With August beginning with temperatures almost as hot as some of July's, the garden is beginning to show signs of drought. We are having to ensure containers and hanging baskets are watered daily, along with any newly planted seedlings/outside sowings. We have been mulching the veg/flower beds to help lock in moisture in the ground and encourage healthy soil life.
August is generally a bumper harvest month with some crops being harvested for pickling (gherkins) and going into our jarred products made on site by Chef Luke. With all this hot weather some veggies have been doing really well such as the chillies, aubergines, tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes. Check out this bumper banana chilli harvest we had last week; this was the second harvest of the year already!
Despite dead-heading and regular picking, sadly the c
ut flower garden has taken a bit of a hit in this heat with some of the gorgeous flowers getting scorched. However, we have managed to get a few beautiful bunches of flowers put together on a Friday to sell in the garden each week, up until this point at least.
The carpenters have been busy bees and have put together seven wooden surrounds on our veg beds in the market garden. This will help to control the weeds encroaching on the beds and mean we are able to mulch the paths in-between, improving the aesthetics and again stopping those pesky weeds.
We have been busy sowing seeds such as parsnips, turnips, carrots, giant winter spinach, khol rabi 'Superschmelz', beetroot, oriental salad leaves and mustards over the last month to provide us with late harvests.
The loofahs are coming along slowly and steadily but have really had a growth spurt with the intense heat of late. The hops are growing really well on the purpose-built support frames alongside the polytunnel and seem to be shooting for the stars, we will look forward to harvesting them in September. There's still plenty to do this month with continued harvesting, sowing, planting of winter veg, trimming of hedges, taking cuttings and tackling weeds. August is a great time to celebrate fresh and seasonal veg and enjoy the fruits of your labour.