It is a few weeks since I last commented on gardening activity.
Vegetable efforts continue and the big success has been the lettuce in pots which we bought as baby plants. These are doing well and provide plenty of leaves via the trusted “Cut and come again” method.
You will not in the photo the automatic watering system. This sort of works, but it is leaks somewhat and I can’t get the coverage to be very even. I have some new parts on order which I hope will allow me to greatly improve this.
In the admittedly rather unusual hexagonal vegetable patch the leeks and French beans are doing well and there is some signs on life from the peas, Brussels sprouts and kohlrabi. The peas were a pain to get started as they wouldn’t germinate in the seed compost. In the end I germinated them first between damp kitchen roll before planting.
On the decorative front, some of the roses are giving a good display and the dogwood has taken off since I cleared all the branches which were restricting it.
After the herculean clearance effort a few weeks ago, the dogwood is growing quickly
The one serious problem is the almost complete absence of rain with us experiencing the driest May in more than 120 years. On the plus side, slugs have been almost completely absent, but so has any growth in the lawn.
I intended to take advantage of my enforced presence at home to cut the lawn much more often. According to my book on lawn care, weekly or better still twice a week cutting will greatly improve things. Unfortunately it is of course necessary for the grass to actually grow so that there is something to cut!