Too darn hot

We Brits love complaining about the weather, but it’s not often that the complaint is about heat. 

Around the middle of the month, it started to warm up, and for a couple of days we had record-breaking temperatures; 41C (104F) in certain parts of the east of the country, two degrees above the previous record, and 35C here. It’s not likely to impress readers in some countries, but we’re not geared up for that sort of heat; the trains stopped running, for example. Here, we just closed the curtains and stayed indoors, drinking plenty of water. Since then things have cooled down to the low twenties C, which is a lot more manageable. 

Still, the garden is very dry and there is talk of the dreaded hosepipe ban (not that it will be dreaded by us, as we don’t use a hosepipe); there has been a little rain today, some of it quite heavy, but it’s not likely to make much impression on already parched earth. We have taken to walking down the garden by a different route so as not to wear away the usual path to the summerhouse. My over-large collection of pots has been moved into the shade by the back door and I’m collecting waste water in the kitchen to use on the tomatoes (which are doing quite nicely in the greenhouse, and even the two ‘Harzfeuer’ plants in pots on the patio are fruiting well). 

The parched path to the summerhouse

Some plants in the garden are suffering; the violets and Lysimachia clethroides are wilting, but the sedum ‘Herbstfreude’ behind, being a succulent, is still doing fine. I expect the violets will recover (they are spreading too much anyway), and the lysimachia is a bit of a thug and drought is one of the things that keeps it under control; it usually grows back. 

Wilting violets and lysimachia, but upright sedums behind

We’ve been ensuring that there is water available on the patio so that the wildlife can drink and bathe. A squirrel has been coming for an occasional drink and to try to dig up allium bulbs from my pots (without success); it came to the windows to look inside, even though it could see me watching, almost as though it was asking for more food, please! It should be able to tackle the hazelnuts soon; the nuthatches are helping themselves to them, so even though they’re still unripe they ought to be edible. 

Hello there!

Allium bulbs, yum yum

On the subject of edibles: although the veg garden doesn’t have much to offer, we do have lettuces, broad beans, the first French beans and courgettes; and the shallots and garlic have been dug up for storing. The raspberries are nearly all over, but the plums are ripening fast in the warmth – more than we can keep up with so I think jam will be in order!