More nattering about the weather

Still no rain this last week so I've been unreeling the hosepipe yet again over the weekend. Today it's suddenly a whole lot cooler which will no doubt please some people no end - I'm looking at you Tracy!

The crops are all doing well apart from the garlic - most of which I lost to the white rot - and the runner beans - which are just an embarrassment. The flowers are looking great, especially the meadow mix, which I just love to bits.

Watering

I follow the RHS advice on watering which is after two weeks without rain to water every seven days, in the morning, at the rate of 2 gallons per square metre; legumes from flowering to full pod development, leaf and root crops from seedling to maturity.

One advantage of getting up early to water is seeing the sun coming up over the plot:

Meadow mix

This has been going nuts this past week - the fairy toadflax has gone over but the Californian poppies are still going strong and have been joined by cornflowers, bishops flower and Shirley poppies:


Cornflower

Californian Poppies

Bishops flower (Ammi Majus)

Shirley poppy

Phacelia

The bumble bees have been loving this:

Sweet peas

Much better results growing using the cordon system - longer stems and better quality flowers:

Onions

I'm quite chuffed with these this year; they got off to a shaky start but now they're doing really well and so far there's no sign of any white rot.

Brassicas

Greyhound cabbages at the front almost ready for cropping; brussels sprouts at the rear:

French beans

Enjoying the sunshine and starting to flower:

Sweetcorn

Looking healthy:

Peas

Maincrop podding up:


Successional sowing - early peas (on the right) now over; maincrop (centre) about to crop; follow on crop (left) growing away; and I've sown a final half row today for a late crop:


And if you've arrived here from Joan's blog - thanks for checking me out, and thanks to Joan for sending you here!

Pea beans

The climbing Egyptian pea beans (on the left), which I'm trying for the first time, are doing far better than my runner beans (on the right), which haven't liked the dry weather one bit and are looking positively pathetic.

Raspberries

Something for pudding:

1929 and all that

So the first six months of the year have been the driest since 1929 - which was also the start of the Great Depression, and obviously I was wondering if there's any connection. Of course it could just be a conspiracy.

No depression here, I'm cropping carrots, cabbages, peas, broad beans and now new potatoes. The meadow and cornfield mixes just keep getting better and the snapdragons have started to flower.

New potatoes

Snapdragons

Meadow mix

Still looking lush:

Primary colours

Cornflowers, corn marigolds and field poppies in the cornfield mix:

According to the weatherman we're in the middle of a heatwave; I seem to remember when it was just called June.

Lots of watering of course but otherwise it's nice to be able to sit back a bit and watch things grow. And to have fresh cabbages now to go with the broad beans, peas and carrots.

Shine on.

Peas

Early Onward:

Cabbage

Durham Early: