….Now that summers here ( to mis quote Browning)
Sitting in my garden at the end of a beautiful summer’s day listening to the doves cooing, watching the house martins and swifts swoop overhead, makes me feel glad to be alive. With the school broken up for the summer holidays Hatton Park WI have taken over the Ferncumbe community garden; keeping a watchful eye on the plants and weeding. Today 3 of us; myself Marion and Jo spent a pleasant hour weeding the beds and deciding what to sow. As this summer is so topsy-turvy weather wise we thought it was worth trying a final sowing of peas, runner beans, carrots and beetroot; hoping they will crop in September and October. It’s an experiment, if they don’t fruit in time, before the frosts and shorter days at least the space has been growing what we wanted rather than weeds. We hope that having the garden planted and productive by the time the school returns will inspire both pupils and teachers to keep gardening through the year.
Whilst at the school we inspected the Ferncumbe Olympic tyres, and they are perfect, all blooming just in time for the opening ceremony on Friday. The spinach is doing so well we pinched out the plants that were getting ready to seed, so it’s a productive area too. It is only in the last couple of days that the sun has encouraged the marigolds to flower, so I don’t think the children saw the Olympic display before they broke up. I don’t expect it will last until they return in September, so these photos will be the evidence of the Ferncumbe Olympic tribute.
Suddenly watering is becoming a priority, for existing plants in the ground I am resisting the urge to water; if the plant can cope so far I am hoping it has enough roots to find water deeper down in the soil. Of course this does not apply to containers, so my watering priorities are containers first (and only).
Let’s hope this better weather lasts, as gardeners it would be ideal if it rained at night and was sunny in the day, but at the moment, more sun than rain is a welcome change.
Happy Gardening!
The Ferncumbe Garden 