This specimen was picked a few days ago. It is an example of vivipary where the seeds germinate while still part of the ripening fruit. The strawberries are still edible, though the leaves are not so tasty, while trying to grow the plantlets into full size strawberries has a low success rate.
The kitchen garden is producing lots of cucumbers and courgettes at the moment so it is a good time (space-time?) to make Albert's Soup - named, of course, after Albert Einstein.
Albert's most famous culinary equation (recipe) is:
E = mc²
where m = marrow, c = cucumber & E = Energy (food)
I am using the Vitamix method with the following ingredients:
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| Albert's Soup - hot and frothy |
June is the month when everything in the garden moves into high growth mode, especially in the kitchen garden. All danger of frost has gone, there is plenty of warmth in the June sun, daylight hours are peaking and it just needs sufficient rainfall to bring all the plants on.
Early June (2nd to 5th) was the Platinum Jubilee Weekend celebrating 70 years on the throne for Queen Elizabeth II. We held an impromptu Garden Party for a few neighbours on the Sunday (5th). The banners went up on the 4th and the patio was given a good clean! From the rear window, the garden looks green and leafy but not that exciting!
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| June 4th - the day before our Platinum Jubilee Garden Party |
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| June 16th |
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| June 28th |
Jobs in the Garden
1. Harvest strawberries, asparagus (till mid-June), cherries, blackcurrants, gooseberries, raspberries, cucumbers, salad vegetables and radish
2. Succession sow climbing French beans (Organic Cobra)
3. Succession sow Sweetcorn (Incredible F1)
4. Transplant celery and celeriac into large Salad/Veg Planters
5. Transplant brassicas (calabrese, cauliflower, kale, brocolli, red cabbage) into final positions
6. Sow salad vegetables in large & small Salad/Veg Planters
7. Regular watering of leeks in seed bed
8. Replace pheromone lures in codling moth traps
9. Transplant butternut squash and courgettes into their final positions
10. Trim wild cherry tree, medlar, hedgerow - lots of shredding & composting
June 2022 Weather
June's weather statistics are summarized below. A bit of a mixture weatherwise - not hot, not cold, not wet, not dry.
Daily maximum and minimum temperatures are plotted below [click for larger image]. Steady overnight temperatures throughout the month with a warm period in the middle of the month. According to the UK Met Office, June temperatures in Herefordshire were close to normal (relative to the 1991-2020 period).
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| Scarlet Tiger Moth on Currant Bush |
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| Wood Pigeon 'nest' in Wild Cherry Tree |
Photos of the Paradise Garden on June 8th...
As predicted by the UK Met Office, the recent heatwave ended on Tuesday 19th July after some record-breaking temperature maximums all over the UK including the first record of >40 ℃ temperatures. Maximum daily temperature records were set for England (40.3 ℃), Wales (37.1 ℃) and Scotland (35.1 ℃) along with the highest UK minimum (night) daily temperature of 25.8 ℃ in Greater London. For our American friends, 40.3 ℃ is 104.5 ℉.
UK temperatures above 38 ℃ have only been recorded in this (21st) century - a clear sign of a warming planet. And the high temperatures were widespread not only in the UK but also in Europe.
BBC Reality Check did a reasonable summary along with a comparison to our 'most-remembered' heatwave of 1976. One aspect of the BBC summary I was not impressed with was the bar-graph labelled 'Hottest day of the year since 1970'. Who in their right mind puts up a graphic for maximum summer temperatures in the UK with the temperature axis starting at 0 ℃!! If you are showing annual differences in maximum annual temperatures then a range of 25 to 40 ℃ would have been appropriate - at least until this year when the upper limit would need to be even higher.
A minor contrarian blog did complain about this BBC report saying it was just opinion even though the BBC clearly presented its evidence and gave its data sources (albeit the source links should have been clearer). For the contrarian to opine most people thought the 1976 heatwave was more intense (it was longer-lasting but not as hot) than the 2022 version (no evidence provided to support that claim) does seem a tadge hypocritical! I lived through both heatwaves and I certainly found the recent one more debilitating; albeit I was obviously younger in 1976!
Our contrarian then compares June/July daily maximum temperatures, from the Central England Temperature (CET) series, for 1976 and 2022 which just confirmed what we already knew. The former was longer and not as hot as the latter. To see a better statistical analysis of the CET data with respect to the recent heatwave, go here.
Finally, our contrarian takes issue with the UK Health Security Agency issuing its highest level 4 heat alert with a warning of increased risk of illness and death even among the fit and healthy. This is where our contrarian friend resorts to cherry picking and red herring fallacies by:
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Today, I said goodbye to an old friend - a pair of Rohan 'Jungle Expedition' Cargo Trousers - after long and faithful service.
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| Rohan Cargo Pants |
They have been repaired a few times: notably the zip replaced and a big tear repaired by Mary. Which reminds me of the Trigger's broom scene from the British sitcom Only Fools and Horses. After serving time as a regular pair of trousers, one day they were splashed with paint while decorating and, overnight, converted to diy/gardening apparel.
