A Tough Growing Season - Successes & Failures

in HiveGardenlast year

Hello fellow gardeners & friends,

It's been a while since my last post but I'm finally back with a garden update. I've had a lot going on in my life this year, some good, some not so much but the main reason I've struggled to get an update done is that there simply hasn't been much to share.

So, "what could have gone wrong?" I hear you ask.

Several aspects have hindered my success in the garden this year, the main one being the insane UK weather this year. After I was troubled by late frost last year that either killed off or stunted the growth of my seedlings I decided to wait several weeks longer this time around. Little did I know that this would cost me.

My poor little seedlings were not ready for what was to come so early in the season...a heat wave! As most of you will know, the people of the UK don't cope very well with heat as we're not very accustomed to it. My seedlings coped even worse than I did with many of them drying up completely despite my best efforts to keep them hydrated. However, there were some survivors! Mainly the French climbing beans, broad beans, peas and runner beans that I'd started off.

Unfortunately, in the North-East where I live only one thing can be counted on after a long period of heat and that is an even longer period of rain. By gods did it piss it down! 🌧️☔ This brings me to my next major issue. This deluge brought back my old nemesis...those damned slugs & snails! ⚔️ I did what I promised myself I wouldn't in seasons past and underestimated them. This blunder meant the demise of nearly everything that had survived the previous heat wave and left me disappointed with how the season was going.


Some Japanese Snowball Turnips and Kohl Rabi that had their foliage destroyed by pests.

That being said, I'm not just here to complain. Over the last couple of weeks the weather has been a bit more stable and as a result, some of my crops have flourished.

Here is a little sample of some of positives that have come from the season.


My plan last year to diversify in to growing more flowers to increase the gardens appeal to beneficial insects has come to fruition. Many bees and parasitic wasps have frequented these areas, with the wasps and other predators successfully keeping the aphid population under control.


The Blackberry bush that I planted in the shaded corner of my garden is now firmly established and producing lots of succulent berries. My wife has decided to make some jam out of them before I munch them all down.


A small number of turnips and beetroot managed to survive the pest attacks. At least they weren't a complete bust!


The Spearmint and Peppermint mini beds were very happy with the wet weather and were growing beautifully. I've been using them for tea infusions and pasta dishes. 😋


A healthy Parsley plant growing happily in the casing of an old stereo.


Don't ask me how but despite some serious neglect on my part, the tomato plants I've been growing are starting to fruit in reasonable abundance. I've found many handfuls of tomatoes growing among the overcrowded greenery and the plants thus far have remained disease free.

That's it from myself and my main garden helper Alfie. I'll be back with a late season update, in which hopefully I'll have some delicious jam and juicy tomatoes to show you all! I look forward to keeping up with your own projects. Over and out!

*All images are my own.

TheAlliance--banner2023-4.png

Sort:  

It's great to see you back with such wonderful content, but I understand about the weather here in the UK. It's been crazy.
I'm happy that some things still thrived despite the conditions. The blackberry bush as been doing fine I see.

I trust that now that you're back, that you get the chance to engage with other authors across the blockchain, and yes, I do hope to see all the lovely jams. I've been meaning to go check out my blackberries in the backyard and this is a good reminder:)

Thank you! Yeah, the weather has been very unpredictable. Especially up north where the temperatures can fluctuate massively. Very much appreciate you stopping by, have a great day!

You're very welcome.
Yesterday was a rare and glorious day, and I woke up so happy that I took advantage of it yesterday because it was back to rain and grey today here in Newton Abbot 😏

Definitely sounds like crazy weather - same in Australia last summer gone. It's hard to garden when your usual seasonal routines are disrupted but looks like things are going well at the moment. THe photo of the bee in the borage is just gorgeous. I miss the English bumble bees - we don't have them here.

Things have absolutely improved! I'm just a bit miffed that it'll start getting cold soon and the season will be all but over. Still, we live and learn. Glad you liked the photo, I have quite a large population of bees that love the garden so it's nice to see them go about their work. Thanks very much for dropping by!

We were talking about England yesterday and wondering if we'd prefer a cold summer or a hot one. Unequivocally, I'd rather it cold. Plus, Jamie gets hellish hayfever. We'll be over in 2024 - his Mum is in Somerset.

