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Cucamelons and Cucumbers

23/8/2022

Cucamelons - cute and compact!

Regular cucumber!

Originally from South America, cucamelons look a little like miniature melons but their taste is a combination of cucumber and lime. Known in Mexico as ‘Sandiitas de Raton’, or ‘Little Mouse Watermelons’, cucamelons are part of the same family as cucumbers, squashes, courgettes and pumpkins. Its official name is Melothria scabra and actually belongs to a genus of flowering vines.

I was given some seedlings from a neighbour and nurtured them in the greenhouse for a month or two before planting out - maybe in May, I can't remember.

[Thankfully] cucamelons are easy to grow, this vine tolerates drought, tends to be ignored by pests and, most importantly, produces masses of grape-sized fruit throughout the summer.

The flowers, at only about four millimetres and are flat with five splayed petals and of a bright, buttery yellow. The plant is monoecious which means that the flowers (on the same plant) are either male or female and therefore pollinate amongst themselves.

The cucamelon fruit displays pale green bands or dapples on a mid-green ground and is about the shape and size of a large purple grape but can be up to four centimetres long (though it should be picked young).

See below - they are masters of disguise!

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Renovating Roses

22/8/2022

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“Take time to smell the roses.” – Proverb

David Austin Roses recommends pruning in late winter/early spring, when the first growth is beginning, and this is generally between January and February. Apparently, roses can be pruned earlier [ in winter], but it can be more difficult to identify the less healthy stems that may need to be cut out.

… so, there is no recommendation for pruning in June!?

However, the RHS website – in one of 718 results when searching “pruning roses” - does say that to renovate shrubs or roses with too many stems that have finished flowering after year two and for shrubs with flowers that bloom April – July, then it is okay to take out half the old stems that remain from pruning and prune back the other stems...

Deep breath!

“If the rose puzzled its mind over the question how it grew, it would not have been the miracle that it is.” – J. B. Yeats

“The world is a rose, smell it, and pass it to your friends.” – Persian Proverb

It can be very confusing, and especially frustrating for someone who is not very patient and skirts around reading about or following the finer details. Ahem.

BBC Gardeners World has extensive advice that “pruning roses is essential for their overall health, vitality and appearance. Winter is the key rose pruning time to cut back most varieties, except rambling roses, which are pruned in summer immediately after flowering”.

However, as I inherited a number of roses, I have no idea whether they are ramblers, climbers, bush, ground cover, floribunda, hybrid tea, polyantha, damask, gallica, centifolia, alba….

Hence my devil-may-care approach in June when upon looking on one of the tatty looking roses I decided to cut it down to basic woody stems and re-position it in the veg patch, with the attitude that it had two choices – sally-forth or demise. So, I am somewhat smug that with suitable encouragement (blood, fish and bone, mulch and plenty of water) it has rallied round and recovered in ‘health, spirits and poise’ (dictionary definition).

Are you not impressed with my results?

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Favourite Things

22/8/2022

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Forget the milk - a liberal splash of vino on the cereal will suffice!

Paul has been working away from home for the past eight days and will be back tomorrow evening. So, because I am such a kind and considerate person & despite loathing supermarket shopping even more than usual, I have stocked up on a few of his favourite things!

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Hot Summer Days

13/8/2022

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"Gardens are not made by sitting in the shade"
Rudyard Kipling

"Gardening requires lots of water - most of it the form of perspiration"
Lou Erickson (critic and poet)

"Should I weed the lawn or say it is a garden?"
Anon

"A Pink Day" by Sam Toft

"Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago". Warren Buffett

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An Intermission within the Intermission

12/8/2022

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Abutilon vitifolium

Excitement! I have a flowering Abutilon! This is the plant that had to be ‘sourced’ alternatively because the one I originally found could not be shipped easily [from Ireland] because of the impact of Brexit. I specifically wanted one called “Abutilon vitifolium” as it has a blue / purple hue, and wider flower, compared to others. The abutilon family appears to be made up of a very wide variety of flowering shapes, sizes and colours. Apparently, the species name means ‘vine-leaved’ and the vitifolium’s “large saucer-shaped light mauve flowers are borne profusely in summer, offset by large greyish-green felted leaves”. **

