Boy I have been working really hard in the garden. After I considered and then quickly discarded the idea of hiring a bulldozer, I sat down and wrote myself a list – a very long list, of all it would take to return my garden to a state I could be proud of and in the process restore my passion.
It has taken what feels like an absolute age to whip it back into shape, although the wind still makes its presence felt, although not at the great velocities of those early January days. But we have a new summer problem to contend with… The boffins are now beginning to claim their earlier guesses as fact and we are now entering a drought. We haven’t seen rain now for weeks and the temperatures are high and the ground is opening up with great chasms that I’m sure go down to the centre of the earth. Maybe that is where some of the heat is coming from?
This is where I bless my soggy boggy swamp soil. While dreadful in winter, in summer it clings tightly to any moisture that comes its way and so my plants don’t need as intensive care as they would in other soils. The up side of this is I don’t have to spend most of my summer days on the end of a hose, and the plant roots dig down deep for some of the hidden moisture. So despite the hills around us turning from a vibrant green to an amber brown shade, my garden is still thriving.
The harvest is beginning to come in thick and fast and I knew it was a mistake to plant so many bean seeds. But they all looked so pretty I just had to have a couple of each… now the beans are coming in I find that despite each bean looking different with their purples, pinks, yellows and greens, they all still taste like beans. I guess I was hoping maybe, just maybe one of them would have a flavour that would excite my taste buds but alas no.
The tomatoes are starting to ripen, but I’d hardly say thick and fast… yet. The bushes are laden and one day soon I will have way more to deal with than in my wildest dreams. (Gardening is such an obsession for me, it even invades my dreams). The gherkins are once again being super prolific, I seem to be preserving some every week and we haven’t even finished eating the ones from last year yet!
So far I have had a bumper year for spuds. I started digging up the gourmet Jersey Bennys on Christmas day and the wonderful new potatoes lasted all of January and were perfect for summertime eating and salads. They came to an end at the perfect time to dig up the next row called Heather which have a lovely ruby red skin. I push the fork into the bed as close to the edge as possible and speared two large spuds! Opps! So I dug the rest out by hand and was rewarded with a large barrel load of huge sized spuds that will be perfect for stuffed baked potatoes, which is good as the description says it’s a good general all round cooker!
The Hungarian Wax peppers and the Anaheim chillies are starting to come into their own, to the delight of the heat seeking Hubby the Un-Gardener, who always bravely tastes my chillies, but eventually they leave him racing for the milk! Wait until the tabascos come ripe, hehehe!
I could go on with a blow by blow list of all that is good about my garden but we’ll be here forever. So I’ll just say I have regained full control, it is looking fantastic (if I may say so myself) and all that blood, sweat and tears and worry has now received ample compensation and is all but forgotten.
Come again soon – the garden is beginning to reach the exciting climactic stage – the full harvest!
Sarah the Gardener : o )
What a wonderful garden. A lot of hard work but it’s beautiful. Up here is the bitter cold our seedlings are starting to sprout! 🙂
Hi There. Thank you so much for your kind words. It’s always really exciting when those first seedlings pop up, and you can hardly even begin to imagine the full garden in the height of summer as they are so tiny and so fragile!
Cheers Sarah : o )
I am always struck by the size of some seeds. Some are so tiny but grow great big plants. I find it fascinating.
Very nice garden,looks what a garden is suppose to be! You are very neat too and that makes it special lol.
Hi there. Thank you so much for your kind words. It has been a lot of hard work, but well worth it.
Cheers Sarah : o )
So happy to see your garden looking great…waiting for the chance to try again here (winter begone!!!)
Hi There. Spring always holds so much hope that this year will be the perfect garden, but then you tend to forget about all the dramas along the way. If I pretend the dramas didn’t happen then I probably can say I have the garden I hoped for in the spring – almost!
Cheers Sarah : o )
Glad to see success! Your potatoes look so good.
Hi there. I was quite surprised by the size of the potatoes. There are more fat ones than tiddlers which is usual for me! I can’t wait to try a baked one smothered with cheese!
Cheers Sarah : o )
I am SO envious of your spuds! Our soil is heavy clay covered with silt (we live right next to the river) and festooned with volcanic rock and here in Northern Tasmania we are in our second half of the 3 month dry season where we get very little rain. We got a day of it yesterday thanks to a wayfaring cyclone pushing some low pressure down our way but other than that, it is the same conditions every year for we Tasmanians. The son and heir and his Texan sweetie are still in N.Z. having a ball. They LOVE the place. I won’t be surprised if they move there to be honest they love it so much. We will be building a massive fully enclosed veggie garden in autumn this year (when we can did the soil again after it ceases pretending to be made of solid ceramic) and will be following your planting choices with great interest. I want to grow all of our veggies and N.Z. is about as close to Tassie in climactic conditions as you can get. I am going to give kumara’s a go next year as well :). Glad to see you knocked your garden back into shape. It is certainly looking amazingly well for being in drought conditions. I can’t wait to see what you do with your harvest 🙂
Hi Fran. Despite the wise old advice of ‘only growing what works well in your conditions’ I always try to grow anything that takes my fancy. You never know unless you dont try. Despite the heat and the dry, my thoughts are slowly begining to think of winter crops and autumn sowings and I planted some kohlrabi, romanesco and more broccoli the other day. It’s like you have to stay one step ahead of the seasons in order to keep the garden filled year round. But I need to get on with summer things today – I have yet another very large bowl of gherkins to deal with and the powdery mildew is begining to make it’s presence noticed.
Cheers Sarah : o )
“Powdery Mildew” the scourge of the cool climate gardener! So far we have evaded it but I think that the aphids are too happy and safely ensconsed on our potted plants to be bothered with the veggies so far plus the veggies are patrolled by a small family of nomadic lizards that have taken up residence and that seem to be keeping the pest species down nicely. I, too, want to grow weird and wonderful things. As a vegan I am always up for some new veggie to try and there are some amazing old heritage veggies that are coming out for we gardeners to much around with. Gotta try to get me some of those radishes that don’t form a root and you eat the pods! Why bother with getting upset that they have gone to seed…just bypass the root entirely and eat the seed! My way of thinking :).
Oh you make me long for the heat of summer. I love your photos, especially those of the chicken and the cat hiding from the heat. I found my cats in the garden most of last summer. As for the drought, I am afraid the entire planet is in the drought cycle right now. Yikes. Happy Harvesting.
Hi Lucinda. As hot as it feels, I am determined not to complain and moan about how hot it is as it will be over before we know it. Each day is a blessing to be enjoyed for what it is.
Cheers Sarah : o )
That’s a garden to strike envy into the hearts of many!
Thank you so much. I have worked really hard and now when I stand back and look about I am astounded by all I have acheived.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Your garden is LOVELY! And I agree about the beans…I planted a variety of colors last year and was excited to see them coming in, but, in the end, they all tasted the same. Even the gorgeous purple ones turned green when cooked.
Hi Jenn. I really don’t know why I grow beans at all. But a garden without beans somehow doesn’t seem right. I’ve started growing more dried beans, because we use a lot of beans in tins in the winter. Maybe next year have one token green bean and rows and rows of kidney beans!
Cheers Sarah : o )
I love beans, I was just hoping my canned beans would turn out a little more colorful with the different varieties. Not so. They ALL turn green (except the yellow wax) when cooked. B.O.R.I.N.G. I’ll just plant plain ole green beans this year. 😀 I haven’t tried dried beans yet…maybe some limas or navy beans should be on my garden planner this year.