The weather has really been messing around. After a couple of weeks cool and damp weather following the last heatwave, the switch flipped to extra hot. Challenging!
Weeding
Whilst we were in the cool phase, I must admit to not spending as much time as I should have on the plot. And most of what time was spent, was spent weeding. I’ve concentrated on my soil since day one. The addition of a lot, I mean a LOT, of sheep manure, kindly donated by my neighbour and my own compost etc. has made a huge improvement in both structure and nutrients to my soil.
Of course, nothing comes without cost and the cost of this improved fertility is that the weeds seem to jump up overnight. Eventually this weed pressure will ease off, so long as I don’t allow any to seed.
However, even if I diligently kill them off before any weeds can produce speed, those seeds in the soil are sitting like little bombs with time delay fuses. Some will be going off for many years, even decades, to come.
Even if the soil was perfectly sterilised, killing every weed seed in there, there will still be weeds growing. The seeds float through the air to land on the soil and grow. I’m afraid weeds are something we just have to accept. We can and should control their numbers but we can’t eliminate them.
So it’s hi ho, hi ho, off to hoe we go. (sorry, couldn’t resist)
Sometimes the hoe won’t help. I sowed a bed of carrots and, as the carrots emerged so did a mass of chickweed. Just impossible to separate the weeds from the carrot seedlings.
The only thing to do was to hoe off the entire bed, carrot seedlings and all. Next, lightly rake to disturb the surface and bring any more weed seeds up. Lightly water daily to germinate them and then hoe off again. The cleaned soil is then sown, and the weed pressure is minimal.
Cauliflowers
Cauliflowers Barcelona
Harvested some cauliflowers, not exceptional – quite small, actually. I’d got the seedlings in pots too long so they formed flower without the roots required to supply enough growth. Still, tasty and much better than a poke in the eye with a dirty stick.
The hens appreciate the cauliflower leaves, which I hang in the run. I’ve been close growing greyhound cabbages. As they become crowded, pull a cabbage for the chooks. I’ve had a couple swarmed with caterpillars – extra protein for the birds.
Purple Graffiti Cauliflower
Heatwave
Well the record temperatures of the legendary summer of 1976 have been broken. Now my memories of that wonderful summer were that it was hot and the girls were scantily clad and very hot. Oddly enough, we survived despite not being told endlessly by the media to drink more, keep in the shade and wear a hat.
The main thing with extreme (for the UK) heat is to ensure the plants have enough water. So out to the polytunnel and greenhouse at six in the morning and, at the peak, water again around 8:00pm.
The greenhouse auto-vents stayed open all night and I left the doors open, which kept things survivable. I may have some reduced set with the tomatoes due to the heat, but the plants are looking very healthy.
The sweetcorn outside is looking much better, thanks to the heatwave, but it’s half the size of the plants in the polytunnel. Sweetcorn does love the heat.
Controlling the temperature in the polytunnel is harder than the greenhouse, you can’t put vents in the roof. So I had the mist sprayers on most of the day. It maxed out at 40ºC one day but otherwise peaked around 35ºC.
At night switched from the misters to the drip lines, so the soil hasn’t dried out.
The doors at both ends were left open to keep airflow, which caused a couple of problems. Firstly a bird discovered the strawberries in the hanging baskets and had himself a feast. Well, I don’t mind sharing, but the greedy beast had the lot.
The heatwave ended as usual with a thunderstorm. A rather spectacular one that woke us at five in the morning. It got a bit windy as was forecasted so I had the greenhouse doors shut before going to bed but didn’t shut the polytunnel doors. The tunnel is fine but I think it caused a bit of a wind tunnel, channelling from back to front as some sweetcorn was blown over. Got that sorted without too much problem.
Charlotte Potatoes Growing in Tubs in the Polytunnel
Sowing
Sowed some winter cabbage (Tundra) and some more Greyhound. Also sowed more lettuce into Bustaseed modules along with some parsley. Sowed White Lisbon spring onions into modules and some Swedes, Best of All.
Because of the sun’s strength, I put a tent of white horticultural fleece over the sowings to stop them cooking. For some reason it seems to have worked on everything but the Little Gem lettuces. Maybe they’ll pop up yet, or I can just sow some more. At least lettuce seeds are not ludicrously expensive… yet!
Redcurrants Ripening Behind Netting
Now we’ve got some decent weather, sunny and warm but not scorching, so I can get on with things outside again.
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