For all those that enjoy my blog – whoops! I missed another week, sorry .. But you will be pleased to know, I’m back with news and a couple of pics 🙂
We have finally had some much needed rain – yay! The place greens up instantly (ok slight exaggeration).
Do you have days where you don’t stop? Yesterday I started my day at the gym, which given I had a break for 10 years is hysterical. I’m enjoying punishing myself again though, or at least endeavouring to be fit. And then I attacked my ‘to do’ list with a vengeance!
I hauled out the majority of plants from my salad bed. The cucumber got yanked out still swathed in white cucs the majority of which are unbelievably bitter (the worms will love ‘em). Out came the parsley which was going to seed, tired looking calendulas and I gave the oregano a life threatening prune! I stood back incredibly proud of myself wiping my hands on my pants as I do – gloves on? I don’t think so! You can’t beat dirt under those nails and a foot on the broad fork. Even though I prefer the ‘no dig method’ of gardening, the soil in this bed was compacted and needed loosening and aeration. So I jumped on the broad fork and gave that bed a helping hand.
Into this space went some compost, coffee grounds and rok solid – I’m devoid of wood ash, but it won’t be long before I have a good supply of that! My salad bed is now home to fennel and celery, both of which I have planted in rows, something I prefer not to do. As most plants don’t much enjoy the company of fennel … I opted to plant it in a corner of the bed.
Next door I poked some Utah celery, I hope the fennel won’t stunt it’s growth! More lettuces the ‘little gem’ variety got poked in near their good buddies ‘beetroot’ which are already growing nicely. I also planted a variety of herbs think, parsley, thyme, coriander (the latter bolts madly in summer) and garlic chives.
Do you like surprises? I decided that a bed in the backyard which doesn’t get a lot of sunlight but always provides us with spuds, would get a much needed break. So after locating a bag of blue lupins, I then grabbed the rake and starting clearing the garden. Much to my surprise I unearthed spuds that we had missed including pink fur which is a wonderful tasty potato. Brilliant, I’m still patting myself on the back and loving the fish and chips we enjoyed last night.
Another brag shot!
I have sowed more carrot seed into a prepared space again. I know I’m nuts it’s probably too late to do this – but gardening is all about experimenting isn’t it?
Peas – called Peasy (?) have finally been stuffed into the base of the trellis amongst mounds of home made compost. I laid netting over this area as I know that the black birds will be very interested in the new supply of worms!
And speaking of those, my worm farm is now operational! Wonderful. Do you have one? I’m so enjoying feeding these slimeys each and every day with a variety of food scraps and interesting things like, cat fur, egg shells, lint from the clothes dryer … don’t worms have interesting appetites?
To finish, you may be wondering about my hot compost that I started a few weeks back – not a complete disaster, but I shan’t be winning any awards on this one! Time for another turn perhaps …
Who loves lavender?
I have no idea what the moth is but it was enjoying itself in the afternoon sun
A wool carder bee – alive and well in our garden!
Happy gardening!