Growing vegetables in a heatwave

I have grown vegetables in my garden for many years, but, if I could have foreseen this year’s weather, I might not have bothered to sow any seeds.

It rained every day in January, February and the first half of March. We have been in heatwaves from early June to the present (mid-August): now we are in drought with a hosepipe ban.

Against all the odds, it has been a good year in my garden for fruit and vegetables. Broad beans sown in November, appreciated all the rain and did very well. In early March I sowed seed potatoes. I was knee-deep in mud with dodgy knees and feared I would fall in the mud. I thought the seeds would rot, but after a while they came through and produced a good crop. Not as good as the early potatoes grown in my large polytunnel, which were excellent in yield and quality, as were spring greens grown there.

Peas, green beans, courgettes and squashes have done well, with some watering in summer. Tomatoes, cucumber, peppers and chillis have been in their element in the polytunnel and greenhouse. They love the sunshine.

All fruit has been good, with a bumper crop of plums.

The hosepipe ban came in recently, but there is an exemption for food producing plants. I can continue to water but in doing so I use as little water as possible and targeting it on the roots of plants and not the foliage.

Some people say that this weather is “the new norm”. That view may be a bit optimistic. Our climate might get even more extreme. Let’s hope not.

I fear that the problem might be unpredictability. If you know what’s coming, you can at least plan for it. But if the climate should go haywire, planning becomes difficult.

What bothers me is all the flow of fresh cold water from melting ice in Greenland and the Antarctic in the oceans. What will that do to ocean currents, which are influential in weather patterns?

What we call “the new norm” may be challenging, but if this is what we are to get, at least we know where we are.
I shall remain positive and will be ordering seeds in the autumn for next year.

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