The drought continues with no rain forecast in the near future. The improvement to our water supply seems to have been only temporary, as the pressure has reverted to being low. Maybe not quite as bad as before, but still not as it should be. This means watering is back to being our main occupation; however, we are starting to wonder whether all the effort has been worth it. After last week’s gales, we had a couple of hot afternoons. Some plants seem to have given up. Leaves on some squash and climbing beans are battered and shrivelled.
The allotment should look lush and verdant at this time of year, but instead, beds are being cleared early and more bare earth is on show.
We can’t take advantage of the early clearance to make a start on our preparations for next season, as the ground resembles either dust or concrete.
Martyn lifted a row of potatoes, and considering the conditions that they had endured, we were relatively pleased with the yield. The young tender growth was severely cut back twice, courtesy of late frosts. They received no water from the watering can and very little from the sky during their entire growing period. The temperatures have also been higher than potatoes like.
The variety was Kingsman, which is new to us, so we are left wondering what the yield would be like in a better year. Hopefully, we will find out.
I lifted the second lot of onions and the shallots.
I thought the first onions that I lifted were small; however, these were even smaller.
They were planted later than the first lot and grown from seed, but they had been watered regularly.
The shallots were also grown from seed and were given the same treatment. Unlike the onions, they have grown to the size that I expect.
In my last post, I wrote that one of our beds of sweetcorn had been flattened by storm Floris. Amazingly, it has almost righted itself, but will it produce a harvest?
Also in my last post, I reported that one of our plum trees had been devastated. Martyn, set to with a chainsaw to try and salvage something of the tree.
An enormous limb had been ripped from the tree. At this point, it is too early to tell whether what remains of the tree will survive.
Around watering duties, we managed to fit in some weeding. Weeds seem to manage to grow in the most inhospitable ground, with fat hen being the most prolific. Apparently, it is edible, but I can’t say that I fancy trying it
.Of course, we have to set aside time for harvesting
12 August – Purple sprouting broccoli, greengages, tomatoes, plums, apples and courgettes.
We usually have a good harvest of peas, but this year’s hot and dry conditions haven’t suited them.
This week’s haul of plums was retrieved from the storm-damaged tree when Martyn removed the broken section.
We also picked a couple more punnets of plums, which were given to a plot neighbour. One advantage of the dry conditions is that so far the carrots haven’t suffered from slug damage.
We make regular pickings of tomatoes from the garden and garden greenhouse, which I often forget to mention, and we are still picking lots of apples from the tree in our garden.
Some of our cabbage and some purple sprouting broccoli were used along with one of our onions and garlic in a version of Ethiopian cabbage.
More cauliflower and onion were used in a turkey bake. The bake also included sliced mushrooms, which, along with the cauliflower, onion and turkey, were cooked in the oven with a curry-flavoured white sauce and topped with grated cheese.
When we visited Nostell last week, a family of Canada geese was preening together. Two well-grown goslings accompanied mum and dad. We have noticed the pair of adults a few times. It seemed unusual as I expect to see Canada geese in a flock rather than just a pair. This pair must be rather antisocial
That’s all for this week, so as always, stay safe and stay well.
Again, I am joining Dave for Harvest Monday on his Our Happy Acres blog.
I’m impress with how much you have harvested with so little rain. That is too bad about the plum tree. It seems like every 10 years we get a plum harvest. This is the year, but they weren’t ripe when I went back to my parents and I probably won’t be back again. i have never heard of Ethiopian cabbage. Was it good?
Our plum trees tend to fruit well every other year, Bonnie but this year was the best ever. A small pear tree on the next plot has a broken branch due to the weight of pears. Our apples have also done well. We like the Ethiopian xcabbage, there are lots of variations on the web.
Sue, I sympathize that your harvest is spoiled due to the lack of water for irrigation. On the contrary, we have rain every day and the beans do not ripen well.
It’s a pity the weather doen’t share itself around, Nadezda
You really are suffering this year. I’ve mentioned it before, but is there no way that you can fit a splitter to the tap, allowing you to fill up water storage containers from your tap, but still leave it available for others to use. You could, for example, fill some IBC tanks and then buy a little pump to give you full water pressure (I have one of those) or use a smaller watering can that you can dip into a tank, that you could lift out, that’s what I do and it makes watering so quick and efficient, it’s almost a joy. I know you mentioned struggling to lift a watering can out of a dip tank, but a few months of strength training would probably fix that forever. I also just pour my liquid feed into the dip tank and so I water and feed at the same time. I’m also mulching a lot, so that’s halved my watering. Taken together I’m only watering once a week and it takes me about 2 hours and looking at your harvests I’m picking about 2-3 times as much, from a lot less space and we’ve had hardly any rain either. It looks like variable weather is our future now, so getting prepared for uncertainty now, will pay off in the future. Also have you considered gardening more intensively, but on less land, that would help in so many ways, you would have less weeding, watering and bed prep to do and harvest more, over a longer period of time. For example I’m close to harvesting cauliflowers and calabrese from my onion bed, right now and I harvested salad onions and garlic from my sweetcorn bed etc. At least your small onions should keep well, I try to harvest smaller onions myself, by planting intensively, because they keep so well : all the best – Steve
There isn’t a lack of taps Steve, we have about a dozen on site and we have one at each end of our plot. The problem is poor flow/pressure which means only one tap can be used at any given time or the flow stops completely. Filling a tank would take forever.I’m only just over five foot and probably quite a bit older than you so would be wary of damaging my back.
About a quarter of our plot is fruit trees and bushes etc About a fifth is flowers and we have areas left for wildlife and of course the grass paths cut down on growing areas but we harvest plenty to meet our needs and have some produce to give away. We garden our plot as a hobby not as a means to an end.
When we first took on an allotment, some forty years ago we planted up conventionally but soon found that on our soil walking between plants to harvest compacted te soil badly. Dividing into smaller beds means that you can focus on a given bed and feel that you have achieved something. It’s also pleasant to sit on the grass paths to weed or plant and it’s better for wildlife. I actually enjoy weeding it’s just that this year we have spent so much time watering that weeding has been on the back burner.
Most people on our site have a winter break as our heavy soil doesn’t suit winter planting. Also it’s a chance to do oher things and recharge the batteries. I guess we all find a way of doing things that suits us,
I was only trying to help, you sound so worn down by it all, but if it suits you thats great, there are so many ways to garden, which is the beauty of it. It doesn’t matter how old you are, you can always get stronger, my wife is 5’ and dip tanks are great for her : all the best – Steve
Sorry if I came over a bit huffy, Steve. It wasn’t meant like that. I appreciate that you were being helpful. I was just explaining our situation. The real problem is the abysmal water pressure and lack of progress remedying the situation. It’s that causing frustration but I really don’t feel worn down 🙂
That is terrible about the plum tree! Hopefully it will come back out. It’s sad to see all our hard work get downhill because of rain, or lack thereof.
We did harvest lots of plums from the broken branch, Dave
It is a shame that things are moving on so quickly, but some definite positives in your post and some fab harvests.
Makes you wonder what next year’s weather has in store for us 😒
That Ethiopian cabbage recipe looks great!
We never know what the weather will do from one year to the next, Belinda It probably won’t stop raining next year abd be slug heaven
so sad when all your hard work does not pay off. if you can hang on, apparently next week brings us the tail end of the monster hurricane Erin. should be plenty of rain with that, but then, of course, there’s the accompanying winds too.
No rain for us yet Debbie.