Veganic garden 2021 – August

August was where things trailled off and became a bit neglected unfortunately – as the vaccine programme became available for my age group here in Ireland in July for the first dose, I was able to have my second dose in August, which meant I was able to visit my parents in the UK, whom I hadn’t seen since December 2019. I travelled mid-August and stayed for three weeks over there. Oliver took care of some elements of the garden but I forgot to get him to take pictures.

Despite that, there were some delights in the flower beds and greenhouse that I managed to capture. Above we have one of the stunning sunflowers from the Irish Seeds Savers sunflower mix. The sunburst colour is so beautiful.

In the vegetable beds

Broad beans and kale continued to grow, and I harvested some bigger pods of broad beans, which were much better than what I had picked too early in July. I took a lot of lower leaves off the kale to keep them under control and lessen the risk of aphids spreading, to all the plants. The little peas seedlings in the other vegetable bed were scorched and dried up, due to lack of watering; all but two spinach seedlings were munched by slugs and I weeded in between the unruly carrot seedlings which were growing up, as well as planting the seedlings in the toilet rolls.

In the greenhouse

Despite the neglect in the rest of the garden, I got into a good routine of watering the tomatoes and peppers, and feeding them once a week with fertiliser, I used Liquid Seaweed Fertiliser from Mulch, which I must have determined was chemical free when I bought it in 2019, though, admittedly, I cannot see that information on the website now. The regular fertilising and watering seemed to clear up the issue of blossom end rot within a week or two, with new fruits ripening normally.

I was delighted with these adorable peppers coming through, the Klari Baby Baby Cheese Pepper fruits came bulging through where the chunky white flowers had been. I fertilised these too.

Flowers

The bee friendly bulbs were still coming out successively and attracting bees every day, it was lovely to see.

The lupins were coming out in full, beautiful, monstrous swing, reminding me of something from The Day of The Triffids, they are fascinating and looked huge in the tiny garden.