Heatwave

Endless blue skies....

Almost unbelievably after the recent damp summers, we're having a run of hot, sunny weather - enough to have weathermen talking about a heatwave! It was nice at first but after ten days or so with temperatures in high 20s and nudging 30 occasionally, I've had enough. It's not so good for the fruit and veg - the fruit on the moved-this-year allotment raspberry canes is shrivelling, and newly transplanted seedlings are drying out too quickly. I've sadly reached the point where I hope we have some rain soon.

Picked this week - 7th July 2013

 It's been a week of lots of lettuce - again!

 ...and a variety of radishes

lots of strawberries and redcurrants all ripening together

 the first mangetout peas

 and some more broad beans

July in the garden - fruit and veg

 First strawberries and redcurrants ripening now

 apples swelling











and - this is very exciting - the grapes

dwarf borlotto beans are forcing their way through the earlier sowing of salad leaves

tomatoes are setting

I even have some growing in a hanging basket!

there's a couple of cabbages - which are supposed to be winter crops but look a bit early for that

the red kale that I thought would look attractive among the flowers is being eaten away by slugs and snails

but the red cabbage is looking ok

July in the garden - flowers

 The small patch beneath the front window is now covered in flowers - hardy geraniums at ground level and pyracantha blossoms above.

Feverfew  - which I started growing as a herb but quickly decided its flowers were pretty enough to be a 'flower'.









more colourful and heavenly scented flowers on the sweetpeas

stunning lilies - and no signs of lily beetle this year.

a pot of marigolds - not really that unusual but it's often difficult to get them to grow here as the slugs and snails eat them too quickly

 Sweet williams flowering for the first year - it's a long while since I last had these in my garden and they're lovely.

full to overflowing borders - dominated by foxglove spires

 pink scented rose

 and the creamy one being encouraged to climb the birch tree

one of my garden centre rescues doing well

Picked this week 30th June 2013

 Lots of the same old salad leaves again this week - though something a little different is this self-set spinach (left) found on the allotment

 and some enormous radishes, the size of golf balls, to go with them!

more of the 'clearing out' onions

but some extra goodies this week - kale and the first of this year's broad beans












the first cucumbers - an unusual crystal lemon and a 'normal' telepathy type.







 some tiny carrots, part of an experiment to grow an early crop in the greenhouse - it didn't really work.

The first of the soft fruit - strawberries!! Not a lot but enough to add to breakfast cereal.

and a few redcurrants

and vine leaves - not normally a crop but as I was pruning the vine, I thought I'd collect the leaves and cook them stuffed with mince. It didn't actually work out as I forgot to check the recipe in advance and then discovered they would take far too long to cook.

Just after Midsummer

 I usually try to post photos of the garden at Midsummer but I got distracted last week so took them yesterday 26th. The flowers seem to have taken over the old vegetable patch completely but hiding among them I still have quite a few veg growing.

 The blue-flowered and podded peas, blauwschokker

...the white Delikett mangetout peas  - their wigwam of sticks can just be seen to the left of the path in the photo above

and - can you spot the difference? - actual sweet peas. These are the first of this year's flowers on plants from homegrown seed and I'm hoping that not all the flowers will be white!

strawberries line the paths - I'm just waiting for them to ripen as they're a little behind the allotment berries which I'm already picking.

There'll be a longer wait for the apples but it looks like there could be a massive crop.







The irises I was given by a neighbour are doing well in their new spot

the oriental poppies were looking good till today's rain..

I have some new flowers in the garden. Grown from seed last year this is the first time they've flowered - Sweet Williams, above, and rock roses in a variety of pink and white shades