Optimism = melons (406)

by Max Akroyd

Every spring it’s the same. When spring is more like summer it’s worse. How many seasons of gardening will quell this anxiety?

 

Phew!

 

I took the cue from the joyous appearance of the first potato leaves to wield the azada and create new trenches for main crop potatoes. I’m throwing caution – and good sense – to the wind. They will be be blighted for sure, but I’m going to sow some main crop spuds with the main purpose of opening up the bad soil in this area of the garden:

 

 

Who knows, this may be the first year in a hundred when Brittany isn’t subject to potato blight? I may even get a crop… By the way, even in this reckless frame of mind, I’m not falling for that old saw that potatoes work the soil for you. But they certainly incentivise a hungry gardener to cultivate and improve an otherwise neglected plot. The soil in this area is very clay and compressed, and my forearms are still reverberating to the clang of the blade on its hard surface!

Gentler pursuits this afternoon as we (the boys and I) settle down to some serious sowing. Of melons, among other things. Having written yesterday that only the chillies would occupy the greenshed in the height of summer, I stumbled across the advice that melons would also thrive in a hot house planted in big pots. Trying to fight off fantasies that the dank old greenshed could become a luscious melon emporium, I’m pressing ahead regardless with a foray into melon growing.