This year has been the worst year in my memory for growing food plants. The cool overall temperature and the heavy cloud cover throughout the year has restricted crop growth considerably here in Staffordshire.
The tomato plants in the greenhouse started to die back, having lots of green tomatoes on the vines. I would have expected to have picked and eaten all of the tomatoes by now. Chloe helped me to bring them into the conservatory and watched me put a banana into the middle of each tray to help ripen the green crop in the warmth of the house.
This is my best cauliflower. It looks fine until you realise it is 2cm across its width. This plant has been in full sunlight since April. The cabbages are small and I have let most of them go to seed. They will go into the compost bin as the leaves are as tough as leather.
OK, we had lots of Strawberries earlier this year and the Gooseberry crop was fine. Not all of the plant species have been affected by the cool and wet season. But the squirrels have not touched the hazelnuts this year, suggesting that they are of little nutritional value.
One consolation is that the birds are abundant this year. Thanks to the local feeders, they are doing better than ever. It is nice to see more Blue Tits this year.
The birds are active throughout the whole day, visiting the feeders and roosting in the shrubs and hedges. The only time the bird song is absent coincides with the presence of a hawk, which is not that often.
1 comment:
Oh sorry, but I fell about laughing when you said the size of the cauliflower!! It does look perfect though. You are right though this year has been awful for growing but we did have some sweetcorn yesterday, only half of each corn had grown but they were so sweet and tasty. Our strawberries this year were terrible as with most which either withered away or the sad remains composted!
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