After all the effort to get the garden ready for the garden party, I’ve kind of just rested on my laurels and I haven’t actually done a lot in the garden since. Well not on the scale of the work I did before the party. I have done a few things – like a little bit of path hoeing, which is actually kind of fun and easy to run the hoe across the path to keep it weed free, and after the effort of removing the encroaching weeds from the path as part of the pre-party prep, it makes sense to keep on top of them, as there were thousands of tiny weeny seedlings raising their heads in the middle of my path after the last rain.
I’ve also planted out my garlic, nice and early in the hopes to avoid the dreaded garlic rust and I’ve sown my onion seeds so, all going well, they will be ready to be planted out on the shortest day in just over 6 weeks.
I do love how the seasons arrange themselves in the winter, the autumn isn’t really that bad, and eases us slowly into the cool of winter, but once we get into winter, the shortest day is only 3 weeks later, so while each day is getting shorter and shorter, the weather isn’t so intolerable that it is noticeably annoying. Then before we’ve even got a chance to get used to winter, the sun turns around in the sky and the lengthening process begins. So even when the weather turns bleak, cold and very miserable, it is ok because there is a silver lining in that each day is slightly longer and is bringing us closer to the spring and the much nicer and more desirable weather. Having said that the reverse is true in summer and I’m not all that happy that summer days begin to end before they have even started.
But the thought that the shortest day is close-ish and combined with the fact I really haven’t done much since the party I had a bit of a wake up call. It is almost a whole week into the 5th month of the year, and not wanting to shorten life anymore than it does on its own, that is almost halfway through the year! I could easily see myself continuing in this pattern of drift without really achieving much. But that would be such a waste, so I have decided to Make May Count and hope to be able to tick of achievements at the end like a role call of cool gardening related things. There are so many things I’ve been putting off and I just want to get them done now.
Starting tomorrow. Some things will be big! And others will be so small I have even debated with myself as to whether they should be on the list at all… But everything counts and a small step is still a step in the right direction.
Come again soon – there will be plenty of gardening action….
Sarah the Gardener : o)
Does pumpkin freeze better than it cans? I suppose it would. I do not can chunks of it, but mash it up like mashed potatoes. It would be nice to get chunks for baking, but I just figured they would turn to mush anyway, and I did not want to add water to the whole mess (to fill the space between the chunks). I freeze nothing. I suppose I should get in the habit of freezing a few things. There is a small freezer on top of a refrigerator at work where there is electricity.
I just chop it into chunks and then vacuum seal them and freeze them,. Then cook them from frozen. It seems to work well enough. I have a couple of freezers and spread the risk if something should happen to one. Most of the pumpkin stores well as it is in the shed, but I have had a few that have been damaged so won’t keep. : o)
Embarrassingly, most of my canned pumpkin was recycled from Jack-O’-lanterns. At the apartment building in town, I must take a few away annually. Residents leave them on the porch for me to take . . . and a few neighbors bring theirs over too. Because they were already hollowed out and carved, they can not be stored in a cellar, so much be frozen or canned, and I lack a freezer. Those big orange pumpkins are not as good as the ‘Sugar Pie’ pumpkins that grow in the garden, but I so hate to waste them. The intact ‘Sugar Pie’ last a good long time without canning, but I store them in the kitchen where squirrels can not get them.
If Halloween is in spring, what are Jack-O’- lanterns made of?
Waste not want not! Halloween isn’t really a big thing here, although in the last few years it seems to be increasing in popularity so I’m not sure what a kiwi jack-o-lantern would look like. I think some of the stores have a few pumpkins held back in storage from the autumn for the growing interest. : o)
It is a stupid tradition anyway.