The white and pink roses are in their second bloom already and the lavenders are still going strong. The herbs are looking good; the fennel is setting seed and is over 6 feet high. The rosemary, French tarragon and sage are thriving but the oregano looks like the leaves have been affected by something but now it is in flower so looks better.

I have already had an idea for next year's bedding – cornflowers. They are doing really well on the allotment and if a flower can thrive down there it will be fine in the garden. I also saw a friend’s potted container of mixed cornflowers and that looked really good. They provide good height, a bushy appearance and some good sized flowers that stand out while also giving ground cover. What is more, you simply sow them direct into the ground, no seed trays, potting-on and planting out which for next year is something I’ll be looking for as I hope to be out of my easy non time consuming job and into something more meaningful but alas more like regular hours. I was going to sow poppies in the front garden this year but ran out of time because I need to make a decent bed with a good amount of soil, and make a border edge too and I also meant to repaint the (what was) white wall behind to give a good backdrop. I can do this in the autumn and be ready for next year. I may also put some poppies in the back garden. Look at me, dreaming of next year already and I’m yet to go on my summer holiday.

5^th August

At lunchtime I planted out about 27 purple sprouting broccoli at the allotment and scattered many slug pellets around – I will not be around to protect them at all for over 2 weeks after all! Looking at the calabrese, I noticed that about 4 heads were looking ready to harvest but not quite as large as I’d expect. Thinking that they would bolt whilst I’m away I picked them concluding that it was better not to let them be wasted but to have them safely in the bank, well, freezer.

In the evening I did a rush job of planting out all remaining cinerarias and to plant the laurentias in a container and I gathered all the containers together to be watered by my neighbour during the holiday. It is my ‘other’ (non DIY expert) neighbour who will be looking after things as there is a gap in our fence which enables us to water each others’ gardens. I picked one large bunch of sweet peas and gave them to a neighbour a little further down. Yes, it was a young, female neighbour so I was glad when her husband answered the door. He wasn’t at all jealous, just deeply hurt that they were not specifically for him.

6^th August

Passing via the allotment on work duty I picked a small bunch of sweet peas for someone at work and 15 courgettes. I gave some of them away but took the majority on holiday for one of my now favourite dishes - zucchini alla carbonara – yummy!

So it is off on holiday to the beautiful Lake District leaving the grass high before we even leave. We stay overnight tonight at a bed and breakfast place to break up the journey for the boys and get to our accommodation tomorrow. On the way back we are staying overnight at some friends in Leeds and visiting some other friends in Nottingham for lunch on the Saturday so it will be a little over 2 weeks away.

22^nd August

We arrived home at 6.30 pm to find all container plants in the front garden dead, that is, the petunias in the hanging basket and the 2 pots of sweet peas, all through lack of water. OK I had not explicitly instructed them to be watered but I would have thought they would be included. What would the back garden hold in store? Well the lawn was higher and the pots and hanging baskets had been watered but the sweet peas also looked pretty dour, again due to lack of watering. I’m guessing my neighbours thought they wouldn’t need watering as they were in the border but they were right up against the fence which protects from the rain by a surprising amount. Again – not specifically instructed but . . . Later on I trimmed back all tendrils and deadheaded merely to get rid of all energy and water sapping material to give the plants a better chance. This was of course followed by a decent watering.

How did my Dad do with counting the courgette harvest? He told me he picked ‘about 15, no, let’s say nearer 20’!

24^th August

At the allotment I picked 12 courgettes and 10 heads of calabrese. Some of them we had for tea and very nice they were too, the rest I blanched and froze.

In the garden I borrowed a lawn mower from my neighbour (the least he could do considering the sweet pea situation which shows no sign yet of any improvement) and got the lawn under control. I must get a new mower soon though. The mower I used had no grass collection facility so my 5 year old helped me rake up the grass and he was kept busy and happy using his little wheelbarrow to take it all to the compost bin. He was a delight to watch. Apart from that I cut up the rest of the lilac branches I cut down at the end of the garden before the holiday to take the pressure off the back fence.

25^th August

The garden sweet peas may be finished but those on the allotment are still going great. I picked a bunch for my wife. What does the allotment look like I hear you ask? Well the paths and edges are overgrown with grass but apart from that and some strong bindweed growth in section 1 around the carrots, each section brims with good vegetable greenery and the weed suppressing membrane seems to be doing its job.

