The first couple of days of August have been such a relief after a very long hot and dry spell in the garden.
The cloud cover has been most welcome and the promise of a warm thunderstorm imminent.
I have given the sprinklers a rest today, silently praying that our weather forecasters are correct and that the rain doesn’t just tease the topsoil with a half-hearted shower.
August is another busy month for me. The winter beds are slowly filling up in stages as more leeks, kale, cabbages, and brussels sprouts go in. I’ve staggered the sowings to reap the benefits of continuous crops throughout the Autumn and Winter.
I’m still picking peas, and the beans are beautiful. I think they are my favourite vegetable to grow. So reliable, steady and fantastic eaten raw with a homemade whip and rapeseed oil. Raw baby courgettes, carrots and young sprouting broccoli stems are also a delight with pea, mint and bean dips, beetroot and spice dips or a globe artichoke, garlic, and parmesan dip. Add a glass of wine and you have the full benefits of the garden on a single plate. Who needs to cook?
Plenty of sunshine and warm temperatures in August enable planting to continue before Autumn sets in.
Lettuce sowing will continue in the greenhouse, spinach sown in late August will provide a crop of young
leaves in October and spring onion sowings, a harvest in Spring. The last chance to sow chard for a winter
crop will be late August.
We dug out Pink Fir Apple Potatoes last Friday. Our Friday team of chefs and front of house staff continue to meet me under the pop-up tent to be dispersed around the garden for an hour. Last Friday, they scattered themselves about the potato patch and dug their fingers in. Out came handfuls of the knobbly, red-skinned tubers. Like searching and finding treasure beneath the soil.
Back to work. There are another 100 kale plugs to be added to the winter plot and Chef Darren Broom
has been promised a good tray of leeks.
I wish you all a glorious August, blessed with plenty of sun AND rain!