The rest of the garden is looking a tad sorry for itself. In the UK we are all experiencing extremely hot – and unaccustomed – weather, and our garden plants are probably going into shock. Well, that could be said of most of as humans too! As you can see from the photographs the grass is reduced to a dusty scorched bowl, and the flower beds are wilting and curling up on themselves. I am judiciously watering the tomato plants both inside the greenhouse and outside (35 of them!?*) as well as those vegetables that definitely need a good soak top-up to survive, but I am very mindful of not wasting what is in the water butts and conduct these tasks early in the morning or late evening so that wasteful evaporation is kept to a minimum. Vegetables receiving care also include cucumbers (two varieties), sweetcorn, peppers (possibly two varieties but not sure if I am also cultivating a wild and exotic grass/weed) and runner beans,

It is noticeable that over recent days it has been very quiet during the daytime but as the sun dips lower the wildlife emerges from the hedgerows and trees, and our local squirrel, pigeons, blackbirds and robin, plus numerous chiffchaffs, wrens and sparrows become very chit-chatty and entertaining. Enjoying the cooler temperature at dusk also means we have seen some bats swooping through the trees. Over this week, the almost-full moon has been low on the horizon – a hanging heavily yellow orb, it is almost as if one could walk over the hill and step onto it!

Again, it makes me appreciate that we are very fortunate to live where we do – it is a beautiful part of the world.

**Funnily enough, the August edition of [the posh] magazine Gardens Illustrated has a lead article entitled “Abutilon – add a touch of the exotic”. Get me – ahead of the game!!

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Intermission

2/8/2022

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Summer 2022 Plans - or Not!

I’ve probably said some of this already but can’t remember, so ignore at will!

We are actually rather unimpressed by the current travel situation in the UK (flights being cancelled, motorways as carparks) and madness at airports, so have pretty much decided we won't be doing a 'proper' summer holiday in 2022. Boo! However, I have almost firmed up a sunny beach holiday for a year hence – just waiting for the flight days / times to be confirmed. I don’t think we will have ever been so organised - well, especially for an “ordinary” event. Does that just smack of desperation?*!

As it is, trying to organise to do anything together lately has been impossible. Again, a case of “all or nothing”. Paul has various theatre or event contracts and those can be l-o-n-g days (up to 14 hours), six days a week and, for example, he has been in London (four days) and will be in Sheffield for ten days later this month. He has also been asked about doing something in Manchester for the whole of September but there are a few questions and practicalities around that; after all, theatre is not exactly a well-paid gig anyway and there’s certainly no point if accommodation and subsistence costs aren’t realistically covered by the theatre contractor / production company. Hmm…

So, therefore, I have been / am left to my own devices and hope to have a few day trips or nights away visiting friends during August. Last week I met up with some Australian friends in Bath and it was good to catch-up whilst admiring the Georgian architecture and dodging the swathe of students in mortar boards and gowns as they graduated from university. So that’s why it was a nightmare to park….!

Otherwise, I am determined NOT to fall into the trap of doing any of my various school / clerk jobs, reminding myself that I am paid (a pittance) to work term-time-only and – as has been proven – loyalty is usually a one-way street. Naturally I fell at the first hurdle and spent some time last week getting things in order for the next academic year telling myself that it’ll save time and stress in the longer-term (yeah – right). I wish I could turn my brain off as it is adept at making mountains out of molehills more than ever, and that has been getting me down. However, another reason for my lack-lustre and general apathy has come to light in blood-test results received yesterday – B12 levels are very low and require medication. The annual diabetic checks are currently underway (hence the blood test) so I will get more information later this week. Still, in some ways it’s good to know that there is a definitive reason behind months of [not] “bovvered”!?

However, on that note, I am definitely sick and tired of computers and on-line work and Cloud(s) and portals and social media and not-so-social-media and all the flim-flam and gubbins and therefore have decided that it’s time for a case of “step away from the key-board, Ma’am”.

Therefore, here’s to the beginning of a short summer intermission! ENJOY!!

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