Blooming heck

A little bit of sun and the flowers are blooming like crazy.

Cosmos

Buddleja

Star Flowers

Mixed wildflowers (Borage, Snapdragons, Cornflowers and a load I don't know)

Not only the flowers, the courgettes have shot up over this past week. So far we've harvested two of them. I suspect many, many more to follow.

One downside though, because we haven't been able to get to the plot in the evenings to pick the strawberries, a lot of them have simply ripened and rotted on the plants. I know it's such a waste, but there are only so many hours in the day.

Into the compost they go.

We still have a load of Tomatoes and Chillies to sort out. Guess that's my job for tomorrow after shop duty.

Phew, what a scorcher

It's hot.

Let me amend that.

It's damn hot.

Yesterday (Sat) we went to the Wimbledon Village Fair but we didn't stay long because the temperature out was pushing 30. Today (Sun) was going to be similar or worse. So we decided to wake up at "surely this time shouldn't exist" O'Clock and we were at the plot just a shade after 6am. We were fully intending to get a little work done and then head home before the heat got to us.

Big mistake.

First things first, we have a shed load of stuff still sitting in the greenhouses that needs to be outside. Such as the Butternut Squashes and some more courgettes. These went into the weed area which was the previous mound. But now a lot of the previous soil has been put back into the main beds, so it's a lot flatter than normal.

Yes, they are looking a little yellow. They were probably left in the pots about a week too many.

Secondly the Tomatoes needed re-potting and segregating from the mixup of stuff in the two greenhouses. Well we did get some of the Toms re-planted. But the heat meant we couldn't get all of them done. So we only did the bigger ones, trusting that the smaller ones wouldn't need the re-potting until next week (or it gets a little cooler in the evenings.)

The Sweetcorn is looking much better after our disastrous start. And the beetroots are doing well too (at the back in the picture below).

We've also started re-potting some of the flower and other odds-and-ends.

And of course, the strawberries are really on a roll.

Big thick leaves, and luscious berries as shown above.

Wait, what? You can't see the strawberries themselves? You want a close up? OK.

But you aren't getting the kind of close-up I'll be getting... after I've downed a gallon of water to beat this heat.

It's like a jungle sometimes...

...makes me wonder how I keep from going under.

No, I'm not trying to outdo Belinda and her music with every post. The greenhouses are starting to feel like a jungle now. We definitely have to evict some of the current residents otherwise it's going to be a nightmare.

First off we have the Cosmos which has now moved to one of the arms of the flower bed. The stalks are still a little fragile, so a simple bamboo cane support helps them stay put.

Next to be vacated is the Cape Gooseberries and Chinese Lanterns. These have now been put in separate beds.

Meanwhile, I've been attacking the old courgette mound. Since this year it's been retired, or rather, moved, to another spot, the old spot has been somewhat rather over run with weeds.

Of course the problem is that there are quite a few rogue potatoes in there as well. So I need to pull weeds without disturbing the spuds. Well in the end I opted for a compromise of pulling big weeds then stamping down the other and putting a large piece of carpet over it. We'll eventually have to move the butternut squash out here later, but in the meantime the greenhouse now looks a little more empty.

I think it's time for a well deserved cold bottle of cider that I have chilling in the fridge.