The mid summer potager

This blog post is sponsored today by the tiger mosquito tag team which is trying to feast on my restless sleeping form in the bedroom.

That and a cricket which is somewhere in the living room (I suspect it lurks in the huge dried flower arrangement above the bookshelves) chirping away and unable to be ushered outside.

It catches my bat-like hearing as a deep background annoyance. Unlike the incoming whine of the mosquitos which are front and centre. I suspect I woke myself up slapping away at my head.

The double combination had me awake at 0349. And I have now officially given up.

Heatwave. Poor sleep patterns. Mild concern about certain trees in distant parts of the garden.

Nothing beats waking in the way too early morning remembering the two pear trees I planted right down on the edge of the property far from a bucket of water.

I must remember to slosh them later.

The mosquitos are also a new feature of 2024. I’d never even heard of Tiger Mosquitos before. The Mairie sent around an urgent newsletter to all of us exhorting us to cover all our water butts with netting and gauze to try and slow the breeding.

I have complied. But you can’t cover a larger pond beneath a mulberry tree. And we only have mozzie netting for one window in this house, the bedroom. Because it hasn’t been an issue for the past decade.

And even that doesn’t stop them. I have elegant swathes of mosquito netting for all the beds in my guest house.

And here in my snooze after lunch spot in the office. That was mainly to stop a random fly buzzing close by when you are just about to be felled by heavenly post lunch slumber on the day bed.

And the shrubs and trees which thought life was AMAZING in spring. All that nourishing rain and mild temperatures have definitely spoilt them. They have all put on such lush growth.

And now of course it is week three of no rain and temperatures of unrelenting heat. And nothing in the forecast for the next two weeks promising relief.

Thank goodness the potager is still a jungle of delights.

It is getting a once a week watering and if I’m not staggering about from the heat, a twice daily bean harvest.

Yep. Bean in every pocket season.

I come in each day and find random beans I have picked from the plants in all my trouser pockets. On benches, on steps, waiting to be added to the pile in the fridge. I’m blanching and freezing batches and serving them each meal.

I planted lots of different varieties this year which has been fun. The monte gusto are delicious, as are the …. middle of the night brain fog …. others.

The reason for the bean in every pocket is I have learned that the best performing borlotti variety really don’t make for good eating if they aren’t picked small. You have that decision to pick small or let them go completely huge and wait all summer and then dry them. But I find the whole plant looks exhausted if they go to (bean) seed.

Plus I want the plant to keep on giving me fantastic shade.

So you have to relentless in hunting them out.

They are best as my shade covering beans. And I spend a few times each season up the ladder coaxing them along the roof of the raised bed grill, rather than staying in a tangled heap.

And yes you can see I failed miserably at that middle one. Quite a lovely jungly lump of green.

The beetroot underneath are not getting the slightly shaded benefit there.

My tomatoes are similarly chaotic. Each year I try. And mark myself as ‘could do better’.

I went to visit Melanie and Jerome yesterday and their amazing tomatoes were just a vision of heaven. They are such an inspiration.

All doing the right thing, growing neatly and up their supports and pumping out productivity.

I marvel at that sort of order.

I tried something different this year with my bigger beef steak and noir crimée varieties. Having them in an already high raised bed means that once they reach a metre tall I have to send them horizontally otherwise I can’t pick them.

Or they snap off in the wind.

This ‘found in the cellar’ length of rebar (reinforced metal rods) in a grid pattern has done the trick.

It is very hefty but well supported. That was it earlier in July when I had just started letting the tomatoes flop onto the support and grow along.

And now you need to see just how densely they have covered the whole space.

(Turns her head to check out the French windows.. nope still middle of the night dark.)

Can’t give you a shot of that just yet.

But the sungolds are cranking out lovely pop in the mouth moments as you walk past delights.

And the ‘what was I thinking error’ of planting too many courgettes / zucchini plants.

Yep. Guilty.

Those too have to be picked daily.

And naturally there is always one you miss.

That monster on the right (the size of an arm) sat on my kitchen bench for about four days before I gave up and just donated it to the compost heap.

This end bed is more shaded than the others owing to the giant apple tree in the corner. So planting courgettes there has been great. Better than last year’s choice of shoving all the sungold tomato plants there.

And at the end are the four aubergines which are poised to overwhelm me with produce. Nicely in the sun.

I would nip out and take a shot of them… except it’s pitch dark out there and I’d hate to wake all the resident beasts. And scare the bejeezus out of myself at the same time. We do have the deer sleeping in our climbing wall area. She loves the tarp covered crash mats. But if you spook her she is all startled wild beast and races off. And sends your heart rate stratospheric from surprise.

And the cat (sleeping on her favourite cushion and rattan chair on the deck) would be thrilled by such an early wake up call and get started in on begging for croquettes hours earlier than expected. I would have to creep past her down the steps to the potager to get the photo.

So words in the middle of the night will have to suffice.

ps. Mole rats won this cucumber. The little buggers.