When driving back from the farmers market yesterday I had a glimpse of 1930 Great Plains North America. The stiff breeze was whipping up the soil and blowing it across the road ahead of me, little dust devils pirouetting in the hot wind. Of course it was nothing like the dust bowl that was an environmental and agricultural disaster in the US nearly a hundred years ago, but if summers do regularly follow the pattern of this year and last there is a risk of a scaled back version of it happening here, particularly in areas like the Brecklands where the light soil is very mobile. Different cultural methods by famers may need to be adopted to avoid irreparable damage to the land – of course many are already using cover crops and minimum tillage for that reason. These are concerning times.

Head back, eyes trained skywards, because we are in for a celestial treat this week. On Wednesday evening at around 19.10 there will be a partial eclipse of the sun, during which around 90% of it will be obscured by the moon. It won’t be as spectacular as the one in 1999 but exciting nonetheless. You will need a clear view of the western sky for the best experience. You are all highly intelligent people (with one or two exceptions) so I shouldn’t need to remind you not to look directly at the sun, you should use special solar eclipse glasses. In ’99 I spread a sheet under our sycamore tree and hundreds of mini eclipses were projected on to it through the leaves. I did the same thing with a kitchen colander, which was very effective. What I remember most vividly is how eerily quiet it went as the light diminished, with birds falling silent. It will be interesting to see how the chickens react.

Two days later, on Thursday 13th, it will be the climax of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower with up to 150 ‘shooting stars’ visible per hour. The downside? The optimum time to see the meteors is between midnight and 05.30, but you should see a good number earlier in the night. With the weather set fair for the whole week both events are unlikely to be affected by cloud.

Yes, we are into heatwave #5 now, at least I think that’s the number. It’s mostly been one long heatwave for months, with the odd cooler day thrown in to remind us what a good day is like in ‘normal’ summers. There were a couple of early mornings at the end of last week when I put a jumper on….it was lovely.

There is very little to tell you about at the garden, it’s really just a case of keeping things alive, having decided which crops to prioritise. Even the protected crops are struggling in the greenhouse and polytunnel, despite getting lots of attention by way of regular watering and feeding, it’s just too hot for even the warm climate plants. I looked back at my records this morning, and my tomato yield is almost 100kg down on the same time last year. The bulk of the cucumber plants have given up through exhaustion, it’s really only the peppers that seem to be coping with the conditions. Outside the runner beans are yielding quite well at the moment, but only because of copious watering, and even so they seem to be on a knife edge. Let’s face it, this growing year is virtually a write-off.

There’s not much change in the shop this week. There will be no broccoli or celery but there are apples, leeks and Jalapeño peppers. Cucumbers are now in very short supply, tomatoes are okay for now.

I got my visit to the beach last Monday, albeit quite a brief one. We didn’t get to old Felixstowe until about 5.00, but it was still pretty warm so I had a swim. The sea was quite choppy so I didn’t stay in for too long – there is only so much salt water that I am prepared to swallow, but it made a really nice change. Most of my swimming is done in the clear waters of south Cornwall where you can snorkel to observe the wonderous marine life, forgetting that in the North Sea you lose sight of your hand once it is six inches below the surface. However, it was very enjoyable, and warmer than those clear seas down west.

Yesterday afternoon I discovered an excavation under a large box plant a few metres in front of the greenhouse. A badger had forced entry into the garden (the location of which is still to be ascertained) and decided unearth a wasp nest. The ground is like concrete but it managed to dig a large hole, shooting the debris back a good 2 metres behind it. Brock must have taken a pasting from the wasps, but such is the desperation of wildlife at the moment that it was prepared to endure the pain for a high protein feed of wasp larvae. The nest is still active so it will be interesting to see if it comes back to complete the job. The photo above does not do justice to the scale of the operation, but you get the gist.

Well I’ve got to go back to the garden now to do the watering, so I will leave it there. We are all well versed in heatwaves now, so you know what to do…. grin a bear it!

Phil