24 June 2018

Dorset Garden Diary - Flamin' June and Water Butts Empty

Hi everyone,

It's been a mixed couple of weeks with cloudy days, foggy nights and not enough rain to wet a leaf. We've only had 2% of our rainfall for June and there's none forecast in the foreseeable future. The pond level is dropping and needs topping up regularly but I have to do it in stages because it's tap water as all the water butts are empty and the veg is at the stage where it's need water and lots of it. We are on a water meter so I'm saving all the cold water that runs before the hot kicks in which is enough for the cucumbers, tomatoes, chillies and courgettes and the rest is the hosepipe.

But it's all looking good, the garden has filled out with greenery and flowers. This gorgeous poppy was grown from seed
one of the climbing roses has spread across the back fence
this is what it looks like close up


Looks like it's going to be a good year for plums, we hardly had any last year
 
One of the lilies is doing well, still waiting for the others to bloom
And these sweet peas that were planted before we moved in have been growing every year in the shade garden and survived last winter's freezing temperatures
During the week I pulled up the garlic and it's in the greenhouse  drying
and the onions and shallots I've left on the veg bed
Thankfully some of the runner beans have survived the slugs

The spuds pentland javelin and maris piper are in flower
 as are the charlottes' which look nearly ready
we have tomatoes
and, thankfully, cucumbers - I had a lot of problems with them last year
first of the baby beets
and six gooseberries which is six more than we've had for the last three years

It's been very hot today with high humidity and the temperature in the greenhouse has been rising to mid 90'sF low 30'sC all week. I tidied up one of the patio gravel beds this morning

and pruned back one of the azaleas as it didn't look very happy. I have a few things to pot on during the week. One thing I'm very pleased with...I've been mentioning the squirrel burying walnuts all over the garden, well I found three and they looked like they were sprouting so I potted them up and look...we have the beginnings of a walnut tree! Thank you Mr or Mrs Squirrel.

The fish are becoming more alert and surface every time I walk near the pond in anticipation of being fed. There are some small black ones which are this year's fishlings. And we have miniature frogs. They are smaller than the black tadpoles lurking in the oxygenating weed
some of them are not much bigger than my little fingernail. They are soooo cute and perfectly formed.
Well it's going to be a hot one this week with temperatures soaring, I guess I'll be doing a lot of watering - I can't lose any crops now. Have a good gardening week and catch up next Sunday.

Regards,

DD

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