After the rain

The dry heatwave finally broke yesterday afternoon with a thunderstorm and tumultuous rain. The dustiness has gone. The garden feels fresh. Moisture is still in the air, making it cooler. The earth is damp and the lawn has already started to green back up. The smell of the rain itself has gone, but there is a smell of freshness and vegetation hanging in the air.

After the rain - 28 July

Before the rain - 27 July

Funnily enough, the storm did not completely refill my pond, but it did fill up a fair amount of my two water butts, so I have topped the pond up with my watering can using the rainwater. The pond smells badly of sulphur when disturbed, so something is probably rotting in it. I need to clear it out when I get time.

The reason I was out taking photos yesterday is that my sunflowers have finally flowered! They're facing the wrong way from my perspective, as they face away from the house, but they're still lovely.

They're much shorter than last year because I planted them late and left them in pots for longer than I should have. But actually they're already a good height - well over 5 foot - and I expect them to continue to produce more flowers and grow in height for a while yet, so their relative shortness right now is no bad thing.

Garden beating expectations

Apart from my carrots, which we won't dwell on, the garden is massively exceeding the expectations I had of it at the beginning of the season. Because I started late and then had to restart several squash plants after slug damage, I was worried that I might have a poor season and not get a decent harvest. Well, my garden has set out to prove me wrong. With my regular watering and all this hot weather and sunshine, almost everything is flourishing.

I've harvested around half my onions, so that I could use the space for more beetroot. They've come out a decent size this year and none of them went to seed.

I've also got at least one squash that looks like it's going to be a decent size.

My raspberries have grown really well, considering how little I've watered them. I've had a few ripen already.

More of my kohl rabi is ready to eat - I need to remember to have salad next week, possibly with raw courgette in it. I'm producing so many of them.

The lettuce I grew in pots is working out far better than when I grow it in the ground - far less slug damage.

My sweet corn has grown cobs already, though they're not ready to harvest yet.

My beans have grown flowers, even though I planted them so late.

And I have my first pepper growing in the greenhouse. It is a banana pepper and will go yellow when it's ripe.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my progress.

Courgette, potato and Parmesan soup

I made this soup based on ingredients I had in the garden and in the fridge. It turned out nice, so here's the recipe:

800 g potatoes
1 kg courgettes (big ones are fine)
2 medium carrots
2 vegetable stock cubes
6 tbsp grated Parmesan
1/4 tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper

1. Boil a kettle of water.

2. Optionally peel the potatoes. Roughly chop them and put them into a large pan with just enough boiling water to cover them. Crumble in the stock cubes. Bring back to the boil, then cover and cook for 5 minutes.

3. While the potatoes are cooking, peel and chop the carrots and chop the courgettes into chunks. After the 5 minutes is up, add the carrots and courgettes, put the lid back on and cook for 10 more minutes.

4. Take off the heat, then stir in the Parmesan and season with the nutmeg, salt and pepper. When it has cooled enough not to damage your liquidiser, liquidise it to a thick soup. Optionally add more boiling water if you would like a less thick consistency.

Heatwave dries out the garden, solar panels installed

London has been in a heatwave with no rain for several weeks now. I've been watering the vegetables, because they won't survive without watering, but I've left everything else. As a result, I now have huge vegetable plants and yellowing grass. But that's OK, grass is hardy, it can survive any weather Britain throws at it. It'll green up again as soon as we get some rain.

The pond is also suffering badly. Several inches of water have evaporated.

I have no rainwater left in my water butts, so I am currently letting water sit for 24 hours in the watering can to replenish the pond, as no rain is expected.
In a move to harness all this sun, we have a new addition to the shed. My husband has added solar panels. He designed and built the stand they are on so that they take maximum advantage of the sun. It has three positions: the middle one (in the picture) is angled to capture maximum summer sun, there's an even steeper angle for winter sun and flat against the shed roof so they can weather storms without getting blown away.

He also built us a log store. I've got to say, I'm really impressed with all his woodwork, especially as he works in a completely unrelated field. The log store in particular looks very smart.