Early June 2007

The weather has gone back to cold and rainy for the last week everyone is saying how atypical this is and they can't believe they are still lighting their fires every evening. No wonder there is still no sign of the Gigante Liscio tomatoes, Costoluto Florentino tomato, Ananas d'Amerique a Chair Verte melon and the Blacktail Mountain water melon germinating.

Heavy rain also beat down the french beans and sweet corn but the damage does not seem to have been permanent. No doubt in a few weeks time we'll be praying for rain to give us relief from watering duties. A sensible thing about hosepipe bans here in France is that they do not include vegetable gardens.

The Seed Amaranth has germinated and quickly within a few days, but the seedlings are not progressing we really need some sunshine to get everything going. Even the potatoes are showing no further development when it comes to flowering and we really want to be eating new potatoes.

In the orchard the apple and pear trees have begun to set fruit, the early cherry has been and gone with all it's fruit too high for us to reach but there is a later one with lots of reachable fruit, again we need some sunshine.

DIY jobs in the house have pulled me away from the garden too much and we have missed the boat on most of the vegetables to give a supply of fresh produce through the winter, but I have sown some swede, as for the rest such as brussels sprouts I think we will have to buy plants. The chicken run has been moved their old one, well scratched and fertilised, I think is going to be the ideal spot for these new additions.

And at last we have two days of brilliant sunshine and suddenly everything looks more promising. The Wautoma cucumbers start flowering there are pods on the peas and we start to dig up potatoes our first substantial crop from the garden.

We plant the brussels sprouts we bought (variety Brilliant) and dig over the rest of the area where the chickens were. The brussels sprouts were from Gamme Vert which sells plants, seeds and general equipment like garden tools, preserving supplies, animal feeds and such. Generally though I have found plants to be cheaper and better quality at the markets than in the big stores.

There can be advantages in not being too tidy a gardener not all the plants that seed themselves in your garden are unwelcome. We found this wild strawberry hiding in a corner of the bed of Aquillon french beans. Not even a handful of fruit but what a treat

Late June 2007

Unfortunately the damp weather stayed with us for most of the month. Along with just about all the other gardeners in the area both tomatoes and potatoes succumbed to blight.

The potatoes had flowered and were quite large so we have followed the advice from the "Vegetable Expert" book. We have cut the foliage off and left the tubers in the ground. We are still digging the Charlotte potatoes as and when we need them and the tubers seem unaffected. They are certainly free from blemishes and taste wonderful. We will have to see if this allows us to stores the Desirees.

The Gigante Liscio tomatoes, Costoluto Florentino tomato, Ananas d'Amerique a Chair Verte melon and the Blacktail Mountain water melon and the ground cherries have all germinated. If the weather improves I may get to see some fruit as the frosts don't generally start here until November. I felt it was worth the experiment since I had the seeds anyway. Time will tell.

The sweet peppers and chilli peppers seem less affected by the weather though it looks like we will be eating them green without some real sunshine.

The coriander in the herb bed is in full flower. We hope to harvest seeds from it in the mean time it is looking really pretty.

The Aquillon french beans are producing really well as are the Serpette Guilloteau peas.