Category: Summer

August 15th update keep beds full, cucumbers tomatoes and melons, save seed, make compost, insect covers, store onions
15th August 2020 Featured, Summer, Uncategorized
Early August has been unusually warm here, night minimum temperatures averaging16C/61F and day maxima averaging 27C/81F. Growth is fast as long as one waters – we use a hose, which takes time w
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August 2020 fast growth, succession plantings, onion harvest tips, compost quandaries, sowings now and soon
25th July 2020 Featured, Summer
It’s a rainstorm as I write and I am grateful for it. Before today, July’s total rainfall was 29mm/1.2in and after this storm it’s 46mm/1.8in. Still below average. We have been water
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July update 12th, prune squash, sow more & transplant leeks, make compost, onion and potato readiness, path mulch
12th July 2020 Featured, Summer
It’s speeding up now, but growth has been slowed by the weather here. A cool two weeks until 10th July saw daytime maxima always under 20C 68F and averaging 18.5C 65F, with just 4.5 hours sunshi
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July 2020 summer unfolds with more sowings, interplanting, weeds to hoe or pull, seeds to save, potato harvests and beware pyralids
27th June 2020 Featured, Summer
June has been warm and with mixed weather, including decent rainfall! of 107mm so far. Rain in June is the best of any month, after the surge of growth in spring. At Homeacres it has rescued my peas,
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June mid month new picking and plantings, intersowing carrots, making and using composts, pyralid weedkiller hidden in composts
13th June 2020 Featured, Summer
The weather is cooler and damper than May, but only 28mm/1.1in rain here so far. The soil under growing plants is still dusty – but some of you have had big rain, even too much. “A drippin
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June 2020 extreme weather, early harvests, mulching, no dig garlic, webinars, insects, keep sowing, problems with bought composts
30th May 2020 Featured, Summer
May was the driest ever month here, in 47 years of my records. 1990 came close with 4mm rain compared to 3.2mm (0.13in) in May 2020. In the last 20 years, the previous driest May was 2010 with 34mm, s
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August 2019 summer winds down, open day, no dig transformation, insect problems, new no dig beds, onions
11th August 2019 Featured, Summer
Writing this in a thunderstorm, our first substantial rain for two months of lovely warmth, over 40mm so far and 46mm in the end (1.9in) in four hours. All soaked in, watering finished for 2019 except
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August 2019 new sowings, planting tips, seed saving, pest protection, onions, tomatoes, pyralids
28th July 2019 Featured, Summer
Be ready with seeds of this month’s top sowings; spinach, salad rocket, mustards, pak choi, land cress, spring onions and spring cabbage. August can be a second spring in the garden, when it rains.
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July 2019 harvest-clear-replant, no dig success against pests, clean paths, identify aminopyralid damage
1st July 2019 Featured, Summer
Be prepared for everything: picking planting sowing weeding watering pests heat. Give as much time as you can now, for best results later. June here was much less hot than across the Channel. Our aver
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June update 2019 new sowings, harvests, making compost, no dig flowers, more on aminopyralid
15th June 2019 Featured, Summer
Is cool and damp better than hot and dry? Last year we were short of moisture, this year we are deprived of warmth and light. I preferred last year! Mostly you can add water, but can’t add warmth. T
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June 2019 no dig trials, new polytunnel, garlic harvests, interplanting, pyralid problems in composts
31st May 2019 Featured, Summer, Uncategorized
Summer begins now, but don’t bank on too much fine weather this summer is my hunch. The soil is dry here at the moment and plants look well except for rusty garlic outside: garlic and leek rust is e
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Small Garden (5) early July, new plantings for summer and autumn harvests
4th December 2018 Autumn, Small Garden, Summer, Videos
A follow-up to Small Garden of June, see how summer plantings of beans, kale, beetroot, carrots, leeks and salads have grown. Plus how the outdoor tomatoes are ripening already, early for this tempera
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