Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Season of the Spider

Can hardly move in the garden at the moment without running into a spider's web and plenty are making themselves at home indoors, which is helpful, because there are plenty of aphids and fruit flies about, but unhelpful when they end up in the bath.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Sweet pickings

A good year for sweet peas, lasting throughout the summer and benefiting from repeated picking and watering.

Monday, August 29, 2016

Plum snatcher


This squirrel busily slurped on a plum a few feet away, discarding the skin and dripping juice until it either dropped it, or had had enough.

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Inbetweener

           A marrow, a courgette and something in between.

Friday, August 26, 2016

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Add water

A beautiful month, after a rainy start, with enough sunshine to allow things to bloom and ripen. Everything's needed watering, especially sweetcorn, beans, courgettes and some newly established raspberry bushes. Lots of early windfall apples and overripe plums about and with them, fruit flies and wasps.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Friday, August 19, 2016

Late risers flourish

Despite being slow to start these off, the sweetcorn's done well in the hot weather, bolstered by almost daily watering and with any luck, there'll be a couple of dozen cobs along in a few weeks. Probably best to take the precaution of fencing these off with netting to discourage the local badger population from taking a sweet snack.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Pomme de Terre

After a cold spring and periods of drought and humidity, it hasn't been a great year for potatoes, but a crop of Desiree have done ok.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Rudbeckia fulgida

        Rudbeckia and chamomile loving the hot dry spell this week.

Survivors

The entire tomato crop at the allotment succumbed to blight, the perfectly formed fruits turning from green to black. It might have been because the weather was wet and warm for a while, but it's more likely that there are spores in the soil from previous years. Fortunately, the crop grown at home in pots has done well.

Monday, August 15, 2016

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Conemelt

Echinacea, like Rudbeckia, are cone flowers. John Peel used to play a lot of Conemelt in the 90s.

Saturday, August 13, 2016