August 2026
What a 50-day drought actually taught me about mulching
We've gone over 50 days without meaningful rain this season. It's the first time I've properly felt what drought stress does to a garden, and mulching is the one thing that's made a real, visible difference: the beds I mulched are holding moisture noticeably better than the ones I didn't get to. I also put in an irrigation system this year, and it's doing its job, but I don't love that it's built from plastic. I'm actively looking for an organic or plastic-free alternative that can do the same work. If you've found one that actually holds up, I'd genuinely like to know.
August 2026
First year in the greenhouse: peppers, aubergines, melons, and one honest failure
This is the first year I've grown peppers, aubergines and melons under glass, and they're doing well. Cucumbers and watermelons didn't make it, and it was my own fault: I planted them out too young, before they were properly ready for it. Worth saying plainly rather than editing out, since a real growing season includes the crops that don't work, not just the ones that do.
August 2026
Squash in growbags, for the first time
Tried squash in growbags this year, a first for me. I won't really know how it's paid off until November, so this is a placeholder update more than a result: check back later in the season for how it actually turned out.
August 2026
Around 10 tomato plants, and they're finally ripening
The tomatoes have been the steady success of the season: around 10 plants, still going strong, and now starting to ripen properly. Sometimes the reliable crop doesn't need a dramatic story, it just needs saying that it worked.
August 2026
Florence fennel and courgette, an unlikely pairing that's worked
Fennel has a reputation for not getting on with its neighbours, it's genuinely allelopathic, and the usual advice (ours included) is to grow it alone or right at the edge of the plot. So I wasn't expecting much when Florence fennel ended up growing next to courgette this year, but it's turned out to be a surprisingly good pairing, definitely not a combination I'd have planned on paper. One good season isn't enough to rewrite the general advice, allelopathy is a real effect, not folklore, but it's made me curious to try it again properly next year rather than write it off as a fluke.
August 2026
I grew a mango tree from a supermarket seed
A genuine side experiment, not a food crop: I started a mango from a seed I'd normally have thrown away, kept it in a covered pot, and it's actually doing well. Worth being upfront that this isn't a realistic UK food crop (mango can't survive an outdoor UK winter, it has to live indoors or in a heated greenhouse), but as a novelty houseplant grown from something you'd normally bin, it's been a genuinely fun one to watch.
