As I write this on the summer solstice, the temperature in our West Yorkshire garden has peaked at 32 degrees Celsius and the greenhouse thermometer is off the scale! Windows are open and we are looking forward to the incoming thunderstorm to freshen things up and hopefully bring some much needed rain. Us gardeners are never happy with the weather, are we?
This time last year we were complaining about a cold spring, a lack of growth and slugs and snails. This year we can’t pick lettuce, spinach and radish fast enough before they bolt due to the heat and our onions and garlic are all already pulled and drying for storing. In the place of onions, we’re resowing more spinach, planting out leeks and fennel and sowing more batches of spring onion.
Our fruit is ripening in abundance, and we’re eating strawberries, raspberries and tayberries, with our loganberries and blueberries yet to ripen. All fruit trees, including plum and apple are fully laden this year and you can really tell the difference a warm spring makes compared to last year.
Other harvests include beetroot, peas, mange tout, broad beans, and salad leaves.
Beetroots are either eaten fresh or added to the beetroot pickle jar and now is a good time to sow more for a crop later in the year. Brassicas are all growing well and we can see Durham Early will be ready soon, and lovely Green Sprouting Broccoli not far behind. Sowing more Cauliflower seeds now is a good idea, there’ll be quick germination for plants to go out to replace those harvested in the coming weeks.
Pest control seems to have been easier this year, slugs and snails appeared early on, but the dry conditions seemed to have keep them at bay. Green flies and black fly have shown up but quickly been dealt with a quick rub or a water dowsing. We don’t use any chemicals or pesticides in our garden and never will and we actively encourage wildlife, so much so we think there’s a bee nest in our compost bin this year!
We seem to be successful with Sweet Peas whatever the weather, and we are picking these fragrant flowers every other day and bringing the sweet scent into our home. We’ve sown all the varieties that we sell, including all on our Sweet Pea Bundle and have to say that we have three favourites, in High Scent (which does very much have a beautiful high scented fragrance), Princess Elizabeth and Matucana.
Courgettes and Squash are growing well, no fruit as yet but we always have a glut each year so they’ll be here soon enough.
Our tomatoes, Chillies, Cucumbers and Peppers in the greenhouse are growing well with all plants now producing flowers and fruit. We are already picking tumbling tomatoes and look forward to the chillies later in the year.
Rosemary, Sage, Mint, Chives, Oregano, and Thyme are all happy and Basil is just getting going after being sown late by us this year.
Growing from seed remains an affordable way to grow food (our small packets start from just 55p) and midsummer provides a second spring for successional sowings, and then Autumn for sowing for next year’s crops – look at our Midsummer Mix and Autumn sowing Perennial Flowers here.
Keep on sowing and growing!