Lettuce 'Yugoslavian Red' and some tiny spring onions, in a wicker-edged bag planter - I would not choose these, but they were freely available and I need all the planting space I can get right now.
As I may have said before on this blog, I consider the start of summer to be the 1st of June (as does the Met Office). That view was developed when I lived in England, and it's certainly less apt up here in Scotland, but nonetheless, it seems odd to talk of June as anything but summer.
Having said that, some spring things haven't yet happened. Hawthorn - 'May' - is only just coming out here. We have a fairly large, mature specimen in a far corner of the garden, and plenty of seedlings have spread around, one of which near the house is large enough to flower this year - it's started to open, sooner than the other one, but perhaps it's the impetuousness of youth. Alliums (the ornamental kind) are just opening. Whether their lateness is due to being planted in February (I am bad with bulbs), or if that's the normal way up here, I can't say - but they are also really late spring flowers, in my mind. On the other hand, the weather has been that of high summer - days and days of heat (up to the mid twenties Celsius), sunshine, and humidity, although nights have often been cool, and fog has crept in from the east from time to time.
Another wicker-edged container with probably-too-closely-planted beetroot, spinach beet, spring onions, and turnips.
The larger tomatoes are already forming flowers, and some courgettes are likewise developing embryonic buds, which is especially unexpected. It's been a case of watering and juggling plants around to find cooler, shadier spots, which I hadn't expected, but gardeners must be supremely adaptable in this country. I love heat, and sunshine, so I can't complain. Combined with the long days we get at this time of year - sixteen or seventeen hours between sunrise and sunset, and an hour either side of twilight - and there's enough time to do most things. It's langorous, or would be if there wasn't quite *so* much to do.
My major project of May, which I will reveal once it's done*, is nearing its end. Otherwise, I've done a lot of clearing, rearranging, and sprucing up of areas that have been neglected for a long time - not 'tidying', which is a noxious term in gardening I find, but just bringing things into focus a little more. There's still plenty of wildness in the garden, and that's good.
As for specifics, the broad beans are flowering in the polytunnel, and budding outside. Radishes are abundant. Lettuces and spinach provide a modest crop every few days. Brassicas, still waiting for a permanent home, are being potted on and on. Most things continue to grow well, although some haven't thrived. I should have enough of almost everything, if things continue the way they have been. I'd let out a sigh of relief, but it's not time for that quite yet.
31/05 - 90g radishes
03/06 - 10g lettuce
04/06 - 250g radishes**
07/06 - 40g spinach
09/06 - 50g lettuce, 100g radishes
YTD total: 850g
Also several hundred grammes of lovage, but as I didn't plant it (it was here when we moved in), I haven't counted it. The plant grows fast - it dies back in winter, but by June it can get to seven feet tall, and when it flowers later in summer, even taller. I've removed the flowering stems this time, as I want to prolong it (though the seeds are edible as a spice, and the flowers very attractive to insects).
*I obviously already published the entry on this.
**Previously I was weighing the radish plants whole, including the leaves, because they were small and tender. But now the leaves are a bit big and prickly to eat (I guess you could cook them), so I just weighed the 'bulbs'.
Just some of the plants waiting to be put in their final positions - a bit daunting. Lots of brassicas, lettuces, some alliums (leeks and shallots), spinach, and ornamentals cosmos and scabious. Almost every plant here was grown from seed.
No comments:
Post a Comment