In section 1 the carrots are doing well. I have not had a huge germination rate but those that are up look large enough from what I can see under the fleece. The 5 teasel plants are just bushy leaves, no stem. I’ll have to check if they are an annual or biennial, the latter would explain this. (They are biennial.) The cornflowers at the end of the section are fantastic. Many are still in bloom and the bees are buzzing round them – a definite choice for the garden next year.

In section 2 the older leeks look great, we’ll be getting a good harvest this winter, and the leeks I planted into section 3 to follow the onions are doing fine, but obviously not as large – at least we’ll get something from that section as a double bonus after the great onion harvest. I’ve recently read that you should not bend over the onion leaves as I did as that breaks and bruises the leaves and can be an entry point for mould which would mean less storage time or damaged veg so I’ll have to keep a close eye on the ones back home.

In sections 4 and 5 the sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli have established themselves with some of the sprouts looking quite strong. Two of the first plantings are large plants with sprouts forming well. I just hope that the rest were not planted out too late for a harvest. Still, plenty of time to go yet. In section 6 the 2 surviving cauliflowers are large but with no curd that I can see from outside the netting, the sprouts I put in as extra seem mostly to have succumbed to slugs and the calabrese are now harvested so this section would seem to have finished but with a small amount of hope for any extra benefits that might just come my way.

In section 7, 2 of the yellow courgette plants I bought from the nursery are producing pumpkins! Otherwise, despite some courgette plants being rather large, I have not had the volume of courgettes I was expecting and I put that down to the bad start I had. That said, we have done well and feasted on courgettes a lot, I just haven’t had the lovely glut that enables me to give some away to elderly friends and work colleagues, something I like doing as I want to keep hold of pretty much all other produce as it keeps so well.

In section 8 the sweet peppers have been a disaster. After the holiday I have seen some small red ones which look more like chillies. I think it was a mistake to put them in the open ground where they were so exposed (I was expecting a hotter, dryer summer just as the Met Office predicted – hah!). Elsewhere I have one crown prince squash and a few pumpkins but the cucumbers are not producing anything.

In section 9 not only do I have the colour of some healthy sweet peas but also the grand upright sweet corn which is showing some good large pods and at ground level, most of the butternut squash plants have survived that period where a few looked as though they were dying (one definitely did) and there is definite proof of squashes developing. So if I do well with the brassicas I can say I’ve had a pretty good year, but as I said already, it is still early days.

27^th August

I did a bit of weeding in the garden but did not get too far. I think the garden sweet peas are dead. Whilst rummaging around for courgettes I found an enormous cucumber so that’s one for the year at least!

It is not even August bank holiday yet but already I have noticed yellowed leaves scattered on the road at one point of a country lane I drive along each day and cycling into work I have felt that it will soon be time to don a light fleece for the journey. Surely it can’t be autumn just yet can it?

15 - 30th July

15^th July

With due sense of expectation and purpose I stepped out of the car. I looked down at the metal object in my hand – a cheap multi use penknife bought from a petrol station. I carefully unfolded the large blade of the main knife and walked over to my intended recipient of a quick but effective slice of the steel. Two short slices later the job was done. I had harvested the first 2 courgettes of the year – a great moment and one that was overdue. A relief and a joy. Then later – looking back at last years’ records, I realised that the first courgette picking last year was the 7^th July so I am only 8 days later this time. Mind you, last year they all came together in great abundance whereas this year it is only about 4 plants that seem ready with others still in their infancy. That might mean that the later plants will be cropping later when the earlier ones have stopped so it could work out rather well. Then again . . .

It was also the day to plant out the leeks. I made an evening trip to the plot as this was the only feasible time that I had to get this job done (I’ll probably have to do the same with the sprouts and broccoli too). I filled up section 2 with 66 more leeks so that now that section is full and yet there were still more to go in so I dotted some at the end of section 1 as well, another 13 and still I have more to go in. Perhaps when the onions come out they can go in there. It was definitely dusk if not nightfall when I left but it was great to be out. It reminded me of when I was young and I would be out as late as possible on a summers’ evening playing football or cricket and invariably moaning at my fellow players’ lack of staying power as they sloped off earlier.

17^th July

I gained another 2 courgettes from the allotment and a really good sized bunch of sweet peas from the garden. It won’t be until Monday or Tuesday that we can start to clean and move back into our kitchen. I am really grateful that we have been able to get a new one – we certainly needed it given the state of the old one, but it has dragged on a little too long and we haven’t really been able to settle and the house is in a somewhat disorganised state although I’m pleased with how we have been able to manage. This has led to less time being available for gardening. We have had a few dinners out at both sets of parents and that takes up gardening time too, although I am definitely not complaining at other people cooking dinner for us!

