HERE COME THE SUMMER MONTHS
June has burst in bringing with it some new fashionwear for me to wear on the plot!
June is bursting out all over, or so the old song goes! This is certainly the case on my hillside plot. But what a gardening rollercoaster May was. There were heatwaves but most of all, prolonged dry days. It was last Saturday morning when the sound of water awoke me and a peek through the window brought a sight I never thought I’d welcome. Yes, rain! Just to keep the gardeners happy this lasted long enough to give my parched soil a good drenching before moving off and the sunshine returned. So, gardeners are happy and the holidaymakers could enjoy the rest of the weekend in the warm sun. Everybody satisfied! This was the first significant rain in the valley since March and this is a rare occurrence for a valley in Wales. Such has been the extent of this dry period that the feed of water from my mountain stream has been intermittent. This rare event hasn’t been heard of this early in a season for many a long year. Fortunately, when it was running strong it kept my many water butts full and I was forced to rely on this source of water to sate the thirst of my now many plants. What do you gardeners wear in your garden? My gardening gear is usually clothes my wife deems no longer suitable for me to wear socially! I have a small wardrobe where there are t-shirts and old jumpers kept for me to wear to the plot. Also when my jeans are faded they’re consigned to this role as well. The problems I get with jeans are the knees quickly split with the constant kneeling and bending. I know torn and split jeans are trendy fashion these days but I don’t want to be a fashion icon on the plot! So, my wife bought me a pair of hard-wearing trousers designed for working outdoors. There are so many pockets I can never find anything in them! When I wore them to the plot for the first time the banter rolled from my allotment mates. There are two external pockets on them which flap in the breeze and they reckon I look like Nellie the elephant! Still, they’re comfortable and I will fully test them over the coming weeks to see if they fare better than old jeans. I know climate change is confusing gardeners everywhere but plants are even more confused than us! I had a few spring cabbages given to me way back at the end of last summer. I planted them in a large half drum outside my greenhouse door. The expectation was that they’d supply spring greens. Guess what, they’re now ready! Are they to be renamed summer cabbage?