August

The hot weather continued, and fearing a water shortage, we invested in a bowser for the walled garden. Who needs weight-training in a gym, when you could be carrying full watering cans up and down the slopes at 6am? Caroline was in at this early hour through the hottest weeks, with Ann staggering in at 8am as backup (Not a morning person!).

The bowser made it easier to water the courtyard and the bottom of the garden as we could wheel the water supply to the plants!

Our bowser is a true antique but with modern, user-friendly adjustments. Tracked down by Sarah (demonstrating the bowser here), collected by Phil, and accessorised by Marion, this was another inspired project by the Garden team!

Meanwhile, the peas, beans and lettuces grew happily at the pergola and the onions expanded to exhibition-size! In the high temperatures, we had to suspend the plant sale and concentrated on keeping cuttings alive….

We were amazed to see the plum tree dripping with ripe plums…in early August! Too soon! Half of the Walled Garden Volunteers were still away on holiday, and we couldn’t quite keep up with the picking!

But our dyer-gardener, Ruth, had rich-pickings amongst the dye plants, demonstrating her skills each Wednesday morning at the Garden.

Now it’s early September; we have quite a list of tasks ahead of us. First, the scything of the meadow. A challenging morning: the humid air, threatening a thunderstorm, made our bees very grumpy.

Fran and Dom look cheery here, and ready to cut the meadow…but soon after, they were pursued by bees, and each was stung!

Fortunately, Peter and the Buzz Club were on hand to advise. We abandoned the meadow for the day, half-finished, to wait for a cooler morning and with the bees fast asleep in their hive.

The dead willow tree in the corner of the lawn is no more; Tim arrived on Monday and felled it, saying it probably had been suffering from lack of water.  We shall miss the welcome pool of shade up in the corner of the lawn.

The smaller branches have been shredded and will be left to be used as mulch in five months’ time.

But no time to ponder on that just now…time to get cracking!