On watering, comfrey feeds, cabbage white butterflies and a caterpillar that’s munching my tomatoes.
I hope you and your gardens are coping with the heat. We have recorded 28-30C in the garden, with a maximum of 31.3C yesterday.
I have been watering conservatively. All my larger pots get watered daily and I have placed all the smaller pots on trays so the water doesn’t drain away. I am a bit meaner with my raised veg beds, giving them a drench every few days. The thinking behind this is to make sure the water penetrates deep into the soil to the roots. If you water little and often, you encourage superficial roots which are more prone to water stress. And I have added some fresh mulch around new transplants.
I have also put out several shallow trays of water for wildlife at different points around the garden.
My water butts have run dry, but there is plenty in the dipping pond and in my three one-cubic-metre IBC storage tanks.
However, the end of the heat wave seems to be in sight, and we’ll probably get a few torrential downpours.
Comfrey
…