Yesterday I awoke to the rumble of thunder and the sound of
rain pounding on the roof. It hasn’t rained for a few weeks now and the water
butts were dry.
I have spent most of my evenings in the garden watering, but
not the flower beds as you would think. Although one or two of the plants are
starting to show some affects of the dry weather, it goes to show that the theory of right plant in
the right place really does work. The only watering in respect of the flower
borders has been a weekly drench of the ground around the roses. Needless to
say they have put on a fantastic display, and with one or two other plants,
have needed deadheading almost daily. In the kitchen garden the peas,
courgettes and tomatoes have needed watering every day with the brassicas and
onions requiring a good drenching once or twice a week.
The garden overall is really starting to get going now. The
cold spell early in the year has resulted in some plants flowering 6 weeks later
than usual, with the warm dry weather that we are currently experiencing,
resulting in the earlier flowering of other plants. Some vegetables have also
been ready for picking, namely shallots, garlic, managetout, peas, beetroot and
spring onions. The tomatoes are a little behind in the greenhouse, and are only
just starting their second truss of fruit. I was absolutely gutted a few weeks
back when seeing some tomatoes growing in a public garden, further south from
here, they were strong looking plants and already onto their forth truss of
fruit. Mine at the time hadn’t even managed the first, let alone a forth. The
tomatoes are not the only fruit we have had a problem with so far. The
blueberries/bilberries have produced only a small amount of fruit this year.
This could be down to not enough pollinating insects around at the right time,
or maybe with the bumper crop we had last year they need some time to recover.
All I know is that we are not the only ones with a poor harvest this year.
For those of you that recall, the bees that were introduced
into the garden a few months back, all is not well. I can only assume that the
warm weather has assisted in bringing to a near end our hive. The queen bee has
died and all but two or three of the workers have gone. Our only hope now is
that the eggs that have been laid hatch okay and the hive exists a while
longer. Despite this we are still getting a number of bees in the garden, some species
of which I don’t recall ever seeing before.