And I still haven’t finished planting out the garden. I feel like I am in some kind of race against time to get it all done. Most of the time the weather is my friend and it is warm and sunny, but we get these occasional spring showers that blow in from what seems like nowhere, dumps its load and disappears as quickly as it came. Spring showers are the best kind of rain as they moisten the soil in a way a hose never could, no matter how long you stood there. Today I planned out where my beans were to go, but one of those spring showers made it impossible to continue. Either that or I’m getting a bit soft.
We had a full solar eclipse today and I kinda missed it. I knew it was coming, but I was working so hard digging out my old compost pile to make a home for my pumpkins that I forgot it was on. The light went all dark and funny and I thought to myself there must be something wrong with my eyes because it was like I was wearing sunglasses when I wasn’t. It didn’t occur to me to look up. Apparently it was the best full solar eclipse for ages and the next one won’t be until 2034. I’m not too disappointed in missing it as I’ve seen one before when I was a kid and if all goes well I’ll get to see it again before I’m elderly – provided I remember to look then!
But I got my pumpkins in to the best pumpkin patch ever! It was where I’d been dumping weeds for a year or so and then stopped. I can’t remember why I stopped but the weeds turned into this rich black soil. So I decided to dig it over for the pumpkins because they like that sort of thing. But what I forgot is I had dumped the weeds on top of building rubble. So I had to heave and strain and drag all these chunks of concrete out of my new garden bed. I have just left them lying where I heaved them to and will have to get Hubby the Un-Gardener to move them as they are too heavy. I’m surprised I managed to get them out of the bed at all.
The garden is really coming along now and we are starting to eat stuff and not just a nibble here and a nibble there. We are having meals from the garden. The peas are filling out in their pods and are so sweet and delicious. Some meals I don’t even cook them, and we just eat them fresh. The asparagus is still going crazy and the lettuce tastes so good that we are having so many salads. The radishes are ready but I keep forgetting to eat them. I really need to remember before they go too far.
Oh and I can’t forget to mention the strawberries. I am picking a large bowlful every other day, and we are eating them all in one go. The other night we each had a bowlful of strawberries that had been marinated in a little sugar for an hour so the juice ran out and had them with ice cream… so good! Tonight we had strawberry smoothies. The blender was filled with strawberries and a dash of yoghurt to give the creaminess and it was amazing. I love to grow enough food, not just as a taster, but to really indulge.
I’ve had my first raspberries, despite the weeds growing amongst them, but I haven’t actually told anyone yet, so let’s just keep this as my little secret. Besides it is completely impractical to cut raspberries into four!
The tomatoes are coming along and we are starting to see small green balls appearing where flowers once were. There is still a long way to go before we see any red, but it is really encouraging to see green at this stage. Everywhere I look is encouraging signs – although I avert my eyes when I’m near the brassicas or the currants to I don’t notice the goat damage, which is slowly recovering.
Come again soon – I’ve still got so much more to do before I can allow the spring garden to become a summer one.
Sarah the Gardener : o )
Looking good. It is fun to watch your garden come to life as mine slows way down for the winter.
Hi there. I love reading about gardens in the opposite season to mine. It keeps me motivated through the cold months.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Ditto! I’m raking leaves and composting – love seeing what is happening in awesome garden on the other side of the world!
Thanks Cathy. I love that it is finally my turn to play in the garden after watching everyone else all winter!
Cheers Sarah : o )
Your garden is so far ahead of ours! My strawberries are just starting to pink up despite their home in the full sun. I love reading your posts.They give me hope and they bolster me on to install more gardens. We have a plethora of beans all going mental in flat trays in Steve’s shed on his Trident work bench. It is lucky that we are studying like mad at the moment to finish off our Landscape design course so that we can slow down and have a well deserved rest over summer. I fortified my own pumpkin patch yesterday. I had noticed that pumpkins were growing well in my compost heap but possums and chooks kept invading Poland and dooming them so I covered it over, I planted out a few sprouted King Edwards that had been languishing in the pantry growing out the top of the paper bag as well and am just going to allow them to grow and if they manage to make it to the top of the old compost heap, they will get their own trellis to climb up over the chook pen roof and sit in state where they can mature nicely away from the wallabies. Isn’t gardening an amazing way to learn how to develop your problem solving skills? As penniless student hippies we are certainly learning to use what we have to give us what we need 🙂
Hi Fran
I got sick of chickens invading the garden and pooping on the deck, so we clipped wings the other night. Its best to do it at night because you just pick them up off the roost, instead of chasing them about! Although one still seems to be getting out! Grr.
One year we had a feral pumpkin we hadn’t planted, grow up over the chicken house roof and it was one of the best pumpkin plants we’d ever had!
Cheers Sarah : o )
We don’t trust our chooks anymore Sarah…they are comando ninja’s and at least 7 of them live in a conifer out the front of the house along with several feral cats…coexisting…and the cats are scared of them! We breed them tough here on Serendipity Farm…in fact we have nothing to do with their breeding…they just do it when, and wherever they like apparently! We saw one of the feral mums with 7 babies wandering up the driveway the other day and we have no idea where they are all huddled down hatching nefariously and so we NEED to get control of this mob of exponential breeders before they take over the neighbourhood and we start to be called (in hushed whispers behind our neighbours hands) “those feral chook people”. We are going to minimise our flock and we just got a pile of old fish farm rope netting (close 2cm mesh) to make a huge enclosure for them to live in. No more ferals for us! 😉
Lovely to see spring and all the bounty! I was reading about the solar eclipse, oh well hopefully the pumpkins appreciated it 🙂
Hi Claire. I still cant believe I completely missed the eclipse… duh! I think I am completely over the spring showers, while good for watering the garden, it stops me getting out there doing stuff and it makes the weeds grow!
Cheers Sarah : o )
We are jealous of your spring! And great photos! The peas and radishes look sooo tasty!
Hi there. I’ve been reading northern hemisphere blogs about clearing up for the winter and it really doesn’t seem that long ago that that was me. Fresh peas straight from the pod are the yummiest thing ever! (well apart from fresh strawberries!)
Cheers Sarah : o )
Everything looks lovely!
Thank you so much.
Cheers Sarah : o )