The Beauty of Nature

I have decided this year that the best form of defence against the weather is to accept that this year is not the year for growing things on the plot.

As you can see from the video, the weeds are like triffids and have taken over despite my best efforts. In fact, my plot is one of the lesser overgrown ones. Most others have given up sooner. However, I am still harvesting a few items from it and so it does add to the pot.

I would much rather have it as it was last year though.

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I was amazed at the weekend that the sprouts had not succumbed to the weather extremes, like most of the other plants. In fact they are doing so well I am looking forward to some good sprouts over winter.

You can see that I have left them netted for the time being. Not that they need it now, but it hasn’t stopped them growing upwards.

The runner beans have survived the weather and are now growing tall.

Taking a look round the site at other people’s I can see that mine have done rather well. Some others are really small and have no beans on them yet.

In fact I have harvested a few beans already. 😉

This is part two of my trip to Gardener’s World Live in June. Click on the photos to see them larger.

I really love these small plants don’t you?:

Ornithogalum:

Astrantia:

Astrantia:

Astrantia:

Bonsai:

Lavender, one of my favourites:

Lavender, one of my favourites:

Eryngium:

Wooded walk:

Wooded walk:

Wooded walk:

Cactus, ye ha!:

Cactus:

Such a soothing colour:

Why do mine never grown in ball shape?:

Flesh eaters:

Flesh eaters:

Succulent:

Succulent:

This would look great in my garden:

Pinguicula:

Bonsai:

Succulent:

Nemisia:

Nemisia:

Dragon’s something or other:

Anastasia:

Red hot:

More red hot:

Primula:

One good thing to happen is the onions. they have loved all that rain and are not bothered by wind – though some humans might beg to differ.

I had one of these last night and they were really nice, not tart like you can get with Spanish onions. They also didn’t make my eyes water as much as shop bought ones. 🙂

Well, this year has been a disappointment to me with regard to the plot. The only thing I have done differently is not go up so often to water, yet it has been a harsh year to grow anything.

I know some of you are having a good year, or at least an OK year and have grown some reasonable crops.

However, where we are the plot is on the top of a rise, so it it exposed to the wind and rain more than others. There are no trees around it, fences, tall bushes or buildings in whose lee we would grow something.

No we have to forge on through wind and rain to protect our crops as best we can.

I went for a walk in the local countryside at the weekend and saw for myself just how bad it has been for the farmers in this area. I walked in wheat fields that were just a foot high! The plants that had grown had wet rot. In another field barley was laying flat on the ground – useless to man and beast. Even fields left for hay were flat and wet – no chance of bailing any of that.

We are in a sorry state and we will know it soon enough when food prices go up once the ‘forced’ produce from abroad has passed through and we need to rely on our own.

So here are some of my sorry specimens such as beetroot:

Pumpkin:

The constant wet weather has meant that the spinach has run away with itself. You’d think that it would slow down as it was so wet, but spinach likes it wet and bolts something rotten.

Here you can see a seed head.

If you wanted to keep it down you would need to cut it every week – whether you wanted to eat it or not. At least you could compost it if you didn’t want to eat it.

I had a real shock today when I went to the plot. Someone had been and cut down my large comfrey plant. I had grown this as green manure for the composter so was surprised it had been levelled as you can see in the picture.

They had a general clean up at the plot yesterday and I couldn’t make it, but still, they didn’t have to attack my plants to get their own back. I know how hard it is to cut the hedges and keen the grass down, but you would expect them to have some understanding of what is a good plant and what is not. 🙁

As the weather held off today I went to the plot to see how well everything had done – or rather not done, as is the way this year.

I was pleasantly surprised by the sweetcorn. If you remember we had such a job getting it to grow that I didn’t think they would actually come to much.

OK, it’s not as large as the plotholder next to me – his is at least a metre tall, but at least it is growing, though I worry it wont have a long enough season to come to much now.

Well, I went to dig out the last of the earlies as I wanted them for my evening meal.

Once again they were delicious, light and full of flavour. I also dug up a couple of the cabbages, but they seem to have some water damage, so I didn’t get as much from them as I would have liked. Still, they were tasty and I really must say much better than the shop bought ones.

In the video below you can see me digging the spuds up.

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Hopefully the lates will be just as tasty. Will try some next week or so.