August Bounty

August is a soporific month for gardeners, in some way it is the high point of the year as the summer planting peaks and then dips. All is quiet as nature holds her breath, before a hint of autumn acts as a catalyst for a new flush of short day plants striving for their moment in the limelight. Our time is now taken up with dead heading to keep the plants flowering, a lovely job on a warm day as the insects hum contentedly next to you. Unexpectedly we are also harvesting a lot of vegetables, the summer crops of fruit, tomatoes, peppers and beans are as normal, but we also have a fine crop of cauliflower and cabbage both red and white. In an attempt to keep the pigeons off we left them covered with fleece and the nice warm conditions have brought them on very early, also completely bug free. A real success but heaven knows what we shall have to eat in the winter. It's always a learning game this gardening lark!

"The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning"
Natalie Babbitt