Summertime and the living is seriously disappointing!

It’s early July and the rain is still falling! The forecast is not giving us any hope of the weather improving. I gather, in France, the weather has been fairly similar this ‘summer’ and that this kind of weather is referred to as ‘English weather’ there – gee, I wonder why!

That said, for some crops this cool wet weather has been really good [though not the high winds, which have really been quite damaging] but the rain, while providing excellent conditions for slugs and snails, has also boosted growth in my brassica crops, beetroots, carrots, raspberries, squashes and pumpkins, courgettes and many of my herbs are taking over.

This year the usual clouds of whitefly around my brassicas are conspicuous by their absence and, although I have seen some blackfly on my broad beans, they have not been overwhelming – and I haven’t pinched out the tops as I normally would.

The tomato plants, peppers and chillies in my poly tunnel are lush and are showing potential heavy crops though, I do worry that we might not have enough sunshine to ripen the fruits. Actually, while I’m trying to put a positive spin on the weather – I usually try to promote the idea that any weather will be good for some crops while not so good for others – but, I find that, this summer, I’m struggling to keep my chin up.

Over the weekend, all of my children have been home and have stripped my early pea patch [Little Marvel, sown on 6^th March]. They did harvest a couple of good buckets full which were shared out but, the crop was kind of disappointing. It had been knocked about so much by storms, eaten by pigeons and slugs that, I believe, the crop was probably reduced by a third. However, we have had our plot inspections over the last couple of weeks and I have heard many plot holders complain of really poor pea crops. This makes me feel that mine has not been too bad. I still have three strong rows of Hurst Greenshaft, sown 20^th March to harvest and they still look quite good.

I am considering sowing a late pea crop. The seed providers say that they can be sown up to and including July. I have never tried to sow peas this late before and I’ve been told by one of my more experienced neighbours that late sown peas are more likely to have maggots [not nice!]. My daughter wonders if I have heard of supermarkets which sell already frozen peas ! But, while there may be little difference in the flavour, the pleasure is in being able to fill your freezer with a winter’s supply of peas from your home grown produce. I have the seed, which would happily keep ‘til next season if necessary and if it stops raining for long enough in the next few days, I might just dig over the area and re-sow. Perhaps it is worth the effort just so that I can report back on the results.

I have been harvesting good crops of courgette F1 Orelia – a yellow variety. I was somewhat dismayed, a few weeks ago, that the leaves of all of the plants have turned yellow or a mixture of yellow and green. I worried that this might be the result of a mineral deficiency but it was suggested that this was typical of this golden variety. I love them. This variety of courgettes  with the denser drier flesh, suits my cooking preferences.

My beetroots this year, are excellent. As I have said in an earlier blog, I sowed in pots in my polytunnel then planted out when at the 2^nd true leaf stage. Although planted into some fairly rough ground, they have come on well and I have harvested and cooked lots. Because they were planted out from the pots no thinning was necessary. My daughters have also headed home with bags of tennis-ball sized beetroots each.

I am already concerned about my tunnel crops. I have been spraying reasonably frequently with SB Plant Invigorator [discussed in full in previous blogs] which seems to have encouraged fairly lush growth in the tomato plants. Already many of the plants have full sized green fruits but, with the cool, sunless weather, these fruits might struggle to ripen. Already, I am finding the large green and brown caterpillars which caused so much damage in the last two years. I wouldn’t mind them too much if they just ate the leaves of the plants but, they also nibble on the fruits. The damage attracts the botrytis spores [grey mould], which are everywhere, and much of the fruit can be destroyed.

The red ants, which have caused so much devastation in my poly tunnel this season are still present, in spite of my attacks on them and the introduction of the baited ant traps. Though, at least they have not caused any more damage to my crops. They seem to have moved to the untilled edges now.

Well, of course, this is a diffucult year. And I do mean it when I say that - whatever the weather, it is good for some crop or some aspect of allotment growing. But, I just hate the thought of going into another winter without having had a summer. I'm sure this strikes a chord with any people. However, we still have July, August and September to hope for something better. Keep your hopes up!