Heatwave

Courgette flowers! These are male, with no fruit at the base, so can be snipped off and eaten - stuffed and fried is traditional, or else sliced and stirred through pasta or risotto, sprinkled on pizza, etc.

Written 27/06:
To begin with, I thought the characterisation of a few days of above-average temperatures as a 'heatwave' was a little excessive, but now we're in the middle of it, I feel more equivocal. It is unusually warm, especially for Scotland - over 30ºC in places, and obviously much hotter in sheltered, sunny spots. I enjoy the heat, and have ways to avoid it making things too uncomfortable (especially indoors at night), so it's great.

Lots of healthy kale plants have been one of the year's great successes so far. I've never grown them before, but they are so easy and so ornamental that they ought to be a fixture in the garden from now on.

It does mean a lot more watering. No rain is one thing - and June has been unseasonally dry, though less so up here than in parts of England - but this kind of heat dessicates everything very quickly, especially potted plants, and I have a few hundred of those. So at least two hours a day will be spent watering at the moment, although it's not much of a chore. I find it quite pleasant standing, or walking slowly round the garden, really looking at the plants,whilst soaking them. I have been using watering cans for the lower part of the garden*, as I find trailing a hose tens of metres more trouble, but even that is fine. There's a sense of achievement, as little by little, parched plants get their fill - and it doesn't have to be done every day (I do the garden in sections, otherwise it would take hours more!).

*I did use the hose the next day as the beds themselves needed a good soak.

Against all odds, there are pods swelling on the broad beans in the polytunnel. Small and few, but more than I expected from these poor neglected plants.

Some crops will suffer. Lettuces are very susceptible to drying out, though they recover quickly. Peas are said to hate hot weather, but so far they look fine. Cooler-weather crops like brassicas may or may not mind, but again they all look healthy at present. On the other hand, the tomatoes, chillies, aubergines, and courgettes are basking, and so long as they don't dry out, they will thrive. Had I known this weather was coming, I would perhaps not have felt so rushed to build the greenhouse, where even with the door and all the vents fully open, it's almost too warm at the moment - it's been as high as 39ºC, and today has hovered well over 30ºC all day. However, this weather cannot last, and when things return to normal, that's when it will come into its own.

Harvests are still thin on the ground. Ample lettuce, some leafy greens, herbs, and beets are about all the garden has to offer right now. My fault for not planning better or starting earlier in the year. But soon things will surely change - peas and beans, onions and garlic (and if I continue, there will be much more this time next year). Surely soon there will be more substantial crops. But for now there's plenty to do. I've been clearing the beds that will be taken up by cucurbits (courgettes, summer and winter squash, pumpkins), and summer beans, which have been utterly derelict since we came here four years ago. The vegetable garden is less and less a tiny island surrounded by weedy wilderness, and more orderly and full of beautiful edible plants, and as that change continues, I am sustained and willed on. Normally I have a slump at this time of year, but at present I feel there's such a weight of plants and progress that it has a momentum of its own now. And the weather helps with that too.

A dream coming true: ranks of vegetables swelling in the sunshine. Here are beetroot in the foreground, garlic to the right, and sweetcorn at the back.

Harvests
26/06 - 40g chard, 30g spinach, (approx. 200g elderflowers)
28/06 - 190g beetroot*
YTD total: 1.73kg

*note, this is trimmed of leaves, washed and dried - although the leaves are edible, they're not great once the bulbs are ready, so I compost them, and they aren't weighed.

 Here is a female courgette flower, not yet open, but the embryonic fruit is already distinct. It's the variety 'Burpee's Golden'.