I was trying to find out how long I'd had them. The original receipt was no longer around but could I narrow the timeline?
And finally, the Rohan garment that is 30+ years old...
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| Rohan Olfio Jacket/Top |
It is still in remarkably good nick, with only a small repaired tear, and it still fits me - a claim I could not make about trousers of a similar age!
My attitude to clothes is purely functional but I realise this is not everyone's point of view. If you want to be fashionable, maybe think about starting the fashion yourself rather than just following what the fashion industry's latest idea. Buying clothes that will last and you will wear again and again is good for your pocket and the planet. And dispose of your clothes responsibly by repurposing, donating to charities, homeless shelters, etc or recycling before putting them in the bin.
The cropping season for asparagus has finished and the bed is in its resting stage throwing up its ferns to replenish the crowns. Later, in autumn, the ferns will turn golden yellow before they are cut back.
Tying my shoelace next to the asparagus beds, I started to look around to see if there was anything else I could do while I was down there. There was a strong buzzing sound in my ear and my attention was drawn to several bees navigating the asparagus forest adjacent to my head. The bees were collecting nectar from the tiny asparagus flowers; I cannot recall having noticed the flowers before. Here is the video I recorded on my Pixel 4a phone in slow-mo...
Here is a close-up of the delicate lemon-green flowers...
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| Asparagus flowers |
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| Asparagus flowers |
That's what I love about Nature and Gardening - always something new, always something to learn.
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| Belle |
We are on dog-sitting duty near Reading (16th July) in the middle of a heatwave. The Met Office has issued a Red (Extreme Heat) warning for this coming Monday and Tuesday (18-19th July). Today at 3 pm, it is a balmy 28 ℃ in Oxfordshire with a predicted 39 ℃ for Monday! There is a good chance the UK maximium temperature record (38.7 ℃) will be broken in the next few days
Gardenning-wise, not the best time to be away. Fortunately, we have someone staying who can do some watering but the plants in the garden, polytunnel and greenhouse will be experiencing some degree of stress back in Hereford.
The UK Met Office define a heatwave as an extended period of hot weather relative to the expected local conditions at that time of the year. For the UK, a period of 3 consecutive days when the daily maximum temperature exceeds a set threshold for that location is deemed a heatwave. Threshold temperatures are set for individual counties and vary from 25 ℃ to 28 ℃. As a result of global warming, threshold temperatures are increasing especially in the South-East of England.
The UK Met Office has set a 2022 heatwave threshold temperature for Hereford at 26 ℃ though much of the UK (Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the South-West and North England) retain a heatwave threshold of 25 ℃.
The plot below shows the minimum and maximum temperatures for July (up to 16th) as measured by my Davis Weather Station back home in Hereford. Based on the Met Office's current heatwave threshold of 26 ℃, the 7th - 13th July (inclusive, 7 days) was a heatwave and a new heatwave commenced on 15th July and will likely end on the 19th (inclusive, 5 days).
My definition of a 'hot' day is a daily maximum of 25 ℃ or higher and hence, by my 'reckoning', the current heatwave started on the 6th July and will not end until the 19th July at the earliest.
This is one of our friendly blackbirds often seen singing from nearby rooftops and chimneys or scurrying around in the undergrowth looking for worms & grubs. This morning he is perched on the fence in our kitchen garden...
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| Blackbird at his all-you-can-eat buffet |
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| Young Blackbird in Pear Tree |
Back in late April/early May, we visited our son & his girlfriend (now fiancee) to help out with a garden makeover at their newbuild house. The housing developers handed the garden over looking like this...
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| Original Garden Design |
Three days later, the basics were in place and we left the garden looking like this...
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| Garden after Re-design (3 days later) |
Two months later, after more work (and no help from us!), the garden is maturing nicely...
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| Garden in early July |
A small garden, filling up with edibles and bee-friendly flowers, has turned a sterile environment into a wildlife haven attracting birds, bees, butterflies, and insects. The lawn is still an issue but is shrinking fast and will be further reduced when the patio is extended. We think a wildflower meadow with a path(s) mown through would be delightful and easy to maintain.
One of my four 'rotation' beds is given over to growing onions, leeks, and garlic (one of Simon & Garfunkel's less well-known songs?). The bed is surrounded with insect mesh for protection against onion and leek flies. The photo below shows the bed in mid-June with garlic at the top, onions in the middle, and leeks at the bottom. At this stage, the leeks are still in their 'seed bed'; i.e. the green trough.
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| Onion, Leek, and Garlic Bed (June 18th 2022) |
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| Harvesting Early Purple Wight (4/7/22) |
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| Harvested Bulbs |
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| Harvested Cloves |
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| Joie Garlic Dicer |
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| Ready for the freezer |
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| Sainsbury's Garlic (background); Early Purple Wight (foreground) |
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| 2022 Onion Bed (4/7/22) |
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| Leek Seedlings in the Allium Bed (4/7/22) |
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