July, half way through the calendar year. Today (Friday) I woke at six to the sound of water dripping; drizzly rain. It hasn’t altogether relented all day and now, fourteen hours later, the rain gauge is showing that we have had 5mm of rain, less than quarter of an inch, for those of you still using such large units.
For some reason, I just went out and took some pictures around the garden. It’s Six on Saturday time so I need six things happening in the garden. I’d already decided to do six things from my allotment, already taken the pictures; just having second thoughts. Now I have two sets of pictures and a choice to make, today’s garden or yesterday’s allotment.
One.
This is where I go to do my allotmenting. This is the view from the car park at the top, looking south down gently sloping ground with the London-Penzance railway just above the centre of the picture. The two largely empty beds at the top are plot one, the orderly rows above that are plot two. The windbreak is the top edge of plot 3, half of which I sub-let, the other half is where my polytunnel stands. I also have plot 6 and you can just about make out the square frame of my fruit cage at the left hand end of it. The horizon is the high ground by the coast, beyond which is the English Channel.
Plots one to three are home to a rabbit which I have been trying to get out or terminate for weeks. It’s a clever bugger, with the superpower of invisibility. There is practically nowhere for it to hide, but on several occasions I have chased it about for a bit, then it goes into a bush, or clump of weeds, and vanishes into thin air. On one occasion I poked around for a bit where it had vanished, then turned around to see it nonchalantly eyeing me from the other end of the plot. I usually leave a couple of gates open when I’m chasing it, in hopes of it going out, but it’s way too smart to fall for such a ploy.
Two.
The tunnel is where I am growing most of my tomatoes. There are a few more in one of the garden glasshouses. I have ‘Sungold’, ‘Cocktail Crush’ and ‘Red Pear’. They are in 3 litre deep pots sunk three quarters their height into the soil. I water into the top of the pots and it goes right through to keep the soil down below nice and moist but the surface largely dry. The plants will root out into the soil. It seems to be working. It meant I could grow the plants quite early in a glasshouse with frost protection, then put them in position with no disturbance in the tunnel when the risk of frost had gone. I’m intending planting one of the Alstroemerias in the ground in the tunnel to grow for cut flower; the dahlia is a seedling that was there before the tunnel was erected. The pots of dead leaves are Tony’s Amaryllis from California, that I am planning on planting in the ground outside very soon when I have a piece cleared. The Agave is there to make sure I stay alert.
Three.
Down on the other plot, number 6, the fruit cage is just beginning to bear fruit. I picked the first blueberries and raspberries mid week. The raspberries are a mess; they have left the row where they were planted and come up where they please. Then, instead of the one year canes producing lots of productive laterals, most of the buds die so I get six foot canes with one or two fruiting laterals. Some lurgy must attack them, pseudomonas or whatever, nothing I can do anything about. There are a few goosberry bushes too, so nobbled by sawfly and stressed by drought that such fruit as there is would be reasonable sized peas. The blackcurrants when they come will be bigger.
Blueberries, touch wood, are the runaway success story. Bombproof and productive for several weeks, given the three or four varieties we have. We have frozen them but they’re much better fresh, Sue has made jam with them, but it’s not the best. Shame really, we just have to eat them all fresh. Blackcurrants freeze very well and to save space in the freezer I bottled loads last year. The last of them are going on my breakfast cereal just ahead of a new crop coming ready.
Four.
Just alongside the fruit cage I planted a double row of lettuce. It was doing OK but with the dry weather needed watering most days. That seems to have attracted worms and they in turn have attracted a mole. It seems to delight in tunnelling just under one row, then turning about and tunnelling back along the other row. Every day for the past week or two I have been firming them back in and watering the limp plants. So far none have died but it’s not what they need. Remedial action is being undertaken but hasn’t yet produced results. Don’t ask. The variety is ‘Oakleaf Navara’, in case you’re interested.
Five.
I really thought I had cracked the business of growing peas. For the last three or four years I have had really good crops, getting better each year. I found starting them in pots a big improvement on direct sowing, I saved my own seed and was rewarded with with better and more uniform plants. This year they are rubbish. I saved no seed last year so sowed bought seed. Rabbits and/or voles saw demolished the first lot so I had to re-sow and held back on planting them out because the rabbit was still about. They are half the height they should be, and that’s the best of them in a patchy couple of rows. The picture flatters them; the wire is only three feet high and most are barely half way up it. I probably should have weeded them before taking the picture. ‘Hurst Greenshaft’, incidentally.
Six.
My big fail on peas looks set to be balanced by success with cabbage. I have had good results with the variety ‘Kalibos’ but have always lost some to cabbage root fly then been plagued by cabbage white caterpillars and diamond back moth caterpillars. This year I’ve lost none to root fly and have yet to see a white butterfly. I’m not counting my chickens quite yet but maybe one coleslaw ingredient is covered.
