Hello! Well, the longed-for rain has arrived. In true North Carolina fashion, it arrived in bucketloads. We had some rain a few days ago, which was nice, then a pattern set in that will give us a lot of rain concentrated in one week. (I've rapidly discovered that having a vegetable patch makes you even more addicted to weather forecasts and looking at the sky muttering 'no bloomin' rain again' ). We had rain on saturday night but on sunday it really chucked it down. Strong winds, lots of lightning, torrential rain. My pumpkin hlls were literally islands for a while there. I heard a neighbour's tree (or maybe a very large limb) go down, it was a vicious brute of a storm.

After the deluge I went out to survey the damage and happily there wasn't any to the vegetable plot. Thankfully we didn't get any hail - I've seen hail here getting on for golf ball size. That'll put a dent in your cucumber. We are due, as I say, for more rain throughout the week and it'll help immeasureably. The butternut squashes (photo at top of this entry) are growing lots of fruit as are the yellow crooked neck squash. The cucumbers are proving to be prolific and the rain will help all of them.

I do have a couple of large containers for collecting rain water but I'm always wary of keeping standing water around too long - eventually mosquitos will be drawn to it and will breed like mad. Still, it's good to have some water for a few days after a deluge. Whether we see more wet weathewr or return to drought-like conditions remains to be seen. August here, in my limited experience, can be full of the classic afternoon pop ups storms we get in NC so we shall have to see. For now I am very grateful for the rain we've had. Thanks for reading and I'll leave you with a couple more photos - a crooked neck squash growing and a large pot of sweet basil I keep by my porch. Delicious.

Hello! The garden is challenging and rewarding at the moment. The challenge lies in the continued arid conditions we have. Hot remperatures are not exactly rare in a North Carolinian summer, nor are stretches of dryness but it has been particularly hot and dry this year. I suspect this is why my various squash crops have been struggling. I strongly suspect I should have planted them all earlier so they were pollinated and growing fruits before the hot stretch started. Another lesson learned.

In my defence, it took me a lot longer than I anticipated to prepare the vegetable plot and this led to me planting stuff later than I wanted to. I thought I could get away with it - ha! Another lesson learned: don't butt heads with Mother Nature. It's not all bad though, far from it. I have tons of pickling cucumbers growing. They can be eaten like standard cumcmbers and taste very similar, or pickled. They're smaller than other cucumbers, growing to 5-6 inches in length and being a bit on the dumpy side. I look forward to some nice salads, partly flavourred with sweet basil leaves. My sweet basil is growing like mad and it is delicious. Delicious.

I also have my corn producing cobs, some very nearly ready to pick. I've been researching how to assess the ripeness of the cobs and I should have some in the next few days. I'll cook them immediately after picking, as the sugar in the kernels begins to convert into starch immediately after picking (apparently) and affects the flavour. I cannot wait to tuck into them. I've learned that next year I should plant them in a block for better pollination, but I haven't done too badly this year.

My tomatoes are finally producing fruit. My initial planting was washed away by torrential rain and this set me back a bit. But now the plants are growing well and fruit is apearing. I still have enough time for a decent crop - the cummer in North Carolina is long and the Autumn - of Fall as they call it here - is very mild too. More like an English summer, only hotter. Heh. Which brings me . .

I've been thinking about my Autumn garden for a while now. I will be planting stuff in about a month to six weeks, crops that will grow in our temperate Autumn and some that can resist a frost or two. Indeed, some vegetables, apparently, taste better after a couple of frosts - eg, parsnips (which I love.) Crops I intend to plant include beetroot, carrot, parsnip, collards, turnips and broccoli. Maybe cauliflower too, we'll see. As other crops finish I'll creare new deep, wide beds and get sowing.

Well that's it for now. More next time when I talk about my adventures in pumpkin cultivation. Well, not so much adventures as me bumbling about the garden poking seeds into the ground, but adventures in pumpkin cultivation sounds slightly snappier.

Tata!