June Potager
Please don’t let them be in the compost heap.
Yes, it’s the annual ‘I’ve lost my favourite pair of secateurs’ time. I was cutting back some of the very rampant grape vines at the back of the potager this morning. And I hope I didn’t put down the favourite secteurs on the rocks and then scoop up an armful of vines at the same time.
The compost heap is full. Full to the brim with an enormous amount of matter. And I really don’t want to go diving in to look.
It’s positioned right at the back of this garden. And I always get thwacked by the fig branches when I go past.
It’s hiding in this shot behind the mighty fig.
To distract us; have some of the potager in June.
Isn’t it wondrously burgeoning? The nasturtiums are doing a great job of ground cover keeping the soil from heating to a crisp. The leeks and beans and amaranth and strawflowers have to fight it out.
Am I allowed to boast? The spinach may be bolting (we have eaten it nightly for a month) but the dill is hanging on there, even if only flower which is better than most years. And the scent of dill wafts like mad.
Swiss chard. The workhorse of the stir fry. It just keeps on producing. Even when one or two will bolt and go to seed. I’ll let this one self seed all over the bed as I love the rainbow colour of this chard.
The coriander is setting seed. Which is a shame but this heat really did get to the plants earlier than I like. Just one year I would love to have cucumber and coriander at the same time….
This year I have most of the tomatoes in just one of the raised beds. And staking is now a very necessary chore. As is pinching out.
I have just one tomato in another bed. And there were a few self seeders which I spotted. But this year I’m determined not to be over run.
The borlotto beans are climbing – my shade cloth plants. But I had to help things along a bit this week with some shade cloth I foraged under the staging in the potting shed. The beans are about a month off doing a good job of protecting the plants below them from the full blast of the sun.
This whole continent feels like a month of scorching weather has come a month early.
Well, yes. Grubbing up the dwarf French beans. Thank you Creature.
Between the mole rat which is burrowing under the two top right beds closest to the house and the Cat who is supposed to be dealing with them I feel a bit besieged.
But the dahlias are just starting to flower and the helichrysums are even better than I expected. They really do live up to their name of strawflower. The petals feel papery and dry when they emerge. I have high hopes for them. If the mole rat doesn’t advance further along the row.
Now. Back to ‘thinking where I had them last’.
15th June 2022 @ 5:28 pm
secateurs – compost heap, do you have access to a metal detector??
15th June 2022 @ 6:20 pm
What a great idea!
15th June 2022 @ 7:03 pm
Good luck with the secateurs – I lost my favourite pair last year for a month under a pile of deadheadings. When I found them again I could have cried with joy. And I gave them all the TLC I could muster. In the potager, I followed your example and converted my no-dig beds to two high-rise beds with anti-mole rat and anti-bindweed membrane at the base. Late with all my plantings but things are doing very well so far. To solve the issue of bolting coriander, have you tried culantro? Tasted it last year for the first time – delicious. I have some spare seed if you want to try! Early heatwaves = two maturing figs on my potted trees. A first.
16th June 2022 @ 5:56 am
Figs! May this be the year that you get figs. Well that is going to be my one consolation to this absurdly hot start to summer. Do keep a close watch on them as they ripen. Your heart may be broken if the wasps get to them first!
I did try culantro. And still have seeds deeply buried in the back of the seed drawer. I seem to recall I didn’t try hard enough and don’t recall a good crop. I’ll add that to the ‘must do better next year’.
16th June 2022 @ 12:36 pm
I am hoping that local wasps may not recognize a fig as something edible… perhaps I should net the precious crop of 2. My culantro last year was bought as a plant, this year I’m trying from seed. Too early to tell if the experiment will work!