It’s carried on raining while I’ve been doing this so maybe the gauge made it to 6mm. I collect rainwater from about 100m2 of house and glasshouse roofs, so 6mm is 600 litres, not to be sniffed at. The garden is open again today (Saturday) and the forecast fair, so we should get a better turnout than Friday’s woeful six visitors. That’s a Six on Saturday I don’t want to contemplate.
garden ruminations 
Very impressive! The dark lettuces look so delicious. I will take some of your rain; in my part of the U.S., we’ve only had about 1.5 inches of rain since the beginning of May. Thanks for sharing the views of your gardens and the countryside.
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You are having quite the fight with the wildlife aren’t you Jim? I confess I had to take extreme action against my resident mole, I continue to feel guilty about it but he was destroying a lot of very expensive plants..! Hope your mole and rabbit issues are resolved soon. Jealous of your blueberries, I had to give up on mine, I just couldn’t make them happy!
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I’ve usually had good luck with peas but they are spotty again this year (first year of saving my own seed). Beans growing like crazy. Raspberries starting to ripen. Everything is far behind because we were away even one normally plants in my location. Oh and the potatoes have all gone moldy and not grown. Not going to be a stellar harvest. Bernie
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So happy to hear you’ve had some rain at last! Isn’t it wonderful to wake up to the sound of rain dropping on the roof and sloshing through the gutters? Your allotment looks very productive, even if not quite up to your expectations. Thank you for the long view. That is such a lovely setting. At least you have some delicious berries and peas to enjoy and tomatoes on the way. I love the color of your lettuces. We’ve seen at least 7 bunnies today already, but not all in our own yard. We have been out and about, and are amazed at how many we spotted. Sorry for the late entry today. It has been a busy day, and our internet was down yesterday evening when I’d normally pull S on S together. Our heat has set in, now that we are into the first of July, but we have rain in the forecast for this afternoon and the next several. We are very grateful. https://woodlandgnome.wordpress.com/2023/07/01/six-on-saturday-to-be-grateful/
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The lettuces look good!
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Hope you did have a better turnout than previously, Jim. Interesting to see your allotment and hear about your wily rabbit and other wildlife. Is it only you who has a plot there? https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2023/07/01/six-on-saturday-some-good-doers/
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Your allotment is HUGE! That fruit cage is a great idea. If I had one of those, the critters wouldn’t beat me to my blueberries every year. My six for this week: https://stoneyknob.wordpress.com/2023/07/01/sos-damper/
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You have convinced me not to try and grow edibles other than the herbs that I already do. I have enough to cope with! I am impressed that you can manage both your lovely garden, glasshouses and an allotment! Like you I am grateful for yesterdays rain, slightly more than a mizzle, but not a downpour. Hope you got a lot of visitors today, a nice sunny one, if a tad breezy!
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I admit to being puzzled by the term allotment for a while. I think they call it community gardens here. Your veg looks good to me, I find peas temperamental for no apparent reason. When they are good they are really good and then not. Go figure. Do you like red pear tomatoes? I grow the yellow version. Thank you for hosting and yay for rain! https://theshrubqueen.com/2023/07/01/six-on-saturday-post-solstice/
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Hello! I love looking through everybody’s updates, so thought I’d jump in with one my own this week!
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Welcome aboard! We’ve had a few posts from someone else in Finland recently, including last week. So interesting to here about the similarities and differences from somewhere with what I assume to be a very different climate from ours.
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Not terribly different, as it turns out! I’ve been comparing notes with some of my English friends over the years and it seems that the biggest difference is that you guys start a few weeks earlier than us (our area of the country is zone 6) and have less snow. Coming from California, I’ve found UK-based gardening advice and plant IDs to be infinitely more applicable than anything I knew before.
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Oh… beautiful garden. You must share ….There is no way even a large family could eat all of that.
as for rain…long ,slow, drizzles are the best.
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Some gets given away but yields vary hugely from year to year so there are always surpluses with some things and not enough of others. I don’t look at an unintended surplus as food waste, it just gets shredded and put back on the ground to improve the soil.
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Kitchen gardening is such a challenge. Insects, critters and assorted diseases have to be overcome. Bravo on the blueberries and raspberries. My crop of blueberries was very good this year. They do freeze well and we then use them for muffins, pancakes and cobblers.
Here is my offering for the week.
Happy gardening!
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Nice to have a look at your allotment. Very impressive peas and cabbages. Lovely astilbes too.
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My peas were also sketchy this year, though normally fool proof. That is gardening for you! Who knows why they were slow to germinate, slow to grow, and produce. They seem to finally be catching up, but I don’t think I will get my usual production. Amazing to think there are empty allotments where you garden! In Seattle, it was difficult to get a plot, and I think in Sun Prairie they are pretty full up every year. I don’t have an allotment anymore because I love having everything in the back yard. I have not used any polytunnel or similar to extend my growing season, but it is a good idea, especially for the tomatoes that in my hands will get almost ripe, then the rain comes and they all split. I grow my main plant in a large pot by the back door under the eaves to help control how much water they get. Here are my six – things are beginning to bloom!
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As you say, it is more often than not a complete mystery why a thing that succeeds one year is a failure the next. Or why my peas succeed and my neighbour’s don’t. You never really know what to do differently next time. People do grow tomatoes outdoors here but potato blight will often get them and they generally do much better under protection.
