Life on The Weald - August 2022

& in the garden and kitchen

The Weald allotment, Hove - August 2022

 

July was the driest and hottest on record and August started in the same vein with hose-pipe bans in some parts of the country and an official drought declared by the Environment Agency in several regions (including the South East) on 12 August.

The butternut squashes had not fared well during the drought but the Crown Prince, Tromboncinos and pumpkins seemed to be surviving but smaller and less prolific than previous years, and the Courgettes and cucumbers were doing well.  We also had a reasonable crop of climbing French beans

2 August - pumpkin

2 August - tromboncinos

2 August - French beans, cucumbers and courgettes

I picked some of the Love-in-a-Mist (Nigella) that had gone to seed.  I saved the seeds and used the dried stems for decoration at home.

3 August - Love-in-a-mist 

I also picked some of the Banana chillies (yellow wax)

3 August - Banana chillies

I will leave the Crown Prince squashes until next month but in the meantime, the Patty Pan can be harvested.

3 August - Crown Prince squash

3 August - Patty pan squash

At home, some of the tomatoes were showing signs that they might ripen soon - its a bit like watching paint dry! Or what's that saying about watched kettles?

4 August - tomatoes (Marmande)

4 August - tomatoes (Super Mama)

We had family visiting for a few days in August and then there was Pride weekend so the allotment got a bit neglected. I did manage to lift some of the 2nd Early Nicola potatoes and was very pleased that they were pest free and showed no signs of blight or scab. I am hoping that the Charlotte will also have fared well. 

5 August - Nicola potatoes

In the mini-greenhouse on the plot, the chillies were doing well but I noticed brown lines on the jalapeños and wondered what the cause might be so I looked it up and found that it was both significant and common. The jalapeño heat level varies from mild to hot depending on growing conditions and can be from a few thousand to over 10,000 Scoville heat units. The number of brown scars on the pepper is known as 'corking', and is an indicator of heat level. Growing conditions which increase heat level also cause the pepper to form scars.

7 August - Orange Habaneros

7 August - Jalapeño 

"Corking"

I picked the yellow wax (banana) chillies that were growing outside. There were courgettes and patty-pan squashes to harvest and I also picked some of the climbing French beans and some purple dwarf ones.

7 August -Courgettes, beans, peppers & squash

At home, the Orange Habaneros were ripening

8 August - Orange habanero

On 10 August beefsteak tomatoes seemed resistant to ripening, despite all the sunshine we have had - am I being too impatient? (It's the watched kettle phenomenon again)

10 August - Marmande tomatoes

There had been a delivery of tree prunings and woodchips on the allotment, so this was a cue to take advantage of the good weather and renew the central path and the paths between the beds.  There was, however, a lot of couch grass and bindweed to be removed.

10 August - bindweed and  couch grass roots

Having removed the weeds, I laid a layer of cardboard and spread the wood chips on top.

10 August - footpath renewal

10 August - footpath renewal

On arrival on the plot on 13 August I was confronted with swarms of flying ants - it must be "flying ant day"!  Contrary to popular myth, however, there is no such thing as "Flying ant day" but the pehenomenen does occur around the same time each year, between July and August and follows a period of hot weather.  The actual day will vary in different parts of the country and it is when the emerging new "queens" leave the nest with swarms of male ants, with whom they mate, and then go on to form a new colony.

Flying ant day is fairly harmless to humans but not very pleasant to experience.

"Flying ant day"

It was another warm dry day on 16 August  with temperatures in the low twenties.  It was hot work, but I continued to renew the paths.

16 August - path renewal

It was also time to harvest the borlotto beans.

16 August - Borlotto beans

I took these home and laid on trays and left them in a sunny place indoors to ensure they were fully dried

Borlotto beans drying

Whilst on the plot, I also lifted some more Nicola potatoes.

2nd Early Nicola potatoes

At last, on 17 August, the beefsteak tomatoes appeared to be ripening.

17 August - Marmande tomatoes

We were about to go away for a few days to celebrate my 78th birthday so I gave the plot a good watering before we left in case the dry spell continued.  We were spending a week in Holland and had glorious hot weather, although I was pleased to hear that there was some rain back home!

