Dodgy Gourds

Chilli peppers - 13 October 2025

Carrots & Parsnips - 19 Oct 2025

I was going to attempt to write a few catch-up missives but that would be trawling back to (August) when it was way too hot and nobody had the wherewithal to do anything other than move from shaded spot to the fridge for another cool drink! 

The garden plants seemed to struggle to even absorb the water given – but in retrospect even though we watered every evening we obviously mis-calculated the much larger quantity of moisture needed.  The vegetables in both the patch and the greenhouses were stoic to a point and then just succumbed to exhaustion in the unusually high temperatures (for the UK).  Still, you live and learn.

Therefore, it was all a bit disappointing – by mid-September I ended up clearing out the cucumbers, courgette, sweetcorn, runner beans, and even some tomato plants which had some kind of mildew as well as the odd blossom end rot.  The latter is all linked to inconsistency with watering and calcium – and this may have stemmed from the short period when we were in Florence. The crops that seemed to cope were the French beans and beetroot – but those had been succession planting. 

As I type this (mid-October) the chilli peppers and sweet peppers in the greenhouse are incredibly fruitful and, to accompany our Sunday lunch today, I dug up some impressive parsnips and carrots… so it hasn’t been a complete disaster, I suppose!

Sad gourds - 22 August 2025

Sad sweetcorn - 14 August 2025

A lot has happened since the beginning of September,  including unplanned-for work in both the garden and the house, as well as visits to places and visitors from overseas too, but I can only cope with so much screen time over the weekend!  It is bad enough in the week, and I get paid for that.

So, more to follow...