Into September

A while since the last post, but the Annecy Gardeners have been active & the plants have been growing. The month of September started warm & dry, so watering was an important part of our activities.

Watering the beans; not the bean wigwam with the most luxuriant growth

Here's Cherry watering one of the more vigorous groups of beans

The Annecy Garden in the evening sunshine

As the month of September progressed, the rain began to fall which has meant less watering but more weeding:

Lorraine weeding

Here's a couple of more general views of the garden:

Beds, with variegated maize nearest; also in the same bed, orange calendulas

The gourds & pumpkins have been setting fruit quite well, but eager hands have been picking the fruits before they are ready, however the luxuriant growth of the plants means that one or two have escaped so far...

'Anna Swartz Hubbard' squash, growing nicely

Another squash, not sure which variety

Aztec broccoli & The Gloucestershire Echo

We had a visitor during our last session at the Annecy Garden, Mikel a photographer from The Gloucestershire Echo, the Cheltenham newspaper. He asked us about the Annecy Gardens & took lots of photos ~ look out for them, they're bound to be better than any I'd take.

Mikel, the Gloucestershire Echo photographer interviews Annecy Gardener, Lorraine.

Taking note, while Anne weeds the Zea mays 'Quadricolor'

We're still getting a lot of flowers on the allotment. One interesting plant is Allium hookeri 'Zorami', a primitive onion grown in remote areas of the Himalayas. It comes into flower late in the season & like may Allium species is very attractive to pollinating insects:

Allium hookeri 'Zorami', now flowering at the Annecy Garden

The beans climbing on the wigwams are doing well, they particularly seem to benefit from our watering them heavily each Monday evening.

Borlotto bean, pretty lavender flowers & interestingly coloured pods

Tagetes 'Paprika', this is pretty but rather small & has only just come into flower, six weeks after Tagetes 'Linnaeus', an altogether larger & more striking plant

Another interesting crop is just coming into production now. This is huauzontle also known as Aztec broccoli, or botanically as Chenopodium berlandieri.

Chenopodium berlandieri, also known as huauzontle or Aztec broccoli

The plant is in the spinach family, but in this case it is the immature flower spikes (pictured above) that one eats. It's a pleasant tasting vegetable with an interesting texture, in fact, I've just enjoyed some of this lightly sauteed with oil & a little chopped tomato & seasoned with salt & freshly ground black pepper ~ made a nice vegetable accompaniment to supper this evening.

August luxuriance

The warm weather combined with a reasonable amount of rain means that the Annecy Garden is filled with luxuriant plant growth.

In the new beds by the park gates, squashes, sunflowers & tomatoes have been growing particularly vigorously.

Sunflowers & calendulas in the background, fronted by potatoes, 'Red Leaf Deer Tongue' lettuce & Tagetes 'Linnaeus', with courgette leaves bottom right

The tomatoes have been growing very well, particularly productive are the 'Jaune Flamme':

Tomato 'Jaune Flamme', very productive. I'd like to've shown the ripe fruit which are orange in colour, but there are some very assiduous tomato harvesters. Which is good.

The self sown seedlings of Tomato 'Yellow Currant' are doing very well:

We've also been harvesting the 'Anya' potatoes. This is a lovely variety, a cross between 'Desiree' & 'Pink Fir Apple'. The tubers are pink & are very tasty boiled or incorporated in a potato salad.

'Anya' potatoes

Lorraine digging the 'Anya' potatoes; in the foreground are 'Yellow Currant' tomatoes & yacon.

In order to prolong their flowering we have been deadheading the calendulas:

In spaces where we have cleared crops or flowers that have gone over, we have sown some quick growing crops such as lettuce:

Lettuce seedlings, the feathery leaves on the lower right are of Phacelia tanacetifolia seedlings

We are still getting plenty of flowers:

Crepis rubra, an annual from Greece; a pink dandelion

Salvia blepharophylla 'Painted Lady', the wild species is pollinated by hummingbirds in Mexico. They've yet to make the journey to the Annecy Gardens.

Allium tuberosum, garlic chives is widely used in oriental cookery; the flowers are very attractive to pollinators, especially hoverflies

Madia elegans, the seeds of this were used for food in precolonial California. Their small size & the effort required to extract them makes one think it wasn't all fun being a native American in the Pacific States in past eras.

