JULY 2007

Early July

Happy birthday to my blog - one year old this month! Also, it's the first posting on Blogger after moving my site from elsewhere. Not much to celebrate though. The weather is still miserable. The rain showers have been fairly constant all through June and it looks set to continue into the start of July. One minute the sun is out and it's hot and humid, within five minutes it's hammering down with heavy summer rain. Everything is so wet that it's impossible to cut the lawns and hedges in the garden.

The allotment is doing OK. The courgette plants are getting larger and I can see some baby fruit on them. The bush tomatoes are flowering well despite the blustery winds - I've had to stake them well. I'm pleased with the onions but the salad onions have been very slow. The early potatoes are coming on and the plants are beginning to turn now - so I thought it time to start digging them up. Well, I'm pleased for my first ever early spuds, I just had to make up a batch of fresh potato salad. The early variety I planted was Pentland Javelin, very tasty.

Inbetween the rain showers I've managed to get out and about. When the sun shines it looks like summer and the butterflies make an appearance. Within a small area of pasture and woodland, I spotted five different butterflies in about half an hour. Pictured top left, a Comma; top right a Red Admiral; middle left a Small Tortoise Shell; middle right a White Marbled and, at the bottom, a Meadow Brown. The following day I also saw a Cabbage White (that's why I have netted my brassicas) and a Common Blue. It's really great to see so many butterflies around, hopefully the reduction in pestacides is helping.

I've been doing some general weeding around the brassica bed. The sprout plants are doing very well and most of the summer cabbages look OK. The winter cabbages have been attacked by slugs and I had to replace a few plants. I popped in two squash plants just to see if I can get anything from them.

According to the books it's a good time to plant strawberries so they get established before the cool weather. I've planted three varities in my fruit bed, 'Hapil'; 'Cambridge Favourite' and, 'Honeoye'. I hope to take a few 'runners' from them next year to expand the number of plants.

Late July

Sun - where has it gone? The weather hasn't really improved since the start of the month and heavy rain has been common place. Many people around the UK have suffered flooding on a large scale but thankfully Cwmbran hasn't seen such problems. I just looked back to my first blog entry in July 2006 and it was the hottest July since 1983 and had the most sunshine since 1957 - what a contrast with this year!

Potato blight had been in the news - it develops in wet years. All my early potatoes have been dug now but I still have a main crop due to be lifted around September. To be honest they don't look to be in the best of condition and I don't really know what to do. Should I lift them early or leave them longer and see what happens? If there any experts out there, advice would be appreciated!

Other crops are beginning to be picked now. I didn't think I had many runner beans but then as I was weeding I spotted clumps of the beggers hiding around the back! Some had grown a bit too large - I'm keeping a better watch on them now. Courgettes are developing really well, I've had a few already with loads more sprouting away. My wife makes a lovely vegetable slice with courgettes as part of the stuffing. Slice and dice courgettes, peppers, tomatoes, onions and any other similar veggies you can get your hands on. Make up a very thick cheese sauce with butter, milk, flour and plenty of tasty cheese. Roll out some plain or puff pastry into a rectangle and spoon the mixture down the centre, not going too close to the edge otherwise the sauce will leak out during cooking. Score the two long edges and brush on some milk. Fold the sides of the pastry on top like a sausage roll and seal each short end, again with milk. Cook on a medium heat for about 30 minutes then when cooled cut into slices. Serve hot with a cooked dinner or cold with salads. Very tasty.

I have managed to have a wander around the countryside late this month despite a busy time on the allotment. The most extrordinary thing I came across was a fantastic colony of Sheathed Woodtuft fungi growing over a heap of bark chippings. It was an incredible sight. Perhaps the only upside to this wet and humid weather is the possibility of seeing fungi.

That's it for this month. The weather forecasters are hinting at better weather for August - I hope they are right. I'd hate for the summer of 2007 to be a total washout. I'll see you in August. If you would like to leave a comment please click on the link below. I'll leave you with a picture of the Sheathed Woodtuft. Bye.