Today was the day to push over the onions. The leaves have been going brown and yellow for a while and I am told that bending over the leaves stops any fungal infection getting into the bulb, though I can’t see how a bent leaf would stop that – it’s still attached after all. There is an art to harvesting onions, and that is in stages. First you bend them over, then lift them from the ground but lay them on the soil, and then lay them out to dry which surely has to be done under cover because it takes from 1 – 3 weeks and when do we ever have that length of time guaranteed as having no rain? By drying them properly, they store longer, about 6 months, and any that are affected by rust spots and the like, you eat up rather than store, or they can be frozen. If I can dry them properly, then the 3 biggest will be entered into the allotment show in September. My Dad said that the other day he was chatting to a chap at the allotment and he pointed out the good size of my onions and Dad was proud to be able to say they belonged to his little lad.

20^th July

At the allotment I noticed that something unusual is happening to the butternut squashes. Back on Friday I had seen that one on the far left seemed to have simply wilted a little. I thought little of it as we were expecting rain and none of the others were like it. On Saturday we popped in as a family and I noticed that the next squash in line was the same. Then today, the third one had suffered too. I gave them a good drink of water and I will have to return to make some sort of deep cut into the soil to make a gap barrier before the fourth one goes – perhaps there is some organism in the soil.

22^nd July

I picked 5 courgettes today – the first decent amount of decent sized vegetables, and in the evening I cooked a recipe I learnt from Jamie Oliver – zucchini alla carbonara – ‘delish’ as Jamie would say!

24^th July

After a frustrating afternoon at work stuck in traffic, I managed to get to the allotment armed with a series of baskets to harvest the onions. 54 sturons, 53 settons and 36 centurions, a grand total of 143 mostly decent sized onions with many large ones as well. Some were so large that I just about got them through the hole cut in the membrane. With my wife spending £1 on a kilogram of red onions yesterday I think we are on to a winner. I also picked 2 more courgettes and it was time to dig up the garlic. Despite the fact that from above the ground they did not look like they were up to much in terms of growth, the bulbs were of a similar size to last year and I ended up with 10 of them.

Especially after last years’ total disappointment with onions, it was with a huge sense of joy, that I drove off with the car stinking of onion and garlic. It really is a great satisfaction which has an added sense of achievement considering previous failure. This is what is so good about gardening: you learn from your mistakes and repeat what you did well and work on what went wrong, you research the possibilities and try different ways. Mind you, isn’t that true for pretty much all aspects of life? It’s a good metaphor for life and the type of thing that can be taught practically to children. Perhaps it would even work on managers. I only mention that because I heard this week of a car sales manager giving a start of the day pep talk to his sales team and ending with a motivational one liner: ‘a sale is a transfer of energy’. Apparently when he said this his hearers did their best to not splutter into their coffee. If I had been there I would have had to have asked the question: ‘oh really, how come?’ I mean, it isn’t true in a literal or a metaphorical sense – what does it mean? This is the same manager who gathered the workers together at a new car dealership he was put in charge of and said ‘I hate negative people’. When I heard that I made the obvious remark of ‘that’s pretty negative isn’t it?’ This manager does not strike me as a gardener!

25^th July

After 3 Saturdays of fiddling around with the kitchen we at last had a family day out which was really good. After coming home and before dinner I pottered around in the garden tidying up after the mess that was left by certain people who helped with the kitchen project. The grass of course still needs a good cut as it is looking like a wild area now, but it must be rather wet as we have had damp conditions for at least 3 weeks. This does not help the courgettes to grow either as although they need plenty of food and water, they really benefit from decent sunshine. How ironic that just after a bumper onion crop I am faced with lean picking on a crop that has been super bumper for the previous 2 years!

29^th July

I had planned on going to the allotment after work and planting the sprouts but time ran out for me and I only had opportunity to merely drop off the plants at the plot. Dad was there picking blackberries and so I cut a batch of sweet peas for him to take back to Mum who was rather pleased!

30^th July

At lunchtime I went to plant the sprouts. At first the weather was a little drizzly and so I put on my coat and stood picking off all caterpillars and eggs (again) from the plants. When I was ready to actually plant them I took off my coat as it was warming up, dry and I didn’t fancy crawling around under the netting in my coat. Once inside the netting the sun was shining down on me and I was rather hot. After planting, and as I was just watering in the plants, the heavens opened and I raced to put on my coat again. I got soaked from the thigh down. Nevertheless I managed to plant out 16 sprouts as refills for the ones that have been eaten. Two of the existing and surviving ones are no larger than the ones I planted, but the other 2 are growing really well. I also picked 3 more courgettes and when I got home I washed and sliced them and cooked them in olive oil and butter with black pepper and crushed garlic and had them as a warm side dish to my sandwiches. They went from the plant to my plate in 45 minutes and they tasted great.

