My Garden - August 2024

Dear Gentle Reader, 

August started with an overcast day, with the promise of few scattered showers and temps between 10C-20C. I can live with that, so do my flowers and veg and fruit and herbs.

I also scattered grass clippings mulch around them to keep the weeds down and keep the moisture in. This method is used often around gardeners, so I might just have it a try too. 

Looooooook at those pics of my veg!! I spite of the cold spring, late planting, not so warm summer my garde didn't let me down. Outside and inside veg and fruit are coming on nicely and just a tiny bit of luck I just might be able to taste some beans and cabbage. Blackberries are started ripening and the blackbirds are already eyeballing them. Some serious evasive measures are needed! 

Production, harvesting continues in the greenhouse: tomatoes, grapes and melons are doing great. Everyone in my family are enjoying these humble offerings of the season. 

Since I'm growing beefsteak tomatoes I've decided to follow my progresses and record my best results. This year's, so far, best result comes from a cultivar called Gigantomo that never fails producing the biggest, juiciest, sweetest tomatoes. And voilá....result 😜. I did the same things I do every year before I plant out the seedlings, which are: worked generous amounts of farm manure, garden soil mix (that has sand) into the raised beds in my greenhouses. The plants were fed with home made comfrey liquid feed and the occasional handful of chicken manure pellets, which is the "redbull" of the  plant world. Apart from these, regular watering, weeding, and keeping the plants tidy by removing sideshoots and leaves after each thrus of flowers (only after the fruit starts forming). Also topping the tomato plant helps with the fruit production. These methods will ensure, that all the nourishment goes into the fruit and there's good aeration between the plants. I honestly didn't do anything else. I remember somebody telling me the key in growing successfully is using heritage and disease resistant varieties/cultivars mixed with herbs and flowers. Just like a postager garden. What's a postager garden?, you may ask...Well let me tell you.... "A potager is an ornamental kitchen garden, where vegetables, fruit, flowers and herbs are grown. Potager gardening originates from France and has evolved over many centuries – the name 'potager' actually means from the garden to the pot. Minimising pest and disease problems is yet another benefit of potager gardening. Growing a wide range of plants together in smaller numbers, rather than big quantities of just a few crops, reduces the risk of problems occurring, also encouraging beneficial insects which boosts the natural balance of pests and predators. Taking this further by companion planting – the deliberate partnering of certain plants to deter pests – is easy to achieve in a potager garden."(this passage was copied from a very well known gardening site). So you'll see among my tomatoes nasturtiums, marigolds, chamomile and basil. These plants protect my tomatoes and the Basil makes them sweeter. Among cabbages I plant Tagetes (French Marigold), this protects them from the cabbage White butterfly, and so on.... And just maybe all this TLC made my tomatoes, melons, grapes and other plants in my greenhouses and garden look healthy, scrumptious and wonderful. 

The Pointy Cabbages (York) are doing well, their inner/centre leaves are turning in so with a bit of luck I'll have some yummie cabbages next month or so. My yellow abd red onion sets have sprouted and ready to be used for the kitchen. I love Macro Photography and just to show you what I mean, I shall share this photo with you. I'm sure you can see a wee cuc in the
droplet. 

And here it is the end line of the postager garden...the cooking part. This was the tea I had with my father in law, scrambled eggs with cheese, green onions and tomatoes. Green onions and tomatoes from my own garden. YUMMMMM😋

Today (15th of August) started with rain and rained all morning, heavy downpour soaking everything. My 2 waterbuts are full to refusal. After I got home from work and wolfed down my dinner, went out to check my plants, my feet got soaked so I avoided wet grass and decided to potter in my greenhouses. Found 2 more Emir melons ripen, they will go into the fridge to chill. 

While I was checking out the other side where the Galia melons are I saw this picture with tiny resting on Mr Big. I suppose if tiny is still green by the time Mr Big will be harvested, it can take it's place on the podium and show off its own roundness. Every time when a melon ropes a wonderful waft of melon spreads around in the greenhouse making me smile and shamelessly lick my lips 😜😋🍈

The enemy is lurking, trying to sniff out my cabbages, but I hope the scent of the Tagetes will be enough to deter them. I have nasturtium plants coming on near by (selfseeded mind ya) which are a nice offering for caterpillars to munch on instead of my cabbages 😜 I'll keep my  👀 eyes on the enemy, because this year I've decided not to cover my cabbages. We shall see now 🤔😜👀😁🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️

19th of August we write today and it's raining, yet inspite of gloom and doom we had a few warm days. 

My perennial flowers (Hellenium , Gaura, Verbena, Sage, Phlox, Astrantia, Scabiosa) for the re-invented flower border are doing fine. Once I get a chance and a bit of help I'll plant them and heavily mulch them to keep weeds at bay and moisture in. That's the plan anyway 😜

Roses are doing goodish this year. I fed them and mulched it with grass clippings. Bit of TLC goes long way, they say. However Her Majesty Queen Dugh (read:dove, and which is  English for Black) is not happy with the gardener hoooooman who left her in. Oh well, a few treats will sort that issue out. 😜😉

However the grape season in my greenhouse is shortly coming to an end. 

It was an amazing year for the grape vine as you can see in this collage. Looking forward to next year. 

Stone of my veggies still producing, some just start producing, some producing a surprise. Plate of tomatoes reminds me of sunset, green beans, cucumbers and cabbages just starting producing and goodness me all of a sudden there's an apple on my Honey Crisp tree. Yayyyyyy 😜😁. I'm looking forward to taste it next month when it's ripe enough. My Helleniums are thriving in the sun, bloom after bloom opening offering nectar and pollen for polinators and bees. 

Well that's all for now and I shall see you next month with more news from my garden. 

All the best 

Annamaria