30th July 2022 - A Quick Guided Tour Around The Summer Plot
2 months into summer… Ahhh! It's passing so quickly!
Look at the sea of green on the “Haven”. Talk about abundance. We have a veritable feast of tomatoes there, the courgettes are doing amazingly. The cabbages are on the left, with huge red ones in the middle of the white netting, along with cauliflowers doing well too. Beyond this the potatoes are a forest of green in the raised bed, the swede, more courgettes and still further on the sweetcorn, runner beans and butternut filling up the horizon.
The second picture is a different perspective but no less glorious, extolling the vibrancy of the terrace area and the raised bed, by the polytunnel…
The third picture is a view from the bottom of the plot. The sweetcorn have reached the top of the support canes, the runner beans are winding their way up too and the butternut filling the space below keeping the weeds at bay (although plenty of thistles as we were promised). We realised we needed to add the canes because the runner beans were outrunning the sweetcorn in height and they needed somewhere to grab onto.
The runner beans have had a difficult job to set (create beans from the flowers) early in the summer with it being so hot, we are hoping they pick up as the weather breaks and we get more typical weather. It’s been 38C / 39C and thereabouts which is just not normal for the UK.
We are starting to trail the butternuts over these makeshift bridges (pallets) so they can run wild on the dividing path where those buckets are… plenty of space over there out of the way.
Up the plot a bit, the comfrey is growing well (we’ll be using it as a feed later). The melons are growing but it might be too little too late, as they like warm weather and with just 45 days or so left of summer, we might not see much in the way of produce this year… all learning for 2023.
Looking down the plot from the road side, check out the white cladding in the strawberry patch / shelf. This will keep the soil inside but it is permeable so the excess water will drain out. The peas appear to have caught powdery mildew which is choking them. We may have to get another late crop in and take these out so they don’t infect other plants. Another lesson for 2023. They need well aerated areas, maybe this wasn’t the ideal spot for them.
With the work areas a little bit packed Desi has found a spot to “pot on” some cabbages, and sprouts that really should have gone in the ground months ago. Again we were restricted by the amount of ground available at the time, so, we shall see how they do.
The herb box is flourishing as are the echinacea which have been a real beautiful surprise for both of us this year.
Taking a look at the trellis which has almost disappeared under the growth of the Passiflora. To think that we thought this might not make it and then it did this! It has now fully taken over the second trellis. We have a plant in the corner (Honey Suckle), and another one in the middle (Jasmine) and so we will need to take the secateurs to the Passiflora next spring for sure.
The last picture… Now that the neighbour's wild space has been trimmed back we can take this picture… That’s what we have created in approximately 22 months: a garden for food production, a place to enjoy the outdoors and nature, an ongoing challenging project to work on, a place to learn, entertain and inspire, a destination where we can be quiet and just be.
