But it took a lot of hard work and I’m pretty knackered. So it’s now safe to say I am fully over my melodramatic outburst of the other day. In fact let’s just pretend the whole sorry episode never happened.
After a mow and some hard work the garden is now looking like something to be proud of. I’ve pruned and tied in my wayward tomatoes and now I can see loads and loads of green ones that will be red before I know it and then the tomato glut will start with gusto!
I bit the bullet and went out and bought lettuce seedlings as the ones I sowed on the beach don’t even have true leaves yet, but the ones in the garden had gone all bitter and despite having an incredible flower display, they needed to go. The chickens and the goats thought all their Christmas’s had come at once when I delivered armfuls of ‘had it’ salad over their fences.
I also tried to buy seed potatoes as all the current gardening newsletters are saying you should be able to get one more crop of spuds if you choose a quick maturing variety. But everyone seems to have beaten me to them as I can’t find any in any of my favourite gardening supply stores. There were loads right before Christmas, and I kick myself for not grabbing some then, but my head was filled with “visions of dancing sugar plums” and all things festive. I’ll keep my eyes peeled but I don’t fancy my chances.
Another thing I did buy were these extra-large 42 litre buckety type things. I was looking for large pots to put the sweet potatoes into – I know, I’m a little late, but that’s what happens when Christmas gets in the way. The plan was and is to keep them in containers, because when it is time to dig them up my ground is too boggy and they just rot. If I have them in containers then they will stay relatively dry and it they aren’t quite ready I’ll just shift them into the greenhouse.
I’ve harvested loads of onion and garlic and I have to say I think it has been my best crop ever! The garlic is huge, but not a huge as the elephant garlic. That stuff is phenomenal!
The lavender I grew from seed was looking a little peaky so I sat myself down and transplanted all 113 into bigger pots. At this stage they are now probably worth about $60 as a six pack of seedlings are selling for “3 for $9.99”. But once they grow to fill their pots they should be worth over $500. Not bad from a pack of seeds worth $2.45. That should make our wee landscaping project a bit more cost effective.
It has been a real struggle to soldier on and get things done as it has been so hot. There is no escape from it, even at night it is too hot to sleep. As this hot period doesn’t tend to go on for ever we don’t have such luxuries as air conditioners in the house, and the one in the car has died and so there really is no escape – except possibly going shopping. Any excuse aye!
I have had my irrigation system on pretty much permanently and the garden really seems to appreciate it and is positively glowing in response. But the irrigation system that feeds the hanging baskets failed and sent a spray of water out over the roof instead of helping out my lovely but droopy flowers. So I got onto a ladder and pulled it down to have a look. There was a great split in the hose. A new hose with the irrigation spikes swapped over and plugged in and a bit of help from Hubby the Un-Gardener to get it all back into the gutter and the flowers were able hold their heads high once again.
There is still loads to do, but then that is the nature of gardening. There will always be loads to do. But when I stand back and put my grubby hands on my dirt stained hips I can look over all I have achieved and feel a sense of pride once more.
Come again soon – the tomatoes will be ripe soon.
Sarah the Gardener : o )
Picked our first tomatoe today in sunny Mangamahu valley. Look forward to picking a lot more.
Hi There. That first tomato is the is the most amazing thing in the whole growing season. Nothing tastes better! Enjoy!
Cheers Sarah : o )
So pleased to hear you are back in the swing of things.
Hi Jean. I’m sure we all knew I would come back round to the joys of gardening. It’s a bit like an addiction!
Cheers Sarah : o )
Glad you are “back”…I hope your tomatoes like the heat (if so, you should be very happy)…
Hi there. The tomatoes are beginning to go all red. I’m looking forward to having so many fresh tomatoes that we’ll be eating them in almost every meal!
Cheers Sarah : o )
We are very. very jealous!
You make me jealous. I am in Virginia, In the U.S. and it is winter here. I do not have snow and it will be nearly 70 degrees tomorrow so i will get my tractor out and till under the left over organic waste from this year’s garden. I am a lot behind, due to all the running in the fall with my kids being in the local high school band. I am lucky to get this second chance.
Hi Joe. Gosh that’s quite mild for a winter temperature. What a wonderful opportunity to get out there and catch up. We always seem to be complaining about the weather – too hot, too cold, too windy, too wet. But it is what it is and we just have to make the most of it.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Nice!
