Tim Foster
This long, hot summer has its downsides for gardeners, but it also has its upsides, too...
For quite a long time we have had the joy of (fairly) slug-less growing. High temperatures and a dry soil surface mean the little stinkers are sitting it out in some shady, damp nook. Popular spots would be under the leaves of groundhugging plants, especially weeds. There’s a new adage (I made it up): ‘if you want to find a slug, find a dandelion’ which is normally quite true - but not now it has dried up even under there. Now they’re hidden in the only damp places available: down cracks in the soil or in places that have been generously supplied with water where we have irrigated. The little slugs (the field slug, a whitegrey slippery character and the garden slug, a dark shiny sticky thing) go deep – three feet is not uncommon. When we have a drop of rain they emerge desperate and hungry, though this year, here, it hasn’t taken long for it all to dry out again so back down they go. There is another benefit of dry weather and that is the appearance of weeds. or rather the non-appearance. Most annual weeds are on a germinate-any-time programme and would normally be popping up all summer. Not when it gets this dry they don’t. The weeds that cope and are determined to make life as irritating as possible are the deep rooting perennials: they’re there all the time, roots happily tucked up in any damp soil way down alongside some grumpy slugs. A classic example would be bindweed: spreading out on the surface, green and healthy, even with pretty pale pink or white flowers smiling up at us. Field bindweed is the smaller leaved one, Convolvulus arvensis, particularly found in vegetable patches and flower borders, whereas the monsterous hedge bindweed runs through shrubs and even trees. It is Calystegia sepia and has huge, white flowers, each like an angle-poise lamp. We can do little more than pull at them, unless you’re interesting in topping up your soil with the potentially carcinogenic by-products of glyphosate. Then, of course, there is the lawn at home or the grass paths on the allotment: there aren’t many times you’ll need to get out the mower to see to a lawn that is the colour of the Gobi desert. If there is the possibility you have been sneaking out at midnight with the hose or, more acceptably, emptying the bath out (if I used my bath water that would probably be the end of the lawn completely) your emerald patch will reward you with the need to do more cutting. Well, that’s all very positive. And there are more, less horticulturally related bonuses, such as a healthy tan, not having to fly to Spain for your hols and the amusing challenge of trying not to incinerate pieces of animals on a barbecue. Unfortunately, there is the one major pitfall of this summer within gardening: watering. Certain plants will tell you of their need for a drink, such as the brown, crispy ones in a forgotten hanging basket. A slight drooping is a more gentle reminder and many garden plants do it. Set up a cycle of emptying out the washing up bowl (not too warm and soapy, please) around the garden. on the allotment, to produce certain crops, watering is essential: the greedy ones are squash / courgettes and peas / beans. Many others such as the brassicas, carrots and onions cope happily with an infrequent soak. runner beans hate hot, dry weather and can go on strike when it comes to pod production, while French beans produce produce regardless. If only we’d known it would be like this at sowing time…