I'm sure many of you will be familiar with the old saying 'ne'er cast a clout til May be out', (meaning don't put your winter clothes away until the summer). Well I didn't do any casting until well into June! There were some chilly starts with a continuous wind from the north east and the night-time temperature only got above 10 degrees in the second week of the month, which seemed unusual. However, I was glad to see the Hawthorn not 'blossoming' until May, its rightful time, because April was becoming the new normal.
As regards the vegetables, we have had to deploy large amounts of horticultural fleece to guard against the cold. This has paid off and they seem to have caught up and I note we have started harvesting courgettes, for example, at the same time as last year. Summer rain is always very welcome and I am glad to say we caught some of the decent showers that were roaming the countryside. That will give us a break from deploying any irrigation for at least the next two weeks. We have now completed the bulk of our planting and so we can concentrate on training the protected crops (toms, cues, peppers and aubergines) and lots of weeding!
Annual Farm Walk
The Walk this year will be on Saturday 29th July so please put it in your diaries. If you would like to join us, we meet on the Village Green in North Aston where we will also arrange a parking area. Please be suited and booted and ready to move off at 2.30pm. The walk is over uneven ground so it is not suitable for conventional pushchairs although all terrain buggies should be able to cope. The walk is usually about an hour and a half and we finish with tea and cake.
We would love to see you but please let us know if you are coming so we know how many to cater for. Sorry, no dogs please.