On our return on Friday 26 August it was great to see that the tomatoes were ripening nicely and we had a good haul of both Super Marmande and Yellow perfection cherry ones.

26 August - Marmande & Yellow perfection tomatoes

The earlier sown beetroots were looking healthy and might be ready soon and the later sown ones had germinated.

26 August - beetroots

The Crown Prince squashes and pumpkin had benefited from the recent rain and had increased in size

26 August - Crown Prince  squash

26 August - Pumpkin

The purple dwarf French beans were flowering again so there are hopes of a new crop.

26 August - French beans flowering

There were also more plums to be picked.

26 August - plums on the tree

26 August - Plums for the eating

26 August - Cucumber on the vine

26 August - Patty pan

26 August - good harvest

The month was drawing to a close and autumn is approaching but the temperature on 27 August was still in the twenties. At home I was waiting for more tomatoes to ripen.

27 August - Super Marmande

But there were lots of other tomatoes to be picked as well as chillies

27 August - Chocolate Cherry tomatoes and Habanero chillies

27 August - Tomato harvest

It was decision time about the plums - and I decided to try a plum tarte tatine.

27 August - preparing for a tarte tatine

Tarte tatine before turning!

On 28 August I decided to do something with an old redundant wheelbarrow.  I had tried , in vain, with WD40 to free the wheel but without success. Should I take it to the dump or find a new use?  I decided to convert it to a planter! Firstly, I painted it.

28 August - painting the wheelbarrow

The following day, I continued painting, having drilled some holes for drainage.

29 August - the wheelbarrow project

30 August it was time to plant the new planter. I planted winter savory. pineapple mint, French tarragon, grapefruit mint  and some cinammon basil  which someone had given as a birthday present.  The new trough was more for the bees than for us as we have a plentiful supply of herbs at home.

30 August - the wheelbarrow planted

30 August - the wheelbarrow planted

There were still more plums to be picked!

30 August

I began to make some plum jelly and put it to strain overnight

31 August - Jelly making day

It has been a strange year so far and the weather forecast is that temperatures will drop in September with quite a lot of rain.  The garden certainly needs the rain but I hope we see enough sunshine to ripen the rest of the tomatoes, peppers and squashes.

John Austin

Hove, August 2022

Life on The Weald, April 2022

Life on The Weald - Plot 247

(and out and about) - April 2022

A few days away at the beginning of the month................

Parque Natural de las Salinas de Santa Pola - 3 April

We returned from our brief break on 7 April and thankfully all the seedlings indoors  at home had survived.  We had been worried that everything on the allotment might dry out as rising temperatures had been predicted, with no rain expected. Whilst we had been away, however, temperatures had fallen with some heavy frosts on occasion.  There had been snow in many parts of the UK and Hove had experienced sleet and strong winds.  The following day I went to review the possible damage at the allotment.

Fortunately, the broad beans had withstood the wind and the autumn sown ones were in full flower.  The only real damage was to the Duke of York first early potatoes which appeared to have been caught by the frost.  This is how they looked when we left them a fortnight earlier:

Duke of York 17 March

...and this is what they looked like on our return

Duke of York - 10 April

The wind or the frost had blackened and killed off some of the leaf growth but thankfully there were signs of new growth.  I think the mulch of grass cuttings that we had applied last month might have helped their survival.

We gave the potatoes a good watering and earthed them up hoping the Duke of York would recover.  The later planted Nicola & Charlotte  did not appear to have been affected by the weather.

There was a lot of rhubarb waiting to be picked.

8 April - rhubarb

The peas were coming along nicely altough there were some gaps. 

Mangetout peas - 8 April

I sowed some more mange-tout in some guttering at home so that I could fill the gaps later.  Some of the spinach was going to seed but there was lots to harvest and we were also able to pick a good supply of purple sprouting broccoli.

There was also the first sign of blossom on the plum trees

Plum tree in blossom - 8 April

The temperature was not wonderful the following week. On 19 April the temperature rose to 15C, but with a chilly wind, and was down to 6/7C at night.

