It has continued to be very dry in the garden this week, and we have been working flat out to keep up with the watering, in particular new seedlings and the new strawberry plants! The more established plants will reach further down under ground to find their water and are looking fine! The tomato plants are looking naked as all the leaves have been stripped from them so that the tomatoes can ripen. The butternut squashes and carrots have now all been harvested, and we are starting to see the earth again in preparation for a new phase of planting to come in the autumn.
The nursery children made their way to the garden this week, and spent some time grazing on tomatoes and salad leaves….. it was lovely to have them there, and we will be spending some time helping them in their garden, and they will be collecting their daily fruit peelings to bring to our compost heap!
Some of us made our way to the Climate Change march in Folkestone on Friday…. We are always aware of the influence of the weather on the garden, and weather extremes can mean that crops fail. We are keen to understand and monitor how the garden is affected in the Sandgate microclimate…. This will be an ongoing process. Talking of climate; just as we look forward to our first garden picnic to celebrate a successful first season, it seems the heavens are going to open and drench us with some long awaited rain! How typical is that!!
What’s next?
- Monitor watering situation
- Keep picking
- Forgot to pot up the chilli plants!
- Keep collecting the leaves
- Dig over the newly exposed beds and remove any weeds
- Cut back new growth around the base of trees and any newly sprouted shrub roots in the wrong place!
Butternut harvest Harvest of the day
