High Summer

This has been the best spell of weather I can remember for many a year. Apart from a rather cool, grey and miserable Wednesday it has been pretty much wall to wall sunshine and warm temperatures both day and night for well over a week.

On the plot there are many plants benefitting from the sunshine and warmth, although it has to be said that some do not like the heat and prefer cooler, damper conditions. In general I go heavy on true 'summer' crops - courgettes, various squashes and pumpkins, beans, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and the like. They love this weather provided I can keep them watered when they really need it.

My philosophy on watering is simple - tough love! As I have mentioned before, our site does not benefit from a mains water supply. There is a water course (not worthy of naming it a stream) running down one side which provides dipping points for murky brown wet stuff. The bulk of our water comes from that we collect from sheds and other structures into a series of water butts and vessels. The key thing here is trying to keep the still water sweet when temperatures rise as it often starts to green up and smell stagnant. I use natural charcoal and straw bales from aquatic supply shops. Other people put a small capful of bleach in their water butt or buy a proprietary disinfectant sold for this purpose but I'm not sure about either of these...

Anyway, plants in the open ground go into well manured and improved soil appropriate for their needs. They get a good soak to start, followed by a good soak a week later and maybe one more if they show signs of stress. That is pretty much it from me and they get the rest from the ground and whatever falls from the sky. It generally works and avoids excessive lush growth at the expense of what I really want - crops. The only things I really continue to water are celery and celeriac and any recently planted fruit trees.

The greenhouse is another matter. The plants in here are entirely dependent on me for their needs. They are usually the more thirsty crops anyway, exacerbated by them growing in not much soil at all really - bottom 10 or 15L pots into growbags. In this hot weather the tomatoes get a drink every other day, the cucumber seems to need water like it's going out of fashion, whereas the peppers, aubergines and okra tend to need it less often. This puts pressure on visiting the plot regularly and I tend to do it very early or very late. This avoids the heat of the day and minimises loss through evaporation. It also means I can spend the daytime doing something more productive, like sitting in the shade drinking lemonade!

For some crops it is too hot/ dry at present. The lettuce and chard seem to wilt in the sun although they do perk up later in the day. The broad beans don't like the heat and I think the brassicas in general would prefer cooler and damper weather. My beetroot also seems less happy at present - same family as the colourful chard and the heat has the same effect. I think it might make the roots a bit tougher too - we'll see.

Fruit wise I've been picking at least a punnet of strawberries every visit with still more to come. The raspberries are ripening now with more and more ready to pick. They'll soon take over from the strawberries. Gooseberries are fattening and becoming more translucent as they sweeten and should be quite pleasant even raw. The cherries started to turn and got gobbled by pigeons and/ or blackbirds, ditto the redcurrants. I'm leaving the rhubarb to recuperate in time for a good crop next spring. I'm also anticipating a fine harvest of apples and pears with most trees loaded. I even have a few plums on the new-ish trees, which is a welcome bonus.

Finally, you may remember that I set myself the target of a ripe tomato by the end of June. I'm pleased to say that this milestone was achieved. Throughout the last week of June one Sungold started to turn and was picked, fully ripe, on the thirtieth and final day of the month. Here's the evidence.

Mission accomplished, although a somewhat hollow victory as it was only yesterday when I started picking further ripe tomatoes, a full 12 days later. I should now have a steady stream of ripe tomatoes and cucumbers for summer salads, which is just in time as they still cost a fortune in the shops even though they're bang in season. Not sure what happened to seasonal crops being cheap and plentiful, but that's a discussion for another day.

Enjoy the sunshine!