Brassicas

The recent heatwave has meant a lot more work to keep things going until cooler periods or even better rainfall appears. It got a little colder for a few days, we were promised thunderstorms, but they skipped us by.  I now have two dustbins, and two water butts up there now. I don’t normally use them, but as we only have one tap by the church tower, if I go up there to do watering and someone is already using the tap, I will use them then. So far I have crossed off Broccoli and Peas off my next years list. The Broccoli florets were very small, there weren’t that many Peas. The Raspberries are still coming, and the fruit trees are still swelling up their fruit, although the Pears haven’t done as much as the Apples. The good news is the weeds are not coming up as much as they did, including the Bindweed. The Cabbages are doing well, below is what is called a Pointy Cabbage, as can be seen. The other Cabbages are not far advanced. There is a lot of slug damage on some, I need to think about that next year. Apparently the pesky pests bury themselves in the soil during the day. 

Unfortunately because of the nature of the cage, Hedgehogs can’t easily get in, having a Hedgehog gap in the cage, might encourage other things in, like Rabbits. But just as I was going to bed one night I saw these two in our garden. One of my hedgehog mad friends asked me to put a dish of water out, which is hidden in the shade. The first site for the dish, caused much consternation. After digging a suitable hole, the area was thick with a variety of Bumblebee. Remembering how I go to stung with my leg still with its metal on the outside, I beat a hasty retreat. When I looked later the area was restored to calm, but I then sited the dish far away from the Bumbles.

The other thing that has matured, but is also very small is the Cauliflowers. As soon as the leaves open and reveal the curd, it’s time to pick them before they goes off. Actually small is good, a decent sized cauliflower is a bit too much for a meal even for two people.

 I had a brown green waste recycling bin at home, I decided to use it as a water butt. Unfortunately having dragged it up there, I realised while filling it, that it had cracks. I tried to fill them with a flat roof repair kit, but once the butt was full, the pressure of all that water was too much for it, and it gave way. PlanB then.

The Potatoes on the old plot have come up but it’s very dry, so they are struggling a bit. The Tomatoes in the greenhouse are running amok, there are small tomatoes on one plant. On the Pergola the scent of the two types of Jasmine are almost overpowering.