July was above-average warm, and, of course, the warmth brought us a couple of severe storms. But, even with the damaging winds the garden was thriving.

Warm and stormy

After the past year, which was insanely stormy, and brought us hail even in November, we’re now used to having extreme weather changes. This July wasn’t an exception. The entire month was hot, with an average temperature of 29.9°C(85.8°F), almost 7°C(44.6°F) above our normal July temperatures. Between all the heat, there were weekly or even daily afternoon storm alerts. Luckily, most storms avoided us by a few km or only brushed us with stronger winds. But the ones that did hit were major ones.

On July 1st we had a tornado passing. The strength was probably T1, but, since in Croatia, we call our tornado’s “pijavica” we don’t track the strength. A shelf cloud started in Slovenia, and by the time it came to the NW Croatia a part of it turned into a tornado. The damage was local, over an area of around 15km where all the houses that we’re in direct path got some roof damage. There has also been lots of tree damage, but luckily the hail damage was minor since the hail was pea-sized. The shelf cloud continued for hundreds of km more, with egg-sized hail and damaging winds.

My garden wasn’t too damaged, but the wind did knock down a couple of netting poles, which we had to fix, and a couple of trees in the forest fell in our yard. Other than this, there was no significant damage. Our roof is concrete so, we didn’t have any roof damage. There are some holes on the facade, but nothing too major.

The storms also brought a nice amount of rain. We ended up with 132mm of rain, which is almost double the average July amount, so there was almost no need for watering. We did water the garden during the hottest period of the month (July 9th- 16th), but the rest of the time watering wasn’t necessary. Especially, since the stormy weather also kept the morning dews and fogs through the month.

The garden is thriving

Even with all the intense heat and wind storms, my garden is thriving this July. Due to the very warm weather, everything is growing much faster and plants are maturing a bit earlier than usual. In normal conditions in forest gardens, real harvests don’t start until the end of July. This year we started much earlier, and by the middle of July, everything was at the peak of harvest. The most telling sign of the early harvest season is the fact that my bush beans already gave ripe pods, and are now blooming for the second time. In my garden, there is usually no time for a second bush bean harvest. By the time the pods start changing color and drying, it’s already the end of August. This year the beans matured in early July.

Due to the early harvests, my kitchen has also been busy. There has been a lot of pickling, dehydrating, and freezing. The freezer is already full and now I’m concentrating on pickling and dehydrating. This year zucchinis have gone mad, and they are the biggest challenge for storing. I’ve already dried a bunch of them, we’re eating them every couple of days, and honestly, I’m getting sick of them. If only the plants would get any type of blight, they wouldn’t be missed.

When it comes to diseases, due to the very warm period most of the diseases stopped. We were struggling with late blight in June, especially on tomatoes and cucumbers, but it seems that the warmth has stopped it and most of the plants are 100% healthy.

I’ve started noticing stink bugs in the kale and beans, but they aren’t too aggressive right now, so maybe we won’t have an insane infestation this year. Also, aphids have been almost non-existent this year, so that’s also a great plus.

August plans

This month we plan to spend harvesting and relaxing as much as possible. This was a very intense gardening year. The making of the new extended garden took a lot of time, and to be completely honest I’m exhausted. So I plan to spend the August afternoons in the pool, which this year, unlike the last year, is back outside. We’re hoping to get at least two more weeks of warm weather before we slowly start transitioning into a forest autumn which is right around the corner. Days are much shorter, morning dew stays much longer on the ground, and there is already a slight difference in the color of the leaves. Soon we’ll need to start the winter garden preparation which will involve a lot of hand tilling. Twice the amount than before.

Before the summer ends I still need to sow my winter flowers and some late autumn veggies. This I will do tomorrow since we’re expected to have another significant storm tonight, and I won’t be able to access the garden. All in all, I’m very pleased with this gardening year, it is a difficult one but the hard work is paying off.