The tail end of a South Pacific cyclone called Lusi whipped the north island into shape with rain and wind gusts. All bearable mind you … however at Frog Pond there was a power blackout and thus we had a candlelit evening Saturday night.
I have had the best weekend though – I’m gloating a ‘wee bit’. In fact, I even had help today on the beach collecting seaweed. How good is that?
What do I do with it? I put much of it in my seaweed fertiliser bin which is very smelly and incredibly potent. Plus it makes great mulch and rots down beautifully when dug into the garden – hose it first of course.
The rather tired runner beans have been carefully removed from their trellis and I have retained the shrivelled brown pods for their seeds. The trick with these, is to pop them into the freezer to kill off any resident weevils. A week in the chill box should do it.
My toms also got hauled out and their spent greenery chopped up ready for the rubbish bin. I don’t put this in the compost as sadly the plants have blight. This year was incredibly bad for my tomatoes, but rather than chuck the dummy out of the cot, I have decided that next year I shall only grow the Cherokee variety – which are stunners!
The zucchini which was sporting powdery mildew also got removed and again, the spent greenery will need to be binned or burnt. Those fantastic blokes also helped me to get the bed ready for the next planting. Into trenches went, seaweed and food scraps, and was then topped off with a rich organic compost, bit like making a lasagna. This is going to be my garlic garden so it will get a break for the next 6 weeks or so. I’m excited!
My ‘three sisters’ garden is doing nicely, although some of the sunflowers copped a hammering in the winds over the weekend. The corn is looking great the ears have started to ‘fatten up’. I also harvested the few ‘Jack be Little’ pumpkins which were in the same space. Tasty little guys which are divine roasted!
To top off a super day of gardening, we dug up the spud bed, which had a lovely rich layer of mulch. Wonderful Lisetta, Rua and Nadine potatoes plus a self-seeded kumara which were all hiding beneath the thick mulch. Nice! This bed will be planted with brassicas, which are perfect to follow a root crop. Big thumbs up.
I couldn’t help myself either … time for a pic of my gorgeous Lenny. Our diabetic kitty who has been with us for many years now … a great old guy.
And just because I really like this bit of drift wood …
Happy gardening
Thanks for the reminder about seaweed. I could do with a blast at the beach.
Hey Lucy .. no problem. The beach has been littered with it lately. 🙂
What a lovely post – I can feel the happiness in it! Love Rua’s – must be my Irish roots coming outt – spuds are my favourite 🙂 Happy Saint Patricks day!
Hey Lizzy .. Thanks Miss. You would love those spuds. Happy St Pats back! 🙂
And a very nice piece of driftwood it is too! Great tip about chilling runner bean pods. That’s a job i’ve still got to do 🙂
Hi Sarah … yes that tip on the beans is a goodie. Perfect if you keep all your seeds together as I do. Yay, glad you liked the driftwood … I did 🙂
You sound very happy indeed! I had Jack be little last year and it’s delicious. No seaweed here but I bet it makes great fertilizer.
Hey .. So nice to hear from you again. Yes I’m very happy with my garden. Those little pumpkins are amazing .. Shame you don’t have access to the seaweed – we are very lucky! 🙂
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Such an enjoyable post Julie! I love your dog 🙂
I’ve spent the last few afternoons in the garden, moving in compost (broken down hay from where our cattle eat it – so good for the garden!), weeding the beds that got out of control in summer and planting new seedlings. It feel wonderful to be “starting” the garden again – we pretty much let it go in summer as up here (north QLD) it gets pretty hot and sticky!
Hope you have a good week!
Sarah x
Hi Sarah .. You sound just like me. I love adding stuff to my garden. Growing the soil I call it. I get so excited and impatient at this time. Busting to get those seedlings in the ground. Hope you have a fab week in your garden too! 🙂
Great bounty Julie and beautiful pics 😀
Hey Robyn .. Thanks! I’m going to pop in a couple of black wand white next post. 🙂
Cool… Will look forward to it Julie 🙂
Wonderful post and photos. I have never tried Lisetta, Rua, Nadine or Kumara potatoes. They look good. We plant Yukon Gold, Norland and Kennabec, but it will be at least another month before it will warm up enough to get them in the ground. All the best!
Good to hear from you. Gosh I don’t know any of those varieties. I’m planting brassicas today. Pretty happy about that. All the best back to you!
Missed this blog – oooooops – even though I was “just up the road” when it was posted!! Great to meet “Lenny” – dear old fella!! So that is how the seaweed is gathered – and Lusi probably caused plenty to be dumped on the beach!! Loved the wind-swept ear on the OES and the driftwood pic. More brilliant produce from your garden!!!
Hey Brenda … don’t you worry, I know exactly where you were! Loved catching up with you too .. 🙂
We live quite close to the beach and I have wondered if I should collect some seaweed. I am not sure if it allowed here or not….Is there a certain type that you do (or don’t collect?) Thanks for the great seed saving tip Julie 🙂
Hey Kyrstie .. I’m yet to come across seaweed police (I hope not .. LOL). But who knows .. Which one to take .. I just grab whatever is there. I suspect that much of it is kelp, but to be honest I’m not sure. All I know for certain, is that my garden loves the stuff. .. I’m so pleased you gained something from my seed saving. 🙂