Here comes the sun... and onions

Pot's Growing On? Potatoes, tomatoes, insects and homemade deer scarer

I’m writing today’s newsletter as quickly as possible to get outside because, dare I say it, it’s sunny! At last! And look, our onions are cheering with their leaves in the air. Grown from seed, these red and brown onions are loving the wetter year but even they will confess to wanting more warmth and sunshine. I’ve weeded around them a bit, leaving the purple dead nettle because… well, I like it.

Our salad patch has done well too, with more pick-and-pick-again lettuce than we can eat and the best year for radishes I’ve ever known. Normally radishes don’t do brilliantly for me, I sow a lot to make up for it. So in a year when they’ve all grown huge, we are inundated with rads.

Our mangetout are continuing to supply us with food, we’ve used them in about five meals so far and there are no signs of slowing down. Mangetout are currently up there as top of my hassle free harvests for ease vs yield.

I’m conducting a large potato trial for Gardeners’ World Magazine this year, reported next year. A huge swathe of the plot is dedicated to this and so far, they are luxurious. I just hope the wet soil doesn’t also mean luxurious slugs.

In this bottom bit of our main garden, I was calling the Vortex until I quickly decided that is too ridiculous a name, roe deer have been very keen visitors this year. We’re clearly growing delicious snacks for them in this spot. I stuck a pot on a spade as a makeshift scarecrow and to my surprise, for now it seems to have worked! Which makes me think, is it time for a scarecrow revival? (the answer to that is yes btw).

So far, deer seem to prefer eating persicaria, geranium and Japanese anemone, leaving the asters and helenium (above) to it. Perhaps they have a very refined palette and don’t lower themselves to daisies.

Common hogweed growing beneath larch

Around the polytunnel is our wilder area which is really overrun with nettles this year, in fact, I’m not sure yet what to do about them. The mini meadow is all nettle this summer because they’ve spread rapidly in the wet of the last year. I have begun cutting them down, at least in the central meadow area to try and get sun back down to the grass. I’ll leave plenty around the outside for wildlife. Speaking of which, I’ve been overjoyed to see insects return in this week’s sunny days.

In the polytunnel I’m hoping this spell of hot sunny weather speeds our tomatoes, chillies and aubergines along. I did sow our tomatoes later this year as an experiment and I believe they have grown more strongly as a result. The reason being that they weren’t sitting around in pots inside on dull early days of spring for as long. This does mean they are later to fruit and ripen, though they are smothered in flowers and young tomatoes, so it can’t be long now.

All in all, a few days of warm, dry, sunny weather does the garden the world of good. Plants noticeably grow far quicker each day, making it a joy to pop outside and see what’s changed. A new flower, slightly longer stems, new leaves. Butterflies are fluttering around the carefully chosen plants for them, and I’m hoping they’ll breed quickly now for many more later in summer.

A quiet shaded corner where lilies are about to flower

Of course, all of this does us the world of good too, so stop reading and get out there in the sun! And with that advice, I’m heading out. Have a lovely weekend.