We are in a heat wave over here, not something I moved to England to enjoy, I am not a great fan of heat. The thing about England is these things do not last for ever and maybe we will get some great rain from the heat. We now have the gourds in the soil, thank you again ‘farm boys’ and this morning Matt was up early so got the water on the plants, the best start for them.
What does it take to move a compost heap? Three U.S farm boys. I have been very lucky, I have three guys staying who wanted to help out in the vegetable garden this morning and the job that had needed doing since the spring was to move the last of last winters compost and get a new heap started. It was a perfect job for such fit guys, and because they are from the U.S this heat that we have at the moment is not a problem for them. Thank you Adam, David and Jeff, you will be missed.
Another perfect day up in the vegetable garden, we now have 92 tomato plants in the ground. So we need a good hot summer and we will have an interesting crop I think. We got them all in the ground, a stake on each, tied up and ended the day with watering. One of the best starts you can give new plants is a really good soak, not with a can but leaving the sprinkler on the area for an hour.
This is the sight that gets me out of the bed in the moring, these poppies are growing throught the artichokes that I split this spring, Poppies always look best in the morning before the wind and strong sun get going. The sight really does melt my stone heart.
I had the two boys up in the fruit cage today helping out and I am very happy with the result, the whole area is looking great, we are really getting on top of things up in the vegetable garden. The potatoes should have been earthed up before now but sometimes in the garden you do jobs when you have the time and hope the results will be the same.
At 2:45 this morning I woke to the sound of rain, what a great thing to be woken to, there is only one other thing better to be woken to. It was a light English rain which was perfect and it went on for most of the day so has really got into the soil. The plants are already looking so much for it. The crop that is going to get a lot from it is Pea ‘Sugar Ann’, it is going to be a good year for peas it seems.
The only way to get it to rain is to spend nights watering, I do the watering once everyone has gone home and I can get a hose. I do find it very interesting when I travel to different parts of the world and people go on about how it always rains in England, maybe these people should come over and grow a garden here, we really need water and they say we may get it tomorrow night, lets hope.
And last night I was able to pick my own sweet peas, the orange are out first.
At this time of the year it is important to keep sowing salad. Salad is the crop that is used and enjoyed most in the summer but you need to keep sowing so that you do not run out. Today I have cleared away two crops that we had for the winter but have now gone to seed, chicory and parsley. Tomorrow I will sow in these areas with summer vegetables, not too sure what yet, I will sleep on it.
For the first time I have sown a row of Amaranthus as a crop, my problem is that I am not sure if I should be growing it as a leaf vegetable or a cereal. I got the seed from Jonny’s Mother who in turn got the seed from a friend in Mexico, the seed was only sown today so I have time to find out more. I also got in two rows of Helichrysum in ( I am showing my age, it has a new name, and I am not sure what it is), they are all going to be red flowered this autumn.
Great Dixter Vegetable Garden 