...hardly. It seems that summer's only just begun and already it's over. It's one as no surprise that this summer has been the wettest on record since Noah paddled his canoe and the garden has suffered accordingly.
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| A mass of flowers on the pretty ornamental Explosive Ember |
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| Miniature Sweet Pepper - these have been very successful, even with the poor weather. |
My garden is north-east facing and consequently receives little sunlight. I also don't have a full sized greenhouse, just a couple of small growhouses. Growing heat-loving plants like chillies does present a challenge and in order to maximise sunlight, most of the plants have been moved outdoors, away from the shade of the house.
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| Twilight |
It's certainly helped and this last week of cloudless skies has seen plants come on in leaps and bounds. However, there is a downside - the night time temperatures have been plummeting and so, no sooner have I moved all the plants outdoors, I'm now migrating the more precious specimens back indoors to avoid them being harmed by the cold nights. I'm not suggesting that a frost is imminent, but some of the plants have been so late in flowering and fruiting (Black Naga, I'm talking about you!) thatI daren't jeopardise the few fruit it has produced.
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| A heavy crop of fruit on the Cayenne bush. Just need some sun to ripen. |
So once again, the windowsills are filling up and I doubt I'll get a clear view until May next year. Come the end of September I'll be having a cull of chillies and deciding what to overwinter and what to grow next year. Some plants will be getting a glowing school report and some will definitely have to try harder.
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| The fantastic Superchilli bush, still producing a steady crop of fruit. |
