The garden is a blaze of colour at the moment. There’s a great mix of big bold blooms, and more dainty ones. Some last longer than others, and many do best if dead flowers are removed to encourage new ones. No matter how hard you try, there may be some gaps as we move into August. This is particularly true if hot weather early in the year brought on early flowering. At its worst, the garden can have a dull week or two, but there are usually many stalwarts that keep flowers coming.
Visit a garden centre if you need more colour. There is always something you can buy to cheer up a border. Look for plants that will flower through autumn so you get a good stretch of colour in the garden.
Time to lift spring-
planted onions
White rot always makes an appearance in my onion crop. It’s in the soil and very persistent. The trick to avoiding major losses, is to keep a good eye on the crop when the bulbs are swelling. If you see a plant with failing leaves, lift it and check around the roots for white mould.
As soon as you see it on one plant, lift all the rest. The bulbs may not be as big as you want, but if you don’t lift them promptly you risk losing the lot.
White rot spreads faster in wet conditions than in dry weather. It also attacks sooner in the year if it’s a warm wet summer. If you lift plants at the first sign, you may lose one or two, but you will get plenty of good sound onions.
Check the roots of each plant as you lift it. Bag up any affected material and definitely don’t put it on the compost heap. Spread sound onions out to dry in the sun or in a well ventilated shed if it is rainy.
You can bring them indoors if needed so the leaves and necks dry out before they are wound into strings for storage.
Crop rotation is important for growing onions – avoid growing them in the same bed for three or four years if possible. White rot spores can stay in the soil for 20 years, but without a host their numbers decline dramatically. With a bit of vigilance you can get away with a three or four year rotation.
Enjoy peas fresh from the pod
Peas and beans
A glorious mix of French beans, runner beans, broad beans, mangetout and podding peas come ready all at the same time. Keep picking through the glut and enjoy the delicious meals that they make. Give some away to delight friends and family and then freeze what’s left to use when the fresh ones are a memory. Mangetout don’t come out too well from the freezing process, but all the others are excellent: just blanche in boiling water for one minute then chill rapidly under cold running water. Spread on trays to open freeze before bagging up, and labelling well, to build up your stores in the freezer.
You can try sowing more mangetout or dwarf French beans now if you have a greenhouse or polytunnel. A lot depends on the type of autumn we get and when the weather turns cold, but with a bit of luck you can get some great autumn crops. Sow direct into the border soil so there is no halt to growth from transplanting. It’s an easy gamble to take if you have the space to try a late sowing.
Big and bright daylily flower.
Brilliant blueberries
All fruit seems to have ripened early so far this year and blueberries are no exception. There have been berries to pick since late June. The fruits are delicious and easy to pick, they freeze easily and have a whole range of health benefits. We are lucky that the acid soil, that is prevalent in West Cork, is perfect for growing these berries.
If you don’t have a blueberry bush in your garden, then I would urge you to get one. There are small varieties available that can even be grown in a large container.
Larger varieties will produce a lot more blueberries, but you do need the space to grow them and it also helps if you can net them against birds. Two bushes will provide you with a lot of berries.
Bare-rooted plants are best put in the ground early in the year, but pot grown plants can be planted at any time. Check out what’s available at your local garden centre.
If you want to start some crops in autumn:
Look out for autumn-planting garlic and onions and buy when you see them, or put in a pre-order to a good supplier to be sure you get them.
Check that you have packets of broad beans and peas for autumn sowing.
