It’s been lovely to have some rain! Not a sentence I ever thought I’d ever write, but the change in weather has enabled us to spend some time doing something other than filling endless watering cans. The downside of the recent rain has been that all the weeds have decided to put in an appearance, so we’re working on that instead. Be careful what you wish for…
Wildflowers provide food and habitat for wildlife
Although we’re keen for wildflowers – or as some people call them weeds – to grow to provide food and habitat for wildlife, we’re less keen on them being allowed to have free rein when it comes to seeding. Not so long ago, our weed of the week was mustard, then dock, followed by burdock and currently we are pulling out willowherb. The plants all end up on our double compost heap, so hopefully, enterprising insects will still be able to find anything useful left on them.
We had quite an infestation of mustard last year and targeting it just before seeding time worked really well as it has been much more manageable this year. This year’s great infestation has been poppies – oriental and annual, cultivated and wild. We’ve taken quite a few heads and collected the seed, but we haven’t quite had the heart to eliminate them before they set. I think it’s safe to predict a profusion of poppies for next year, weather permitting.
Early harvest
An effect of the warmth we’ve experienced this year has meant that many things have ripened early so, for the past four weeks, we’ve been harvesting everything from apples to zucchini (courgette if you prefer). The grape vine in the greenhouse had so much fruit on it that the supporting frame broke! Our lovely volunteers have managed to lift it back up and rope it back into place, but it’s certainly been a learning experience for me personally. I’ve never had so much growth that I’ve had to thin a grapevine before!
Herbs and plants
Despite an early harvest in some beds, there’s still a lot growing as we’re trying to take advantage of the space. We’ve still got a lot of tomatoes in our main growing area which does limit our space for propagation and growing on, so our volunteers came up with a genius structure made out of palettes to allow us to grow vertically. We’ve got lots of pots of herbs on the go, with lettuces, pak choi and a range of other late growing veg already potted up, so it’s been a total win.
Our next big event is the Summer Garden Party on 6th September so over the next few weeks, we’ll be preparing for that and then the Community Connecting Autumn Lunch. We’ll have plenty of herbs and plants to buy, so we’ll look forward to seeing everyone soon!
Matt Young
Therapeutic horticulture lead