Violet's Garden Diary

Annabelle has been star helper today: we’ve trimmed herbs, including a pretty brutal hacking on the rosemary, which was sticking too far out into the path. We’ve collected both coriander and lovage seed, and sown Giant Winter spinach (2 half rows, in the sunniest available bed, as instructed on the packet) and the last few sprinklings of mustard, some in the cleared grow-bag and some in a wettish bit of soil. We’ve even got round to layering the penstemons, although the blasted pegs turned out too long for the pots, even though I specially chose the deeper pots. Never mind, as long as it works.

The lemon balm had gone ever so manky on the top, with most leaves peppered with brown holes and unusable, so that got a serious trim. Quite a lot of the apple mint is covered in mildew, as are most of the peas, especially the later sowing. One of the cucumber plants is all mottled yellow, I am hoping that’s just mildew as well, and not something more serious.

We picked a Lakeland lettuce today, which was a lot easier to wash than the really crinkly Cos, but still quite a pain. And enough carrots that I got to try one (still the Fly Away), and I didn’t think they were anything special, compared to shop ones. Maybe that’s the price you pay – the pests don’t like it much, but neither do you… Or maybe I’ve just gotten spoilt somewhere along the line.

So we actually did some proper gardening!

Maria helped to weed the veg patch, which needed it badly. I also summer-pruned the espalier apple, and bent down the new tier, a bit late and with a temporary string rig-up, but it’s something. The apples are nearly ready, we’ve had a few windfalls and maggoty ones, they were pretty good. Finally cut down the original planted canes of the raspberries. The Polka has plenty of strong new canes, about 5ft high, and a bit of air round the bottom should do it good. Only picking a handful of berries from it each day, as there are only 5 plants. The Galante is playing catch-up, it might actually survive, who knows.

We had two good-sized carrots yesterday from the little row next to the herbs. These were sown near the end of April, called Fly Away, and they were indeed remarkably clear of carrot fly, so far. Also good pickings from the bean-den, although had to get the stool out to reach the top runners – they’ve gone way beyond the 8ft canes, some are dangling down and curling back up themselves. Tomatoes and cucumbers keep on coming. Somebody (possibly Tigger chasing a mouse, but I have no proof) has knocked off the one pepper that had set so far, it was barely two inches long. We did eat it, just to see what happens, but it wasn’t very nice.

The new Gertrude Jekyll is absolutely splendid – the colour shines from the across the garden, and the smell is detectable from meters away. The stems are a bit lax, it has to be said, but I am hoping that this will become less of a problem as it matures.

Still plenty of work for the weekend, hoping that the weather holds out, that is.

The season is progressing, and I can’t keep up, as usual. The purple beans have finished, but the climbing ones have started just about in time to take over. They are much thinner than ones we’d had before. Broad beans all cleared out now, they’d got rather over-ripe and floury by the end. Steady stream of tomatoes, and quite a lot of cucumbers, although the round ones are somehow much smaller this year. Have done the first borsch of the summer. Bit of a herb shortage at the moment, most of the tonnes of dill have gone to seed, and there isn’t much to replace it, apart from a few very tiny parsleys, although they are getting established now. Courgettes have started, a bit late really. The remontant strawberry keeps on going, but quite a lot of the fruits hang right down to the ground, so will have to raise the bag higher up next year, somehow. Blueberries are few, but the bush looks in reasonable nick.

The streptocarpus didn’t die afterall, but one of the African violets has rotted off at the base. Dahlias are pretty splendid by now, except for the three in a single small pot, which is too small for them. The annual rudbeckias are gathering momentum, and the colours do work well. The perennial ones are barely flowering at all, except for a new self-seeded one by the pond. The poor pond is completely swamped in duck-weed…

White phloxes have just started in the last few days.

The feverfew and campion out the front, by the cycle path, are completely dead – it must be very dry there. Although the fuschia is surviving and even flowering, but is pretty small.