Lazy, Hazy Days
Ahh, August. The golden light scattering across the (sometimes) dry garden, the harvests teeming with promise, the endlessly dramatic weather. What's not to love?
Blackberry Picking Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer’s blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots. Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills We trekked and picked until the cans were full, Until the tinkling bottom had been covered With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s. We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre. But when the bath was filled we found a fur, A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache. The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour. I always felt like crying. It wasn’t fair That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot. Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not.” - Seamus Heaney
Low Hanging Fruit
We got it! We’ve got even more now, at time of writing. August was the month we saw the grapevine take centre stage, having clearly established itself so well in the polytunnel over the last couple of years that it wanted everyone to know about it. The sweet purple grapes just kept popping up in huge bunches, again and again. Visitors delighted in them, and as much as we nibbled the sweet fruit they just kept coming back in abundance. No surprise, given that the polytunnel is a humidity trap (for better and worse - we were hit hard by the inevitable powdery mildew this year).
As well as the very Romanesque bunches of grapes, the garden was popping out all sorts of delicious fruiting bodies; apples (both cooking and eating), pears, apricots, cucumbers, raspberries, tomatoes, and - new for this year - cucamelons!
These little cucurbit cuties taste exactly how you think they might - somewhere between a cucumber and a melon. The tiny watermelon-shaped fruit are harvested when they’re about the size of a grape, and are delicious on their own as a snack, or in a summery salad.
Flower Power
The garden was bursting with new displays of flowering annuals and perennials, most notably in the front entrance planters where we had earlier in the season planted pollinator-friendly verbena (Purple-top vervain), Liatris spicata (Blazing Star), Nicotiana (Tobacco plant), sedums (Stonecrop), Salvia nemorosa (Caradonna), and lots of Zinnias. These newcomers accompany the existing, naturalised Narcissus (Daffodil), Allium and Crocus bulbs already in there.
We hope they’ll help to provide a wealth of colour and structural interest across the year for our human visitors, as well as have increased notable benefits for our insect residents.
No Bad Weather, Only Bad Clothing…
We know the saying, but do you know where it comes from?
The sentiment is deeply ingrained in Scandinavian culture, particularly in Norway and Sweden. In these regions, children spend significant time outdoors, regardless of the weather, to develop a positive outdoor mindset (known as friluftsliv in Norway).
While variations of the phrase exist in many cultures, the specific wording "There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing" is attributed to the British walking author Alfred Wainwright.
Embracing this philosophy isn’t always the most pleasant for this particular author - I’ll freely admit to being more of a fair-weather gardener, for the most part - though I must admit there’s something quite freeing and wild about going about your usual business in the middle of a torrential rainstorm as if it wasn't happening at all.
Sometimes you just need to get on with it (or finally wear that huge rain poncho you got years ago and forgot about).
August threw us a few rainy curveballs, for sure. Here’s to all the soggy gardeners out there!
Still Hanging Around
Look at these guys, aren’t they superb? It’s a little hard to tell, but this leading flowerhead is the diameter of a dinner plate.
Our sunflower love continues, with many of our plants still putting on a spectacular show even late in the season.
We save our sunflower heads once the petals are done, keeping some for us to save seeds for next year, and leaving most for the birds to enjoy.
The slow close of August heralds the ushering-in of the Autumn season, and with it the harvest season proper. While it may seem premature, like many gardeners we’ll also be looking ahead to next year, and will be considering our winter crops and winter preparation.
But for now, we shall take a breath… and soak up the last, golden rays of summer, as nature intended.