I did take a risk, however, of planting out some patty pan squashes as I was running out of space at home and in our mini-greenhouse in the garden.  We also managed to pick five spears of asparagus and a good supply of the last of the broccoli.

At home I sowed some Crown Prince squash in pots but discovered I only had two seeds left from last year, so will have to buy some more seeds or buy some plants from the garden centre - unless someone on the allotment has some spares.  I also sowed one giant pumpkin seed.  We are limiting ourselves to one plant this year as we had a surfeit last year - and still have one at home!

One of last year's pumpkins

The autumn sown broad beans were now in full flower and, fingers crossed 🤞, are free of blackfly.

Autumn sown broad beans in flower -10 April

Autumn sown broad beans in flower -10 April

At home the front garden was a riot of colour with tulips and anemones

Tulips at home in April

Anemones in the front garden - April 2022

In the backgarden the Snowbells seemed to have taken over a corner of the garden.   

Although it has been with us since the 1700s, the Snowbell (Allium triquetrium) is classified as a non-native species in England and Wales and since it can outcompete native spring plants such as primroses and violets, it is illegal to plant it in the wild (Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act)  It appears to have taken over one of our border beds and has now spread to the lawn! But it is very attractive and All parts of the plant are edible (leaves, roots, flowers): it has an oniony/garlic smell and tastes like chives or young spring onions. The flowers look very attractive in salads or as a garnish.  It is also known as “three cornered leek” (the leaves in cross-section are triangular), “onion grass” and “onion weed”.  It  tastes like chives or young spring onions. The flowers look very attractive in salads or as a garnish.

Snowbells

Snowbell flower

At home, the spare Charlotte potatoes, planted in a growbag have just appeared above the surface.

Although I have managed to increase the "no dig" areas on the allotment, there is a long way to go.  I had allowed the area where the brassicas are to go to become somewhat overgrown in the autumn but had largely cleared it of perennial weeds and had emptied one of the compost bins on the area and had left the pile over the winter.  On 16 April I spread the pile and begun to lightly fork it in. 

Preparing the brassica bed

This year's brassica bed

Last year's Rainbow Chard had survive the winter and was puttig on new growth but was showing signes that it was about to go to seed.  Neverthe less there will be pickings for some weeks to come.  Some of it was self-seeded - often in inconvenient places - so it will have to be removed but whilst it is still producing leaves, I am happy for it to remain.

19 April - Rainbow chard

More Rainbow chard

We were away for a few days towards the end of the month and when we returned on 29 April we were pleased to see that we could probably look forward to a good crop of broad beans but sad to see that the blackfly had arrived.  Usually the autumn sown crop matures before the blackfly arrive - not this year it seems!

29 April - the first Broad beans

29 April - the dreaded blackfly

Blackfly on our broad beans

We are trying to avoid the use of pesticides, so I started by hosing down the plants to wash off as many blackfly as possible and then sprayed the plants with soapy water, including the underside of leaves.  I had read that the addition of a few drops of pungent natural oil such as rosemary, peppermint or clove oil to the spray was effective - apparently almost any natural oil will do.  I had some mustard oil in the kitchen cupboard which we use in Indian cuisine, so added a few drops.  So far it appears to have been effective.

On the last day of April, I noticed that the redcurrant bushes were fruiting so the time has come to repair the cage and replace the netting if we are not to lose the entire crop to the birds.

30 April - redcurrants

30 April - redcurrants

The potatoes seem OK, particularly the Nicola and Charlotte second earlies. The First Early Duke of York, which were planted perhaps a bit too early have not yet fully recovered from the late frosts, but we are still hopeful.

30 April Potatoes: Charlotte & Nicola in foreground

The sugar snap peas were looking good but will need some support - another job for next month!

30 April - Sugar snap peas

It was also time to start thinking about climbing beans and some repairs were needed to the frame.

Preparing a frame for the climbing beans

The planting season was now in full swing and we have picked the last of the purple sprouting broccoli as well as a few more spears of asparagus.  Just hoping that May will see some higher temperatures and that the cool wind will disappear.

John Austin

Hove, April 2022