'Beans Ready to Pick'

With the recent wet weather, the runner beans & climbing french beans have continued to make good progress up their wigwams.

The beans must now be nearly 10' tall

Here's another view of them:

Now they've started producing pods, so already a handful of a size worth eating.

French & runner bean pods, in the background are visible the purple pods of 'Cosse Violette', a climing french bean

As you can see above, we've finally started labelling the plants. When we're there, passers-by often ask the names of the plants, particularly for Phacelia tanacetifolia.

The phacelia is still attractive, even in seed; but less spectacular than it once was:

Phacelia tanacetifolia seedheads

We spent the work session removing the dying phacelia plants:

Once we'd removed the phacelia, we spread some well-rotted manure over the bare soil:

We then worked the manure into the soil & sowed seed of oriental vegetables 'Choy Sum', dill & others.

Here are some more general views of the Annecy Gardens.

Sunflowers (background), 'Anna Swartz Hubbard' squash (midground), Tagetes 'Linnaeus' (foreground)

Tomato 'Jaune Flamme' ~ if the warm weather continues, these fruit should be ripe in a couple of weeks

Sweetpeas on the railings, then 'Really Red Deer Tongue' lettuce (front left), Tagetes 'Linnaeus' (front right)

Many thanks to Geoff du Feu for his superior quality photographs.

In the heatwave

The lettuces are bolting & the climbing french beans are looking rather sorry for themselves, but quite a number of plants are thriving in the heat at the Annecy Gardens.

One herb that particularly enjoys these conditions is sweet basil, Ocimum basilicum. Last year, it entirely failed in the Gardens, but this year it's looking good.

Sweet basil, Ocimum basilicum

The sunflowers are also producing masses of heads, the bumblebees are very active on them, so there should be plenty of seed.

The maize, variety Zea mays 'Quadricolor', is also growing very rapidly in the heat & the variegation is becoming more pronounced, at least on some plants.

Zea mays 'Quadricolor'

A Californian annual, Gilia achillaeifolia, is also looking pretty & appears unfazed by the heat. The bees like it too.

Gilia achillaeifolia

Also just coming into flower is Verbena bonairiensis. This South American plant is an excellent nectar source for bees & butterflies & is valuable because it continues flowering for a long time into the autumn.

Verbena bonairiensis

Another plant that's very attractive to insects is the herb, hyssop, Hyssopus officinalis. Apart from being used to make an herbal tea, it is not really a culinary herb, but it's well worth growing just for its flowers. Below is pictured the white form, the wild type is blue-flowered & pink-flowered plants are also frequently seen in gardens.

Hyssopus officinalis, white-flowered

There are also flowers on some of the potatoes; while you're supposed to harvest first-early potatoes soon after the flowers have faded, the tubers on the variety 'Congo', pictured below, do not form until September or October.

Solanum tuberosum 'Congo' flowers

Because of the heat & dryness, we spent much of the work session watering.

First early potatoes

The first early potatoes that we planted at the beginning of May are now ready for digging. The dry weather means that they won't grow any more. The crop is modest, but greater than I was expecting from the wizened & flabby state of the seed potatoes when we planted them.

'Sharpe's Express' first early potatoes

The hot weather has favoured plants of tropical origin, such as tomatoes & the first fruits are setting on some of the Annecy Gardens specimens.

First fruits setting on tomato

The courgette plants are also loving the heat.

Quite a number of the annual flowers at the Gardens have just started blooming. The sweet peas, Lathyrus odoratus, are lovely & we were able to pick a bunch. Picking sweet peas causes them to bloom for longer.

Also flowering:

Linaria 'Licilia Azure', but quite definitely purple

Linum grandiflorum 'Rubrum', the scarlet flax

Helianthus annuus 'Earthwalker' ~ this plant is self-sown & the self-sown sunflowers are way ahead of those we nurtured in greenhouses

Some of the perennials are flowering too. The bees love the flowers on marjoram, Origanum marjorana.

The continuing hot, dry weather meant that we spent most of the work session on Monday watering ~ the plants certainly appreciated this.

The phacelia is finally going over & we're making plans to remove it & are deciding what to plant in its place.

Phacelia tanacetifolia is coming to the end of its flowering

Sowing chicory, this is a good time to sow this as it will grow on through the autumn

While we work hard during our Monday work sessions, we're not so busy that we don't have time to chat.