Another heatwave

 Currently in the midst of another heatwave. Apparently, it's going to get to about 30 degrees tomorrow. I'm watering the garden and allotment every day, early in the morning (before it gets too hot). The stuff growing on the allotment (pumpkins, squash and some fruit bushes) all seems ok, for now. But some of the small trees in the garden seem to be struggling a bit, the leaves are drying out and getting scorched by the sun. I'm really hoping they survive through the summer.

We need some rain, I think. Not just the odd, little shower now and then, which is what we've been getting for the last month or so, but a proper rainy day (or few days, ideally). Having a bit of water once a day is obviously not enough.

Optimistically, I'm hoping this is the last heatwave this year. Personally, I think anything over 23 degrees is too hot, so 30 degrees is horrendous. Too hot to do anything, too hot to sleep at night. I'm not a big fan of summer, generally. Autumn is much more comfortable.  

Vegetable planting

 I have written on here before about how I am a fairly lazy gardener. Well, that is still the case. Finally managed to weed some of the raised beds (which were all full of grass), and plant out some vegetables. I haven't planted a lot this year, as I'm expecting that we will have another heatwave over the summer, and possibly water restrictions put in place. This is what happened last year and most of the vegetables and some plants ended up dying. So, I have only planted some garlic, a lot of onions and some potatoes. The garlic seems to be doing quite well, so far. The onions have just started to grow, but the potatoes aren't doing anything yet.

As the badgers seem to visit our garden most nights, I was a little concerned about them digging up everything we'd planted. But, apparently if you lay holly branches over any new bulbs you plant, it deters various creatures from digging them up. I tried this, so far it seems to have worked. (I don't really want to put netting or anything over the vegetables, as I'm worried about birds (or other creatures) getting tangled in it.)

The trees all seem to be doing quite well, some of them have a bit of blossom on, some have small leaves and a few still just have buds. I'm not sure we'll get any fruit off of any of them this year, as they are all still quite small. But we shall see.

Lazy Gardening

 Happy New Year! 

I have been making plans for our garden. I'm not really a natural gardener....in fact I prefer to leave our garden as wild as possible. However, I like to try to grow some fruit and vegetables each year (not always successfully). The heatwave last summer killed off a lot of the plants and vegetables, sadly.

I planted another tree over the weekend - an apple tree. I doubt we will get any fruit from it this year, it's still quite a small tree, but over the next few years I hope we can use some of the fruit from it. Even if we can't, it will provide a bit more shade in our garden, which is a good thing (especially if we have more very hot summers)! We also have a plum tree, a pear tree and a cherry tree, so will possibly be able to get some fruit from those too, at some point.

While I'm talking about trees...I think the little oak tree we planted last year (the one I thought had died), might still be alive! I think it has tiny buds starting to form. I may be wrong. We shall see.

Also, we decided that the patio section of our garden was too big. So I've pulled up several paving slabs and will use the space as another grassy area, and let the daisies and dandelions grow.

I'm not going to attempt to grow too many vegetables this year, maybe just garlic, onions and possibly kholrabi. My idea of growing vegetables is to essentially plant them and water them. I don't do anything else....no covers or nets or things added to the soil (apart from peat-free compost). If it all grows, then great. If it all gets eaten by animals/insects, then fine. I'm a very lazy gardener.

 

 

My Love of Trees

 We are properly into summer now. The garden is full of flowers and very long grasses (we don't mow our lawn very often, we prefer to let it grow into a sort of meadow). Starlings and sparrows seem to be in the garden most of the time and we get occasional visits from a couple of goldfinches. I did see a few butterflies over the weekend. I think one was a Red Admiral, but I couldn't say for definite, they all flutter around quite quickly.

When we moved into this house, the garden was mostly lawn. Over the last two years, we have put in several raised beds for vegetables and quite a lot of trees. Planting a tree is one of my favourite things to do, especially if I'm feeling a bit miserable or stressed about anything! They are good for the environment and will eventually provide some shade in our garden. I know a lot of people don't want shady gardens, but I think it's good to have some shade, especially during heatwaves (which seem to be getting more frequent). So far, we have two rowan trees, a hawthorn, a spindle, two plum trees (one was already here when we moved in), a hazelnut, a pear and a cherry tree. We also planted a couple of holly bushes and a friend gave me a tiny oak tree he'd dug up from his garden (which I have planted, but I'm not sure it will survive, I think the roots were damaged when he dug it up). I'd like to get an apple tree at some point soon, not quite sure where we'd put it yet though.

All of the trees are still fairly small, but a few of them look like they may produce fruit and berries this year. Tiny berries have started to form on one of the rowan trees and a few cherries and plums have started to appear. I'm stupidly happy about this! Autumn is one of my favourite seasons (the other is winter), and I love seeing all the berries and fruit on trees. Plus, it provides food for all the wildlife.