COLD AND RAINY JUNE
While gardening has its joys in abundance, it brings along disappointments too. We've had the wettest April in 100 years this year, it was heading for the coldest May until we had some sunshine towards the end of it and June, so far, has been well below average temperatures for June. And rain! We've had enough rain to float the Ark up here on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire. Wet Yorkshire. My strawberries are showing signs of botrytis. The idea was that I would shelter them so that they would not be set back by the weather but no matter how much ventilation they have had, they couldn't fight the dampness in the air. The tomatoes, on the other hand, which were kept in the polytunnel with the strawberries, have come out fighting fit. Perhaps I shouldn't speak too soon.
I noticed last year, and this, that Tumbling Tom Yellow has a slightly different growth habit. Lankier. Less vigorous. The yellow fruit, however, is sharp and yet sweet, and it's well worth growing but I haven't yet found it as bountiful as the red one.
The cumber seeds, which cost an arm and a leg, germinated but somehow the slugs managed to get at the plants which were in the polytunnel with slug pellets down around them. I guess slugs have learned to pole vault or something. The courgettes that I have in pots and also a couple in the soil are looking a bit wishy washy. They need sunshine. So do I.
The roses, Lord love them, are full of flower buds and if the rain would just hold off and give the sun a chance so the buds can open and not rot, I would be very grateful.
Alfie, my little shadow of a cat, has been on patrol. It's no joke being stuck inside in the rain with a whining cat and so I'm glad for fine days. Alfie doesn't like rain, or wind, or cold, or too much heat. It's a wonder he ever goes out at all. But when he does he never damages anything - much. Ok, he occasionally breaks a stuck out rose branch now and then, that should have been tied back anyway, when jumping off the fence but it isn't his fault, any more than it was my fault this morning when I was having a worse than usually bad vertigo day and managed to stagger onto a newly planted dahia called Fascination that I had been growing, nourishing, for the last month. I was not pleased. Language, Valerie, think of the neighbours!
At last I managed to remove some of the spent tulips out of a tub so I can use it. Disappointingly, the Peaches and Cream bulbs were pathetically small. There just hasn't been enough sun to invigorate the bulbs which are nourished through the dying leaves which causes them to grow. I don't know if they'll be worth planting in October to grow next year. I have to think about that one. In that vacated tub, I have planted that little round carrot Parmex and some radishes. The plan is that the radishes will shoot up and I will benefit from them just as the carrots are growing up. Then, where the radishes were, I can sow more carrots. That's the plan. Watch this space.
All in all, so far, as far as growing vegetables is concerned, it has been a rubbish start to the growing year. I don't think I can put myself through this every year. I shall have to put my thinking cap on. It might just be roses and tomatoes in future.
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| Tumbling Tom Red |
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| Tumbling Tom Yellow |
The cumber seeds, which cost an arm and a leg, germinated but somehow the slugs managed to get at the plants which were in the polytunnel with slug pellets down around them. I guess slugs have learned to pole vault or something. The courgettes that I have in pots and also a couple in the soil are looking a bit wishy washy. They need sunshine. So do I.
The roses, Lord love them, are full of flower buds and if the rain would just hold off and give the sun a chance so the buds can open and not rot, I would be very grateful.
Alfie, my little shadow of a cat, has been on patrol. It's no joke being stuck inside in the rain with a whining cat and so I'm glad for fine days. Alfie doesn't like rain, or wind, or cold, or too much heat. It's a wonder he ever goes out at all. But when he does he never damages anything - much. Ok, he occasionally breaks a stuck out rose branch now and then, that should have been tied back anyway, when jumping off the fence but it isn't his fault, any more than it was my fault this morning when I was having a worse than usually bad vertigo day and managed to stagger onto a newly planted dahia called Fascination that I had been growing, nourishing, for the last month. I was not pleased. Language, Valerie, think of the neighbours!
.JPG) |
| Alfie on parade |
At last I managed to remove some of the spent tulips out of a tub so I can use it. Disappointingly, the Peaches and Cream bulbs were pathetically small. There just hasn't been enough sun to invigorate the bulbs which are nourished through the dying leaves which causes them to grow. I don't know if they'll be worth planting in October to grow next year. I have to think about that one. In that vacated tub, I have planted that little round carrot Parmex and some radishes. The plan is that the radishes will shoot up and I will benefit from them just as the carrots are growing up. Then, where the radishes were, I can sow more carrots. That's the plan. Watch this space.
All in all, so far, as far as growing vegetables is concerned, it has been a rubbish start to the growing year. I don't think I can put myself through this every year. I shall have to put my thinking cap on. It might just be roses and tomatoes in future.