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 

A Year In My Garden - Spring

It's been a while since I've written about the garden..I have actually been working hard. With pickaxe and shovel I'm digging into the side of the hill that is my plot of land and extending the vegetable garden. I'm putting in new raised borders. About 5 of them in toal adding up to about 50 square feet.  Doesn't sound much when you say it like that ..But it's taking A large effort to carve my way though either dense wet clay or near rock shale like clay depending what part I'm working on......This then will take me up to some 230 square feet of raised borders dedicated to growing food ..., I must look up what is the minimum area for say 2 people to supply their vegetable needs .....We have way more ...But then we can afford the luxury of growing way more tomatoes And I've aready planted 20 or so potatoes into a border ...That plus the 'dustbin' potatoes and purple Maori potatoes and Yams And we'll not need to buy any of them until the next winter....If they grow of course ....    











Do you all 'chit' or sprout your potatoes before planting them?? I do it ....Because my dad dit it and the "elders say you must. But I don;t see the point in it ...After all, where we grew potatoes last year and missed some they have sprouted abd are already a foot high !!! no Chitting needed for them!!  Even deep down in the depths of the compost bin they still manage to strike and sprout healthfully forth skywards....



















Anyway, not only am I building borders but I've sorted out the pathways between them. This past year we put up with roughly hewn pathays that had bumps and holes in them and soil and weeds and grass galore....So I've cut them out properly, dug in and built steps and retaining walls and started to lay weed matting and bark on top.....It will look a lot better :O).. Even Sis-in-law K on her recent visit was drawn into helping and laying weed matting for us :O)  We'll send down some chutney later on in thanks..:O) Whether she likes chutney or not !!! :O) 



















 But overall the veggie garden will always look "Wonky" as it slopes in far too many ways and directions....But I can handle Wonky :O) we'll get a pile of junk ornaments and decorate the place as well to add some je ne sais pas. I'm also planting up pots with various herbs ....I'm shoced at the prices they charge in the shops for a small sprig of say sage or mint !!!!!!   They Grows Like Weeds !!!! I cannot kill the stuff off in the veggie plot ....mint of 2-3 varieties has been growing up there since before I moved in.....It just grows ..Loves being mis-treated ...The ideal plant really I guess....

 

























I've plans to do more over the next 12 months around the outskirts and look at utilising the clay bank in someway. Also want to clear fallen clay/soil from the base of the band which I think will be enough space for gooseberry and black/red current bushes....On the other side are 'Scrub" bushes and ferns. I will cut them down and remove them. Room then for dwarf fruit trees ...probably in 1/2 wine barrels ....Apples, plum, damson and the like ....



I've also planted Fejoa bushes in barrels in the front yard ...Oh and a pomegranite bush, dwarf nectarine, and a fruiting cherry tree in a corner beside the front gate. Where Cola's ashes are but we wont dwell on that ....She would be happy though as we burried her favourite "Bad" food , sheep pellets with her and promised all deads cicadas will be placed there for her ...She loved them...Ate them alive or dead with a bottomless hunger.......



   









  

And now it's seed sowing time. Some direct into the borders others in cardboard or peat pots or seed trays and the  warm yellow room of the house will become a nursery for a few weeks ..............Spring has sprung and it won't wait for me ....dammit......Work work work work work..........What would I have have done if I had a paid job as well !!!!



And thats just the vegie garden!!!!!



I've also cleaned up the stone paths in the front as well as the front yard and dug the round border and planted some standard roses that were not happy in other places around the garden, and fed all the roses with rotted manures and started weeding the borders and cleaned up the paths at the back and planted 1/2 a dozen gooseberry and black current  bushes in tubs and  planted other tubs and not to mention the housework and the cooking and when will it all be done !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:O)  busy busy busy ...