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Remind me never to wish for better weather ever again! Following a pretty dismal June, July has
proven to be absolutely dire. It just never seemed to stop raining and was apparently the wettest July since the creation
– a slight exaggeration perhaps, but only slight. The effect on the plot has been pretty bad with nothing really behaving
as normal.
The tomatoes have been a disaster with mildew absolutely rife. Everyone at the allotments has been
affected with hardly a tomato fit to pick. I dug mine up and threw them away.
The beetroot has put on prodigious amounts of leaf growth but the roots remain tiny. This is a
common result of over-watering in a normal year so it’s not surprising really. I’m not too worried about this
as there’s still time, as long as we get a bit of sun, for the roots to develop. We may yet get a crop.
The squashes are suffering the same fate with lots of leaf but very little fruit so far. They are
insect pollinated and the almost constant rainfall has meant that there have been less of them around to do their work. Some
squashes are developing though with the Turks Head doing better than the Butternuts, so as long as we get a reasonable end
to the summer we should get a crop, though probably not so good as last year.
The
sweet corn on the other hand is doing pretty well. They’re looking pretty healthy with a fair few cobs developing. The
courgettes are also flourishing and we’ve been picking them regularly throughout the month. The garlic has been a partial
success with the Elephant and Early Purple varieties doing well but the Solent Wight being completely destroyed by rust.
The
Borlotti beans are looking good as well and are starting to develop nicely. These are never a heavy cropper so I wasn’t
expecting a bumper harvest. The fennel and spring onions are also doing OK but, as with everything else, are a bit behind
schedule.
We’ve
been harvesting bits and pieces, a few carrots, raspberries (although the variety we have is late cropper so still has plenty
of time), courgettes and shallots but all in all it’s been thin pickings so far.
That’s
the story of July really. Some stuff has been ruined and most things are well behind but there’s still hope for some
decent produce if the weather improves.
It
seems a bit churlish to complain about the weather at all when you consider the flooding in the midlands and the north where
many folk have lost everything and some even their lives. So I think I’ll whinge no more and just be thankful. If losing
a few veg is the worst that ever happens then I have nothing to complain about.
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