Peak summer has arrived, and our crops are showing it. The seed crops are rolling in, and we've begun turning over a few beds - lifting crops for processing and planting in new ones to stay throughout the winter. We've now sown all of our 'second spring' crops, including many different chicory varieties.

The first Sonja sunflowers are popping up, and we're beginning to see aubergines, cucumbers and peppers hanging heavy in the tunnels. The caterpillar tunnel in the field is full to the brim with cosmos, zinnias, calendula, sunflowers, beans and beetroot. This week we harvested our first flower crop, and many others are really at their peak.

With this heat wave bringing more high temperatures and a distinct lack of rain, the reservoir on the land here is getting pretty low, so we've been having to consider our water sources. In general we don't water excessively, we have drip tape in all the tunnels which runs on a timer, and any newly planted crops or seedlings get a good soak in with the hose, but we don't water any of the outside crops once they are established.

We recommend minimising watering where you can, as crops will adapt to the conditions that you offer them - the more you water, the more they will depend on it. As we are experiencing hotter and drier summers, it's well advised for many of us to have a think about our water sources, and how we can store up water more effectively, and be more efficient with our use.

Out in the field we are growing a full 40 metres of Cocozelle courgettes, a much loved sweet and stripey cucurbit. There's many, many plants in there, and one of the jobs for this week was to harvest all of the excess courgettes. We keep just 4 courgettes on each plant, allowing these to grow into enormous marrows with big, healthy seeds. Needless to say, we will have an abundance of courgettes to eat over the coming months!

What seeds are coming in?

Over the last two weeks the seed crops have been coming in pretty consistently. We've begun processing our 'Super Aquadulce' broad beans, 'Rudolph' broccoli, Kizuna and the spinach flock. We've also harvested all of our 'Classic Romantic' cornflowers, and are continuously picking through the 'Kiiro' cosmos, and 'Red Sails' Iceland poppies. Next week, we will be harvesting the sweet peas, for which we are anticipating quite a big haul!

This week, two of our team went on a visit to Trill Farm market garden in Devon. Every year, Trill grow a number of seed crops for us, and this year 'Tender and True' parsnips are one of them. It was a delight to see one of our seed crops in all its glory - the umbellifer flowers are truly beautiful, and attract such a broad diversity of insect life.

If amidst the summer madness you've had a moment to think about the cooler months ahead, and haven't yet got your hands on some seeds for those months, we've put together our 'Second Spring' seed collection. You can click the link below and have a browse, if you like.

Happy sowing, growing and basking in the summer abundance!

With thanks,

Izzy and the rest of the Vital Seeds team