Dry Heat

Stuck indoors today because of the rain (hurray)  gives me the opportunity  to review recent progress.  The garlic crops, both winter and  spring plantings have been a bit underwhelming.  The autumn planted Elephant Garlic and home saved Early Purple Wight and Doocot I feel more forgiving toward. The spring planted Mersley Wight and  Solent Wight  got all the room and feed they required but turned yellow in early July. Digging them up they were small, showed signs of white rot and in many case developed as two stems intertwined below ground level.  While I will continue to grow my own Elephant garlic I don't think the return on the traditional sized garlic is worth it on my plot. Lesson learnt.  The picture shows the portion of the harvest that  justified storage.  Elephant garlic on the left, other autumn planted middle and spring planted on the right. The more fiddly smaller bulbs are still drying off in the greenhouse awaiting assessment for rot and suitability for cooking. 

Despite the heat and dry conditions the brassica patch seems to be full and ready for the coming (cooler) brassica season. The thin row is Swedes.  To the right are the winter harvested kales.  Now that we have had rain I am confident that they will survive to maturity.

Although a bit out of date this last picture is indicative of what is harvesting now.  Broad beans have been great and I have staggered further sowings.  Courgettes are now harvesting in torrents. Peas have been great this year, and again I have further plantings to come. Raspberries have been ripening daily. That is one days worth of ripened berries.

 So all in all I have been very happy with the produce so far this year, even though drought conditions have prevailed until yesterday.  

For The Record - New Potatoes and Greenhouse Update

The all time record temperature for Edinburgh is 30C. Well we are pushing that today.  But the real record is the earliness of some of the crops.

25th June is about the earliest I have ever had new potatoes.  These Ballydoon were grown in sacks in  our back garden.

The spuds are not the only competitor for the earliest ever award. These Mini cucumbers are full size (for them) and it looks like there are plenty more to come.

I did buy these in as baby plants, but the tomatoes are all grown from seed:

The only greenhouse disappointment has been the Chillies which should be happy as Larry but are not.  Possibly cold nights are a factor, possibly low light (the greenhouse is overshadowed by a hedge, but I am at a loss to understand why they are not growing away and loosing leaves instead! Suggestions welcome.

Up Up Up

Bee on Willow

After lolling about in the doldrums at 6C or below for a week the temperature today has followed the following pattern

7am   7C

8am  8C

9am  9C

10am  10C

11am 11C

12noon 12C

1pm 13C

Unbelievable! And on the subject of bees. the bumble bees have woken up and are prospecting for nest sites. So far they have evaded my camera lens. Above is the best shot to date.

Here's the most uplifting song I can think of to reflect the mood: