Rain, Rain and more Rain

This is my third post, and I am finally beginning to get used to writing about my garden in an open and hopefully interesting way. Anyway, the recent weather has meant a change in my usual gardening pattern, as I have not been able to get out as much as normally. June was the wettest month in history apparently and July has not started much better. The increased water levels have helped save time by meaning that I have not had to water as much.

Past
Last time I left you having explained my plans for the part of the long border near the pond. Generally I do not draw plans and allow them to develop over a number of days and weeks in my mind, often meaning that changes emerge. Once I think I have what I want, I will mark the area out, and leave it for a few days as it has a tendency to change. This certainly happened when developing the allotment area, as I played around with various plans and positions. In the end, it was decided that this area would be located near to the orchard as the picture below shows.

This is taken from the path through the orchard. It looks back towards the compost area and three main raised beds. I have problems with moles causing lots of damage, so it made sense to grow in raised beds, with chicken wire across the bottom.

This is taken from the same location as above, but looks up towards the greenhouse, barn and raspberry beds. I have planted two rows of raspberry (both Summer and Autumn), with the intention that once established they will form an artificial hedge.







Present
As explained in the intro, the past few weeks have not been great for gardening, especially vegetable growing. I planted out courgettes, butternut squash and french beans in June, and these have not put on much growth due to the lack of heat. This week, I decided to lift a few potato plants (rocket) in order to see how they had grown. These were sown at the start of April, are quick growers (ready in 10 weeks with ideal weather), and are good boiling. From the two plants I lifted a reasonable 1.5kg, and hopefully will be lifting more in the coming weeks.

I shall leave it here, and look forward to the next post. I hope that none of you were too affected by the recent floods and that your gardens are in good order. As usual, any opinions and tips are welcome, and I look forward to these. Take care and happy gardening.

CG.