Broken Back Gardening

Hope you have all had a good Christmas holiday time no matter what your beliefs :O) and Best wishes for 2013 or 2012 V2.0 if you are a bit suspicious ... personally 13 has been a lucky number for me so I'm hoping 2013 will be good to us.. 2012 was a crappy year mostly and I've no wish for a repeat ....




McD has just handed me a plate of cream scones so lifes already improved immeasurably :O)




We've just come from the garden exhausted tired .... Too warm and after a few days of effort its time for an afternoon to our selves .....  The garden has been a mess.. yards, vegie garden, flower gardens all weed covered and embarrassing .... thats not to say our edible things haven't grown and we have had some good successes along the way...




Our Planned Xmas day dinner was to be a full roast as we had M-in-L with us as well as McD's daughter S... All good and with quail, rabbit, pheasant, duck etc bought the plan was for the big meal and then anything left over game pies were to be made for Boxing day ... trouble was we hit a heat wave right on Xmas day ! reached low 30s C ...Such a shock to the system and poor McD stuck in a hot kitchen .... The meal was awesome with homegrown potatoes, broad beans, cabbage to accompany the meats... Also McD had made an old fashioned Xmas pudding to the request of her mum... !!!! Now I have to say it was a complete surprise as to how good it was ... For no other reason than it was a steamed Xmas pud which brought back mixed feeling from all of us ...>We used a recipe from on of my English cookery books  and it was steamed for 6 odd hours then another 3 prior to eating .... But when we had it it was perfect ...... I've put an order in for the middle of the next  kiwi winter :O)

It was that good :O)

We finally decided to get some Chickens !! Well bantams .. and rescued a bantam hen and a chick a friend of Jills that was no longer wanted. They are now called Henrietta and Penelope (for Henny Penny). We then went and picked up a black(blue) Pekin bantam hen, now called Bluey. The chick didn’t stop growing though and is near to a full sized chicken … and then started crowing really badly. We are not allowed cockerels where we live (council regulations) and so it was becoming a bit of a problem… With the crowing becoming more frequent it was decided Penny would have to face the chop !!! But that very weekend Jill discovered a green shelled egg in the nest box and Penny was spared… The crowing stopped as well so all was good… The three of them laid daily and much money was spent on them in terms of two chicken huts with runs and another run as an extension as we’ve given them more and more room… The eggs we have had from them while nice are some of the most expensive in the country :O)  Jills loved having them though and its been great seeing her look after them …They squat down in readiness for Jill to pick them up ! Which she does and then brings them to the house for a bit of bread or when I’m gardening for some worms …

Anyway more recently all three went broody ….And so back to some strange (eccentric)  chicken people in the area for eggs.. Two different colours of Pekin bantams and some Orpingtons.. Some even hatched Xmas day which was nice..

Jo and Sallee (wet one)


Henny and Penny have a single brood of chicks that seem happy to be kept warm by either mum.. Bluey, we separated as the other two never really accepted her ..She has a couple of chicks who are well behaved and always do as she tells them ..the other 8 are an undisciplined rabble running around like miscreant kids on sugar highs :O)  

Jo and Sallee (in front)









Bertie





Bertie front and Agnes 




Scully the grey one ...The small one is named Fry..Poor fry got trodden on and now has a gammy leg ..... 










Plans are now already afoot to convert and extend an old dog run that was here when we moved in and had never been used. We’re also talking with people in case we do have to move …  fun fun fun….

We had a great garlic harvest this year again with some very large bulbs ... However the one back right is elephant garlic which we've tried for the first time this year ... 
  




Even the self sown tomatoes from the home compost are growing like champions..Hope they friut like champs as well ...... 






Last sunset of 2012 

Pumpkin Harvest

Pumpkins by Us :O)   Not as big this year - biggest reached 20kg...... 











 

First Week Of February...Mid Summer

Another fine sunset happening...We don't get a lot of twighlight here but we do get some great sunsets.........I'm enjoying the cool of the evening sat here on the decking....









We picked another 2kg of Blackberries today - anyone got a good Blackberry Nip recipe? Especially a Whiskey one ??







Just watered the tomatoes and the rest of tubs on the front yard....And then dealt to the mildew thats started to show on the cucumber plants. ..We ate the first of the sweetcorn tonight..despite the fact they could have gone another week to ripen more they were pretty damned edible....First time we've ever grown them so - success!







The Pumpkin plants are bolting across neighbours lawn!...Neighbour hasn't hacked it back but I will. All that work I'm doing and they reward me with doing that!! ..







The Toms are flowering wildly and much tickling going on to ensure as many set as possible ...Some healthy looking trusses already there.......Summers still with us...The thought of lunch on the balcony with a glass of wine very tempting .......

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