Bits and Bobs and the Garden

----Pepsi Dog Fast asleep with tounge hanging out









Pepsi and George Cat sharing the Bean bag....Not I had to sacrifice my winter Poo bear Blankie !!





I'm sat out side watching the last of the sunset...A wind change is bringing in a much welcome cool breeze.... Up to now we've had a cloudless hot sunny day. Much work has been done weeding and tending to tomatoes.. The large green fruit holding much promise for a couple of weeks time.... The lights are switching on across the valleys below us ....Jill has poured a cold wine ...Life is relaxed today ....



Dinner straight from the garden





















Did you get to watch the film Grow Your Own?? It's an English film set on an Garden allotment..Anyway one dude was growing a Sharks Fin Melon or Spagetti Melon ...We'e now got one fruiting !! :O) It's all very exciting as it's visibly growing day by day...it's now the size of a small football...I'd better find a good recipe for it now :O)









That said we’ve also had some ‘composted’ seeds grow in various places …. Can’t say for sure what they are but may well let them grow on …Be they pumpkin or marrow etc …. Tomato seeds have also sprouted and from great depths for a tomato seed. We have had clumps of tomato seedlings dotted about the borders….Whilst preferring some sense of order in my borders, I’ve still left one from each clump to grow on. It’s a sad indictment on our gardening skills that these rogue plants are like weeds, growing healthier and stronger than the seedlings we’ve cared for and mollycoddled these past few months protecting them from cold and wind and rain…. Next year I will throw half the seeds direct into the outside soil and let them get on with it.

 

We are also growing a bed of onions and leeks. Last year was a pretty poor effort with the onions not growing to any size. Well maybe pickling onion sort of size … We still ate them thrown into stews etc …. Same for the leeks that really didn’t grow much bigger than when I had dropped them into their holes ….. This year they are looking much better… and I’m hoping for a good crop from both …. If the weather improves.

 

Having the extra borders has meant we can grow more of a particular vegetable at the same time …. And so carrots have been planted  in succession in 3 different borders …The first panting was well used and mostly eaten raw as first McD, then McDs daughter S, then my Son B all enjoyed pulling them out of the ground and with a quick wash munching away at them raw…… I might have had a few as well I suppose :O) I particularly like the purple variety ..We grow a whole mix from whites to reds to oranges to purples ….. We grate them for a multi-cloured addition to salads. With our purple lettuce and spring onions and feta and a honey mustard dressing...yum....Yesterday we pan fried scallops with diced elephant garlic (home grown), a little butter and some ginger...Yum...Lunch was good yesterday 

What we laughingly call a (Veggie) garden (4)

We’ve planted a few Fruit Trees around the garden … I’m ashamed to say two are still in their pots but will plant out this weekend. So we now have Cherry, Apple (Monty’s surprise – said to be the most health beneficial in the world…a kiwi ‘roadside’ discovery), Quince, and Plum… No fruit this year obviously but it’s good to have them. Of course we also have a few other things such as two Fejoa trees in wine barrels. They actually have 2 or 3 flowers on them after 2 years of nothing…. A Pomegranate bush – that flowers occasionally but doesn’t fruit …but is an attractive, viscously thorny bush all the same … A Fig tree also in a wine barrel .. .but doesn’t fruit or grow much really and whose days are indeed numbered…I want fresh figs…         

 

We also have fruit bushes that won’t provide a harvest till next year ….Goose Berry and Black Current bushes line the wall under the kitchen window. Unfortunately the winds knocked them about a bit and a lot of new growth was damaged … but they seem happy enough ….Cape Gooseberry bushes continue to sulk where planted …. And Chilean Guava have just flowered …   

 

But the most vigorous growing and most fruit laden is the BlackBerry bushes that line the fence of the yard all self sown and twice my height … It will be a bumper crop this year if the sun come out and the birds and wasps leave them alone …………. The bees were happy as working the flowers for weeks … What would we do without them ……..    

 

However the blackberry really has to go …. Just not until we’ve picked enough for the pies and jams and booze we want to make from them ……

I picked two large, deep red strawberries this morning … They’ve suffered in general this season and while we get a handful now and then, they’ve not been the bounty we enjoyed last year ….. I might look out for another variety to replace some of them with in later months ……Something more suited to our climates maybe if there is such a thing  ……



Last years picture .......







I bought some wild ‘woodland’ strawberries and planted them in the tub under the fig tree that never fruits … in contrast they have never stopped producing . As kids we raided the wild strawberries where Dad worked. I would be told off from time to time by Dad as the owner liked them as well. I’ve always remembered the flavour of them. Now I have my own strawberry patch and visit it regularly, munching a handful at a time. This time legally ……       

What we laughingly call a (Veggie) garden (3))

And the Bragging Rights on naming the Red Campion flower in my previous post goes to OULIN ....:O)   Thanks for that :O)  

A number of our potatoes suffered a lot in this humid weather and despite efforts to save them, the leaves developed tell-tale brown spots then started to die back …. The affected tubs with affected potatoes in them were harvested. A moderate number of new potatoes were bagged and the plants disposed of to stop any spread. Some potato types were more susceptible to the disease than others.  The mixed varieties of jersey benne and Nadine potatoes in the raised border showed this well with the JBs ravaged with the blight but the nadines still green and healthy. The Maori purple potatoes we also have in tubs etc have been ok.  The JB plants have been cut back to just above ground level and the tuber will be left in the ground for a while hopefully without any fungus attack into the tubers themselves. 

Maori potatoes in a babies crib we got from a recycle shop at the tip ..... my babies are growing well and I'm looking forward to seeing a good harvest of round purple spuds soon .....    