Me too. I grew up in a very cold farmhouse so it's all I can handle really. Hope you enjoy your visit back to the motherland.

1


This post has been selected for upvote from our token accounts by @melinda010100! Based on your tags you received upvotes from the following account(s):

- @dhedge.bonus
- @dhedge.pob

@melinda010100 has 6 vote calls left today.

Hold 10 or more DHEDGE to unlock daily dividends and gain access to upvote rounds on your posts from @dhedge. Hold 100 or more DHEDGE to unlock thread votes. Calling in our curation accounts currently has a minimum holding requirement of 100 DHEDGE. The more DHEDGE you hold, the higher upvote you can call in. Buy DHEDGE on Tribaldex or earn some daily by joining one of our many delegation pools at app.dhedge.cc.

Parsley in an old stereo! I love creative gardening! I haven't grown borage in years. Your photos remind me how beautiful those blossoms are.

!DHEDGE

Yeah, I didn't have much money left after the initial outlay of building my garden beds so had to be creative. There is a fridge/freezer on the other side of the garden that I grow flowers in too. Haha.

Recycle Reuse Repurpose! You reminded me of when I was a kid there was an old refrigerator that my grandfather had buried into the ground and it was filled with worm bedding. Whenever one of us kids wanted to go fishing we could just open the refrigerator door and scoop out a container of night crawlers!

Absolutely! If you check my previous post you'll see what happened to the fridge shelving and drawers too. Ah nice. I don't fish but I've been thinking about starting a worm farm to help with composting.

Welcome to hive blockchain a new world in web3 where your content has value ,There are some information that you need to know as you navigate this new world:

  • Exploring communities on hive Ours is @airhawk-project index for supporting authors and investment.
  • Explore other communities with https://peakd.com/communities for all communities on hive
  • Another tips and information a Hive newbie needs can be found by, click here: newbie guide.
    One important aspect to note is Hive is not like your conventional other social media platforms since your contents are monetized . You can't include content that you don't own without sources (plagiarism). For Guildlines, check this post: Why and How People Abuse and Plagiarise.
  • Another area you should be aware of to monitize your account is Hive-engie. Hive-Engine is a smart contract platform on top of the Hive blockchain. It allows communities and businesses to build their own tokens, which are then built on top of the technology provided by Hive. This is the ultimate layer 2 solution. The token created on Hive-Engine is then immediately tradable with Hive on hive engine exchange. Learn how to use Hive-engine dex Here
    You can Trade our token !AIRHAWK on tribaldex with the link Here

Hash Tagging on hive : Hashtags is an integral part of social media platforms and web3 project like hive is configure for monitizing hashtag system , serving various purposes and providing several benefits.

Categorization: Hashtags help categorize and organize content. Users can search for specific hashtags to find relevant posts, making it easier to discover content related to their interests there are General hashtags and communities hashtags which are second layer tokens on smart contract built in hive-engine ecosystem. Some popular tags:
#ocd #ecency #neoxian #palnet #gems #alive #Hustle #someeofficial

#leofinance #proofofbrain #hive-engine #airhawk #splinterland e.t.c.
If you have questions or concerns, you can hop into our Whatsapp Group Here

You also receive upvote on your content when you stake #airhawk coin on hive-engine which benefits you through upvote and curation reward when your upvote other authors using our tag #airhawk-project on their content, enjoying support upvote from being a token holder of our token.

You can Check your reward using this link below

https://he.dtools.dev/@yourusername?symbol=AIRHAWK

Happy blogging.

I think you planted the tomato in very fertile soil which is why it is able to bear abundant fruit.

That must be it. I have been working on keeping the soil as fertile as possible over the last year by adding lots of organic matter. Thanks for dropping by!

You're welcome, have a nice day ahead.

Congratulations @brucegryllis! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)

You published more than 20 posts.
Your next target is to reach 30 posts.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

To support your work, I also upvoted your post!

Check out our last posts:

Women's World Cup Contest - Recap of the second Semi-Final
Women's World Cup Contest - Recap of the first Semi-Final
Women's World Cup Contest - Quarter Finals - Recap of Day 2

Yay! 🤗
Your content has been boosted with Ecency Points, by @brucegryllis.
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!

Support Ecency
Vote for new Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more