This year’s autumn harvest feeling is considerably different to that experienced most years at the beginning of September.

Extremes of weather have had a huge impact on pretty much every aspect and style of farming, with the impact being felt most keenly amongst the growers of our fruit and veg.

Usually September brings a burst of crops that have been maturing over the summer but this year some of those have been around for a month already whilst others have just completely failed due to a lack of water.

Nevertheless, there is a great selection of produce available and the apple and pear season is well under way; with the established trees just about coping in the summer to produce a decent harvest.

As a non-farmer I have wondered about how our crops are failing when in France and Spain etc they have these huge field watering cannons on the go during the summer. I’ve not seen anything like that here even whilst fields of arable and vegetables have been failing, purely from a lack of water.

It’s all down to infrastructure apparently, we don’t have it because of the rarity of summers like this one occurring.

Somehow it seems a concern that this year’s struggles are down to a lack of economic ability to invest in the infrastructure needed to support crop growth during long hot summer months.

Meanwhile Julian Harvard Cut Flower will have a lovely display of zinnias, dahlias, lemon sunflower, gladioli and mixed bunches.