Thanks
We propagate just about everything from seed or cutting. Being penniless student hippies tends to make you creative and I always carry a large bag, a pair of secateurs and several plastic bags with me at any given time. We are growing and have grown walnut trees from wayfaring nuts in the gutter, chestnut trees (so many I am going to have to give some away), hazelnuts for a grove that we plan on establishing on the property, blackcurrants, avocados, native raspberries, cape gooseberries, I have some elderberries in seed raising mix, we have cardamom, figs that we found under an old neglected tree where the branches had rooted (so they got a good head start and should fruit earlier), loquats from tiny adventitious seeds on a road verge, grapes from our house in town that we took cuttings from and that approximately 50% sprouted, lots of things growing in the compost and HEAPS of other things. Propagating is amazingly empowering :). I love how neat and tidy your veggie garden is now. I am in the process of renegotiating our garden and my ideas of what I want. No more European perennial garden and lots of water wise, drought tolerant hardies. It’s amazing how beautiful your garden can be by using some gorgeous grasses, plants from the hotter climates and mixing in lots of hardy edibles like chia, amaranth and quinoa to boost your possibilities and they are great chook food too! I just fell in love with gardening all over again this week too…can you tell? 🙂 I look forwards to reading a future post about those kumara. I LOVE sweet potatoes and will be attempting to grow them next year (above ground like you but maybe in a wicked bathtub…) and we just hurled a 10kg sack of potatoes into my compost heap thanks to adventitious (new word for the day) sprouts that were threatening to take over the bag…lets see what happens? Same went for a bag full of garlic that went to “green”…I LOVE the possibilities that gardening give you! 🙂 Happy gardening Sarah and welcome back to the love fest 🙂
Hi Fran. I love how you can be a frugal tightwad when you garden – it mean a 1000 lettuce seeds for about two bucks! Which is why it breaks my heart to actually have to buy seedlings although I got 18 for $10, which is still cheaper than buying them at the supermarket, but …. well you know what I mean.
I managed to find some seed potatoes while I was out of town so with a bit of luck and an Indian summer I should get one more crop! I just need to shake the bug I picked up on the plane so I can feel well enough to plant them!
Cheers Sarah : o )
Next time I go on a plane, even the 1 hour flight to Melbourne, I am going to wear a mask! I ALWAYS pick up bugs…I think that the airlines filter them in as a side payload from bug spammers…hope you feel better soon :). I have just been channelling Dame Edith Murdock (bless her)…she has decided to take pity on me and become one of my garden muses…along with mum, who passed away last year, they make a near constant pair of dictators telling me things like “Oy! bare earth = dry earth! Didn’t I teach you ANYTHING!” (that one was mum…) and “Dear, don’t you think you might want to put a teensy little bit of that lovely decomposing grass that you got from that lovely lady next door over those poor wilting Swiss chard plants? You do want to eat them don’t you?…” that one would be Dame Edith…I dare say once she gets a bit more familiar with me she will break out the gardening equivalent of a bazooka on my uneducated derierre…I sometimes think that I am garden dyslexic but my garden muses keep plucking things that I learned in Hort class out of the air and inserting them between my ears as synapses that won’t be ignored. It looks like it is going to be a long summer here in Tas and if I can keep the possums off my veggies long enough, we should get a good harvest. Maybe global warming might make us end up with a longer growing season? “Those who adapt, survive!”…(my new creed 🙂 ). I love fellow gardeners as they KNOW the torture that you have to go through to achieve your goals…nature is teaching me that my goals are not necessarily hers…I think I am starting to learn the lessons 😉
Wow! What a difference!
Hi Cheryl. It took a bit of effort and there is still heaps more to do, but it is a working garden and seems to be changing all the time – I just need to keep up with it, or ideally be one step ahead.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Your garlic harvest is impressive! I knew you would get the garden back ;).
Hi There. I think we can say it was a given. After putting in so much work all season, I’d be crazy to just stop right before it starts giving back. And the harvest will taste all the better for it!
Cheers Sarah : o )
Beautiful. Lots of hard work. I can imagine you relaxing in the shade with a glass of something cold just looking out at all you have finished so far. Keep up the posts, truly enjoyable.
Hi Lucinda. Thank you so much for your kind words. I love stopping at the end of the day and just admiring. But you have to look through rose tinted glasses so you don’t see all that needs doing and all the problems.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Those containers for kumara look like a great idea. Our raised beds get over full at this time of year – a bounty of yellow courgettes, lettuce, herbs and runner beans (special to me, as each year I harvest seeds for the year to come and each time the beans come on I think of my late Dad who gave me the original bean seeds about eight years ago). So – bucket garden provides extra space. I hope you have more success than Iggy had with the potatoes he has tried to grow in a bag for a Rotary competition. Each year his harvest is so bad he doesn’t even rate the booby prize.
Hi There. The kumara containers came from a sale at “the red shed” They were only $6 each! And they are so much bigger than the ordinary buckets I normally use when I run out of space.
The potato harvest is looking good. I managed to track down some seed potatoes, so provided we have a long Indian summer I think I may get my sneaky final crop.
Cheers Sarah : o)
Ah – an easy place to shop for kumara containers and a bargain price. Thank you.