10 - 13th July

I went to the allotment again to do a feeding programme on the peppers and squashes – it takes awhile. I was also able to pick some sweet peas. We have enough at home to supply our cut flower needs so what to do with these ones? I had decided on giving a small posy from each cut to one of the receptionists at work and I had a particular one in mind who was not too far down the time line when I could give them to her (I was worried that they would wilt). The problem arose in my mind however – ‘How do I, a married man, give flowers to another woman without her getting the wrong idea and making mental attachments to me, or think that I’m a creep, and without being so obviously the other direction and declare loud and clear that I have no interest whatsoever in the poor lady and don’t be so ridiculous as to think that anyone would be so inclined as to present you with a small gift?’

I approached the lady in question, raised the small bunch and asked ‘would you like these with no strings attached?’ She smiled and said ‘yes please’. Success! I don’t always get it right with the fairer sex you know!  Like most men I get a bit confused as to why women seem to smile and giggle at the inappropriate advances and comments of handsome men, but when a less aesthetically pleasing man does something nice for a woman, he is regarded as a creep!

Yesterday I cut a bunch of sweet peas of various colours for my Mum. She and Dad have been hosting us for a few meals while the kitchen is in chaos and this was a little thank you. Today I cut a bunch of the red and white sweet peas for ourselves and they have a certain stunning quality when combined in a vase.

11^th July

As some light rain drizzled down I was found out in the garden checking over the sprouts plants and rubbing off the many caterpillars and eggs to be found on them. I fed the garden plants before dinner.

Everything seems broken at the moment – my glasses, the car (a starter motor fitted just long enough ago to be out of warranty but has only done about 9 – 10 thousand miles!), the old kitchen, the toilet seat, the back fence and the lawnmower!

13^th July

I potted up the sprouting broccoli into old plastic cups and then proceeded to go about removing caterpillars and eggs from them. I will have to recheck the brassicas in a little while before they get planted out. That is a job which is overdue but no good in this damp weather as it involves digging into wet clay soil. Dad’s brassicas are large and productive and mine are at the starting gate.

Another bunch of sweet peas from the garden, a nice mixed display. This is now the third decent sized bunch, probably 4 if you add together the 2 early but small offerings and the ones at the allotment. You can’t buy them in the shop as they wouldn’t last long enough to reach the shelves but I guess you would pay at least £2 for a handful, more if you were not buying in a supermarket. I also picked a few more strawberries. Again, they are deep red, juicy and sweet, no need for sugar or even cream!

7 - 8th July

By now I am usually picking courgettes which have passed the early fruiting stage and have settled down into a regular production supply. At lunchtime though I was planting out the last of the courgettes, a few pumpkins and one more butternut squash. I noticed that of the courgettes already planted, all are establishing and 2 or 3 are beginning to thrive and go for it. The squashes have settled in now and are beginning to sprawl and the sweet corn are thick and sturdy and reaching for the sky. I am still impressed and amazed by both the onions and by the weeds that have shot up in the gap between the membranes in section 6. The cornflowers look like they will be in bloom soon but the teasels, despite a lush and large leaf spread, have not begun their upward growth unlike the ones I see by the road side on a motorway roundabout I pass twice a day. The carrots are pushing up on their protective fleece which I must fit properly before it becomes pointless being there if it isn’t protecting. The garlic still look thin and pale so I’m not setting my hopes on a bumper crop from them – I still have most of last year’s hanging up in the conservatory. Perhaps in our new kitchen they will be used up. I came away from the allotment with a courgette plant which had no space to go into, but I will keep hold of it as the 2 pumpkins look so weak I think I’ll lose one and then the courgette can go into its space.

8^th July

I returned to the allotment to find that yes, I had lost one of the pumpkins, and the other 2 as well, so in went the courgette and the 2 extra cucumbers that I had bought. The sweet peppers are not looking too good. They are stunted, pale and scrawny. I didn’t get round to making little holes filled with manure for them as a concentrated plot of fertile soil for each of them, maybe that has something to do with it, or the fact that they became a bit pot bound, or that they have been exposed to the weather unlike last year when they were in containers in my garden. Mind you, we have had some still and scorching weather, akin to their native land.