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Ick! Potato blight! I have yet to try growing potatoes, but so far my tomatoes mostly suffer cracking after a late heavy rain.
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I think I’ve cracked it now! Sorry to be a difficult SOSer today!!
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My neighbour (he of the overhanging trees) has mole problems in the field at the back of our house and swears that putting pickled onions down a mole hole will encourage it to move on. So if you have any old pickled onions that have gone too soft for eating, it might be worth a shot.
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Our allotment site is a slice off a field that is full of moles. They plague me because I have far more worms than the other plots. As it happens we do have an old jar of pickled onions which will be deployed as suggested. I will report back on success or failure.
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Well the lettuce looks fabulous, even with the difficult growing conditions. I haven’t been able to keep up with the watering needs of my veg plot and share with you unruly raspberries. No rabbits though thank goodness! Here’s my flowery six https://n20gardener.com/2023/07/01/six-on-saturday-july-and-jobs-to-be-done/
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Our garden had a burrow in it when we arrived so I know they will eat anything you plant. I hope he moves on to pastures new soon. It was great to see the allotment for a change this week and read about the successes and failures, particularly since I’ve personally found the kitchen garden side of things much harder than flower gardening.
Here’s my Six for this week
https://www.hortusbaileyana.co.uk/2023/06/some-old-roses.html
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Kitchen gardening is certainly harder to get consistent result with, it can feel like a never ending battle against adversity.
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I’m on a waiting list for an allotment but it’s very long, apparently. Good luck with rabbit and mole deterring – I feel that wildlife of all sizes is winning this year.
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Long waiting lists seems to be the norm, our site opened a couple of years after a much bigger site was opened a few miles away and has only filled completely in the last year or two.
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Lovely looking lettuce, and thanks for all the photos and info about the allotment, you can never stand still with a garden. Good luck with the open day.
nearly forgot to add my link! Here it is
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Hi everybody and thanks Jim for hosting and sharing – looking forward to a catch up on everyone’s posts later. In the meantime, in haste, here’s mine: https://notesfromtheundergardener.wordpress.com/2023/07/01/six-on-saturday-1st-july-2023/. Right now I need to get out there and make up for two days away!
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Allotments are always interesting, and yours has such superb views, how far is it from home? I have made a note of the lettuce variety and found them on King’s Seeds. I used to have an allotment for a number of years, and have fond memories of them. I am perfectly content with my lot though, and just love to visit them these days. Here are my six: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2023/07/six-on-saturday-first-of-july.html
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Just under a mile, or five minutes on my bike. I have tried to grow that lettuce, and ‘Lollo Rosso’, in the garden, they are both very ornamental, but the slugs destroyed them completely. I like growing veg, it’s a very different discipline from ornamental gardening.
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Busy with my home renovations , a quick Six though… https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2023/07/01/six-on-saturday-01-07-23/
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Wonderful looking allotment. A very brief SoS from me as we were out for dinner as anearly birthday celebration. https://thistlesandkiwis.org/2023/07/01/six-on-saturday-01-07-23/
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Well done Jim, another great SoS. I gave up my allotment years ago and grew fruit and veg at home but found it less and less rewarding and much harder work than people appreciate. A plague of locusts (blackfly!) finished me off. Here are my Six from a parched Cheltenham. https://davidsgardendiary.com/2023/07/01/six-on-saturday-91/
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There has been a steady run of people taking on plots on our site then giving up after a season when they learn how much they have to put in to get very little out. At least I’m past the overun with weeds stage.
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That’s nice to see your allotment, you really do have your work cut out tending that and your garden. Love the look of those lettuce and you are going to have a lot of sweetcorn, looks wonderful. Here is my contribution, not a veg in sight https://offtheedgegardening.com/2023/07/01/six-on-saturday-can-i-see-your-invite-please/
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Good thing I enjoy doing it.
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I’m impressed, all that wonderful food coming on and then having to contend with a rabbit and mole, how frustrating! With all that space you must be self sufficient surely? We had the same drizzle as you all day yesterday, hope it has done some good!
My six are here……..https://www.leadupthegardenpath.com
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Scratch contending with the rabbit. Just the mole as of about an hour ago. I’m a long way from self sufficient sadly. We get pretty close for a couple of months in summer but winter is a bigger challenge. Today’s wind made short work of drying the ground again but there’s a good bit more water in my storage.
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Are those Astilbes in the cover photo? They look the picture of health – mine have struggled during this dry summer so far. I’ll have to look out for the allotment the next time I’ve heading down to Cornwall on the train https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2023/07/01/six-on-saturday-1-july-2023/
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They are Astilbes, growing where we filled in a pond. They’re fine till the trapped water runs out, then they rather go over a cliff. The allotments are on the right about two miles past Liskeard.
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It is gratifying to know that some of those seed found a good home. Just a few hours ago (seriously), I just found that someone who had been working on a gate here dumped a bunch of debris on top of two flats of my Amaryllis belladonna seedlings! Like seriously, a flat of medium looks like something to dump trash on top of?! He likely thought they were trash, and intended to take them away with the rest of the trash. Actually, that sort of disregard is what my six are about.
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