Lucina started a garden in England and tells us step by step how things are going. Here we come to chapter number 5, which tells us about the month of July. At the end of the article, you will find links to previous episodes.
July was quite an unusual month in the garden, in many ways. First, as mentioned in the previous episode, I was on vacation for two weeks “leaving” him to his own devices (well, not really. My kindergarten partner’s daughter, Janet, watched him at the end). But even the weather was once again decidedly out of the ordinary, this time on the bright side.
While June had been bad, cold and rainy, July reached unprecedented temperature peaks: 35-36 degrees in my area . I don’t remember it being that hot since I’ve been living here. There was an almost Mediterranean climate. we basically spent from one end to the other : excessive cold in June and excessive heat in July. Is it any wonder that some vegetables have grown out of proportion and others have gone crazy and gone to seed?
exploited grandchildren
But let’s proceed in order: the first week of July, while I was still there and the weather suddenly improved, I finally picked, in addition to spinach and beets, other vegetables, to know broad beans, zucchini and first beets .
During this week my seventeen year old nephew Pietro came as a guest, in theory to learn English, in practice to help me in the garden. He never saw a drop of rain during his entire stay. to imagine! And in fact, following this unexpected good weather, he had to come with me several times to water the garden. As “payment” he got rid of the ripe raspberries that had grown in the meantime. On the other hand, he had to reward him somehow. Better to do it with horticultural products than with money… 🙂
Gardens of the Dolomites = English Gardens
During my holidays I was with relatives dolomites . The interesting thing for me this year was observe the orchards of this region (obviously never “spied” before) and note that they are very similar, in terms of types of vegetables grown and ripening times to the English. What a nice surprise!
So I guess the Dolomites are equivalent to England in terms of climate and the type of vegetables they grow. Compared to the rest of Italy, you cannot make a comparison with England: we are a few months behind here.
I know this because in the case of tomatoes, for example, almost nothing is harvested here until August. I just signed up in the Facebook group of Orto da coltivre . Well, every day with great envy I see photos of people blogging about amazing harvests of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. Science fiction here! But maybe in England you can grow vegetables that in Italy don’t grow well because of the excessive heat. Who knows! So never despair!
Holidays and crazy gardens
July turned out to be the month in which the vegetables, also thanks to the good weather, grew the most. Too much, in fact!
I discovered it when I got back from vacation and I found a seed from the Amazon rainforest instead of the tidy orchard he left behind . I couldn’t believe what I was looking at! My friend’s daughter did a great job while we were away, but she could not stop the growth of the vegetables, which, enjoying the pleasant warmth, grew excessively.
I found spinach with gigantic leaves and all beets a meter high and mounted on seeds . I had to uproot them all and replant them. Let’s not talk about pumpkin and zucchini.
The only pumpkin plant I have (Marina di Chioggia, grown from seed) has become a monster while I was away: it was literally strewn all over the garden. I had to plant it in a hurry before it got to all the other vegetables and choked them out. Zucchini grow at breakneck speed, to say the least. Every day you go to the garden, there are always courgettes to pick. Unbelievable!
While I was away, it became clear that some of the new potatoes were ready to be pulled from the ground (The plants were all yellow. A sure sign the tubers are ready to harvest.) I gave Janet’s daughter permission to do this and you can see the result in the picture she sent me .
A real satisfaction, even if I was not present at his “birth”. Plus, apparently, they were really delicious! Considering the growth of vegetables in just two weeks, I thought maybe the right thing to do in the future is not to go on holiday in July, which seems a bit extreme to me, or to make arrangements with your garden partner to go on vacation. .at different times or go there just for a week. 😉