Wilting

We’re wilting – both me and the plants.  Another very hot (for us) weekend – temperatures up to the mid-thirties Centigrade (mid-nineties Fahrenheit); and I know that won’t sound remarkable to some of you, but for us it’s not at all what we’re used to.  It’s now a little cooler, mid-twenties (around 75F) with a fresh easterly breeze keeping things manageable, but forecast to warm up again, and still no rain in the forecast for a week at least.  It doesn’t help that the problems with the village water supply are ongoing; the water company is keeping the taps flowing, but I’m trying to conserve as much water as possible.  The tomatoes are surviving, more or less, and they and the bigger pots get water mostly saved from the kitchen; there are now three soaking stations in the shade for the little pots, and plants in the ground are having to put up with nothing (except for the courgettes, which get a little but are still not producing fruits of usable size). 

Achillea and feverfew

It’s interesting to see which plants are flagging.  As you might expect, the Mediterranean ones (lavender, oregano, etc) don’t seem to mind too much, although the thyme (in pots) is looking a little crisp at the edges.  Surprisingly, the osteospermum (also in a pot) flags a bit in the heat, while the little pot of mint seems to be doing well on short water rations.  The big achillea is still going strong; it and the feverfew provided some flowers for the (rather hot) porch (the achillea will dry off, for some out-of-season colour in the winter).  The penstemons are also bearing up well, and the sunflowers in the veg patch are coming on fine (though I should have staked them as they're looking a bit bent!).  The dahlias (in pots) are trying to flower but they, and their underplanting of annuals, aren’t really doing much, and they’re also being knocked around by the wind.  I suspect that the drought damage to the plants in the ground won’t really be apparent until the autumn at the earliest.

A fine display of dill flowers

In the veg plot, the garlic has been lifted – it looks surprisingly good, considering that I haven't watered it – and the broad beans and most of the peas eaten or cut and frozen before they dried off on the plants.  The ‘Alderman’ peas are good, and pest-free; ‘Douce de Provence’ produced nice petit pois but some pods had been attacked by pea moth.  ‘Alderman’ was sown a little later, and perhaps that had something to do with it?  There's a fine display of dill flowers.  The lettuce is finished, with the next generation still tiny seedlings waiting to be planted out (which I won’t do until I can provide them with decent watering).  The plums are starting to ripen; they look reasonably plentiful.

Neat paths ...

... rearranged by the birds

The birds are making the best of it.  I'm keeping their water supply going, but they have to find their own food.  Earlier in the summer, I became fed up with weeding the veg plot paths and bought a load of shredded bark to top-dress some of the paths, on top of a layer of cardboard and some packaging paper that I had lying around.  It looked really good when I’d finished; but since then the birds have been rooting around in it in search of food, and exposing the paper, making it all look very untidy.  A male blackbird has been sunbathing down there, and he is the main suspect, I fear.  A female pheasant has also been sunbathing in the garden in the hot weather; she was pancaked in the grass beyond the plum tree the other day.

Sunbathing pheasant

Many plants seem to be flowering, or fruiting, early this year; the buddleja has had some flowers on it since the beginning of the month, whereas it often hasn’t done anything until late July.  In the past I’ve wondered if it had something to do with when I pruned it, but this year I finished pruning it very late and so that can’t be the reason.  Presumably it’s the weather.  It does mean, however, that there are plenty of butterflies.  In the past I haven’t attempted the Big Butterfly Count, from mid-July until very early August, because there haven’t been enough butterflies to count until later, but this year the sun has brought them out early; there have been single individuals of peacock, red admiral and comma, but plenty of whites, meadow browns, gatekeepers and common blues, and I’ve seen skippers and small coppers enjoying the oregano flowers.  There was also a lovely painted lady on the buddleja the other day.  I’m looking forward to doing a BB Count when it starts in a couple of days’ time.

Gatekeeper

Small copper

Painted lady on the buddleja

One of the blues