Feeling hot, hot, hot and finding bargains

Saturday afternoon brought a mini heatwave. Not only did flowers wilt but so did humans. I sheltered from the brutal sun on sunday by staying indoors and watching columbo reruns as, much as I love the sun, this was no time to do anything more strenuous than picking raspberries and making jam.

It's worth checking out the chain DIY stores as sometimes their poor housekeeping means the plants are underwatered, look sorry for themselves and you can get them at knock down prices. We got grafted tomato plants (usually £3.99 and prolific) for 50p each. After a soaking in buckets overnight I planted them out with very little ill effect from their tough start in life. Let's see how well they crop. I definitely need to stake them well.

Trouble with tomatoes

Top tip: never give up on plants. It's in their interest to survive and they will try hard to recover.



Before going on holiday I took great trouble (well great-ish for a lazy person) to keep my tomato plants safe. I grouped them together in the shade and watered them thoroughly. A week of sunshine and holiday later and I was delighted to see they survived.

This next bit is where I went wrong. You are supposed to plant them in the evening to reduce stress and water evaporation. In a hurry to get them planted and growing I took them down to the allotment in the morning in a bit of a rush. I decided that evening would be perfect to plant them. Unfortunately life got in the way and I left those helpless plants in the sun unattended till the weekend. A VERY BAD THING. When I blithely turned up they were crispy and pretty dead. Do what I say not what I do.

Anyway in a despite attempt to rescue the situation I dunked them in water and hoped for the best. The rain helped and miraculously they have survived. They are now planted and hopefully no worse for their early setback.

Incidentally the sundried tomatoes from last year are amazing with the passing of time. Full of flavour and oil.

And then the heavens opened

After months of drought and a record breaking sunny Saturday (worthy of a Sun 'what a scorcher' story) Sunday and Monday broke the trend in dramatic fashion.

Non stop rain gave the garden and allotment much needed water and saved me a job. Unfortunately it also discouraged me from leaving the sofa and buying seedlings of sweet pea, French beans and sweetcorn. Next weekend...

An update from before the rains

1st June (excuse the mixed timeline but I also updated this on the 16th)

The Maris pipers are flowering but are they ready? They are a main crop after all. (I harvested 940g of pentland javelin on the 12th and made salmon and potato salad - yum) I think I'll leave them till I need the space and the other varieties have been harvested.

The peas are nice and fat as are the broad beans. I am always disappointed by the yield of peas once you shell them. The beans on the other hand a great and filling and mashed with some spring onion on sliced ciabatta rubbed with garlic made a delicious pre meal snack. A fortnight later and mangetout are the stars.

I am so enamoured of the beans and mangetout that I will try a second sowing at the weekend. When clearing the old plants I will leave the nitrogen fixing roots in the soil. I will also plan to sow more beans this autumn.

A couple of plants are bolting and going to seed - sorrel and chard. I've pulled up the chard and resown and keep snipping the sorrel spears off.

I am lucky enough to have a surfeit of strawberries way ahead of my birthday. I harvested even the slightly soft ones and lightly boiled them down with sweetener into a sort of jus. Then you can make a pretty healthy pudding. Cut sponge fingers in half line bottom of a medium bowl, pour over half the jus, add more sponge, then the last of the jus, cover in natural yoghurt. Leave to let the flavours mix. Light but tasty. A fortnight later and the raspberries are coming into their own but rarely making it back home - they're just too tempting.

Beetroot is doing well and I can see tiny kohl rabi seedlings.

I still have two spare patches. What to do with them? I am considering maybe planting sweetcorn among squash. A bit like native Americans who traditionally relied on Squash, beans and corn for food.