While I don’t want a repeat of last year’s heatwave and drought, British weather this year has gone from one extreme to another, the weather over the last couple of weeks has been miserable. Rain has consistently stopped play this year and the garden just grows wilder. 

What’s doing well. In July we harvested all the blackcurrants and gooseberries and most of the blueberries, there will be a few more in August but we’ve already picked everything from two of the bushes. We’ve had some strawberries but not a huge amount and the alpine strawberries are struggling and need some love.

In terms of veg, the Nicola potatoes are in a bed and have done really well, we probably have another two or three weeks of harvesting from it and the maincrops seem ok. We have had quite a bit of beetroot, although the best beetroot are the ones that grew in the path and I’m considering sowing them there in future!

We’ve had our first four summer squash (three round courgettes and 1 straight) so I expect they will start to go wild soon. This week the french beans were ready and we’ve had our first cucumber too, I’m hoping the weather will pick up because the cucumbers in the poly are going crazy but I can’t open the poly much during the day because it’s too cold and windy, I’ve compromised by leaving the door unzipped and we’ll see. In the poly, things seem to be doing ok, there are melons and peppers and a baby aubergine so I’m keeping my fingers crossed, the cukes are trying to escape though!

I really, really need to get some more weeding time. I did two hours this weekend and barely made a dent. Hopefully, I’ll have a good weekend on the plot and I’m off next week so it’s going to be all about the weeding then. I may catch up, I do need to get plants in the ground. So August is about regaining control and planning for the autumn.

And deterring the cat…