Potatoes in a half barrel... we since moved them to another spot away from a bed of tomatoes to the right ...... these are still growing well are are just flowering



Our Broad Beans have been exceptional. This is both the transplanted ones and the direct sow plants … the heirloom red seeded broad beans are a favourite. I love them cooked with the Egyptian onions we grow, a clove of garlic and a little butter …. We cook them up into curries and stews etc – just the best …. They are still growing strong and we are picking a big basketful of pods each week ..But have stopped flowering of course and have been knocked about by the winds we’ve experienced. So by the end of January they will be pulled out and the bed prepared for the next crops. ..Something for winter ….   Though come Feb/March I could plant some more Broad beans again …

 

broad beans Growing tall to the top right of the picture.. these have since been pulled up due to them getting plagued with orange rust .... The border is now being prepared with home made compost in readiness for the next crops to be planted ... 

What we laughingly call our Garden (2)

I do have the Square Foot Gardening book. While there are some things I do differently In the main it's a great way of growing vegetables in a smaller sized area ....Some things we grow up trellises , however the problem in our garden is wind ... We are on the side of a hill and anything that gets above a certain height is then subject to (cold this year) winds of varying speeds ....So cucumbers - yes will probably give them a go on the trellising ...Pumkins - no.. they would just get twisted and suffer stem split ....  



 

We are also growing a bed of onions and leeks. Last year was a pretty poor effort with the onions not growing to any size. Well maybe pickling onion sort of size … We still ate them thrown into stews etc …. Same for the leeks that really didn’t grow much bigger than when I had dropped them into their holes ….. This year they are looking much better… and I’m hoping for a good crop from both …. .

Onions to the front....Leeks to the back



Despite my efforts to grow a range of different Chinese cabbage types through the spring, they all went to flower at the same time and instead of ending up on my dinner plate are now at the bottom of the compost bin … I was so hacked off with it I threatened to give up on the whole thing and let the gorse take over ….. We didn’t of course and the beds are now full again with various plants but mainly tomatoes ……I tried another crop of pak choi a few weeks back but they did the same thing …..Will try again maybe now we are past the longest day. They seem to grow better as the days are shortening …

 

I've been so busy I barely noticed the Foxgloves flower ... Now they are near the end and are throwing seeds to the winds .... I had though I would stop them this year and buy some other colours rather than just the pinks ... 



The ‘Bright Lights’ Chard and silver beet kept us going all through the winter and spring until finally, smothered by the broad beans it went ‘triffid’ on us and bolted for the heavens …. It just goes well with everything … on it’s own or with Mash potato, chopped into curries and stews, or as part of a salad…. We’ve planted more …It’s just so nutritious too….. We will plant kale as well this year    

 

I cannot think of the name of this plant .. We have white and these pinky reds come up each year ...They seed as freely as the fox gloves .... bragging rights to whoever tells me what they are :O) 





Having the extra borders has meant we can grow more of a particular vegetable at the same time …. And so carrots have been planted  in succession in 3 different borders …The first panting was well used and mostly eaten raw as first McD, then McDs daughter S, then my Son B all enjoyed pulling them out of the ground and with a quick wash munching away at them raw…… I might have had a few as well I suppose :O) I particularly like the purple variety ..We grow a whole mix from whites to reds to oranges to purples …..

 

Carrots, Beetroot, and elephant garlic

What we laughingly call a (Veggie) garden (1)

This is a shot from a walk we did over the weekend .. .Along the south coast of the North island ... Would have been great if it wasn't for the gale force wind carrying grit off the beach ... Like being shot with a machine gun .... Painful .... Hair full of stones after it

It’s been a busy time recently. I’m Now back into the work routine, and I’m certainly missing the freedom and outdoor life of the 4 months I was not working.





 

 

 

The vegetable garden and garden as a whole has not had a good time of it through spring and now into summer weatherwise. This past two weeks we’ve had maybe 3 days of good weather. The rest of the time we’ve had fluctuations from just cloudy to cold southerly winds and rain to warm northerlies (Gale force at times) and high humidity and cloud so low we were almost touching it…..

 





 

The new beds have been fully utilised. We are now growing a small patch of sweetcorn which seem to be growing very well, along with what was sposed to be dwarf ‘bush beans’ but have decided otherwise and are now growing skywards over tree branches I put there not realigning how high they would get… It’s one of the hazards of buying heirloom seeds from collectors. You can never be 100% you receive what you order… but that’s part of the fun of it ……I guess…Courgette plants, after a slow pained start are now having to have their leaves trimmed back as they have established them selves and rooted in…and taking over… They are now flowering daily but with few male flowers which is annoying…. I’m growing one golden courgette.. There is a recipe doing the rounds where you can make sweet ‘lemon Curd’ with them. So I thought we’d try it ……. As usual we’ve planted too many courgette plants so will be giving away or composting the harvest in another months time …. By rights we could sow more seed and have them fruiting well into the autumn ….I’m convinced we will have a late summer and warmer, settled autumn ….But I think we will have had our fill by then so wont bother…..    

 

 



 

That said we’ve had some ‘composted’ seeds grow in various places …. Can’t say for sure what they are but may well let them grow on …Be they pumpkin or marrow etc …. Tomato seeds have also sprouted and from great depths for a tomato seed. We have clumps of tomato seedling dotted about the borders ……….Whilst preferring some sense of order in my borders, I’ve still left one from each clump to grow on. It’s a sad indictment on our gardening skills that these rogue plants are like weeds growing healthier and stronger than the seedlings we’ve cared for and mollycoddled these past few months protecting them from cold and wind and rain…. Next year I will throw half the seeds direct into the outside soil and let them get on with it.