Whilst I've been doing something in the garden every day, I've barely had chance to write about it. Having to go to the beach every day for this fundraiser obligation means I am about three hours short of time as it is, and if there's surf, well that's even longer - sometimes I can barely move at night, let alone get on line.
This morning is a beautiful autumnal morning - it's going to be hot, but the mornings are just sublime. The baby chicks are still on a hot water bottle at night as it's very chilly, and I don't mind tendng them as I can imagine being a baby chick without it's mama! After making sure they were okay I did the stroll around the garden, snipping this and snipping that.
We've had a rat that keeps stealing the tomatoes so if I can get them before they're ripe and just slightly tingeing red, I can ripen them on the windowsill. The 'mortgage lifter' tomatoes are fat and delicious, and I must remember to save some seeds. The purple cherrys are very lovely on the vine and ripen to a deep red, so a very pretty addition to the garden.
Obviously we've had far too many zucchinis, so I've been making lots of currys and spinach and zucchini palak sauce for the freezer, as well as bread and butter pickle. And with tons of cucumbers, cucumber pickle is also the order of the day.
The eggplant are just starting to ripen, which I love - roast eggplant is my favourite and if you haven't tried a Thai curry with roast vegetables you're missing out. Seriously!
My favourite new garden update though is the extra growing room I have next to the chook shed. In the summer, it will serve as extra space for the chooks as it's too much to get water to, but there's a gate there for the winter so I can grow in there. It came about because there was a square bed plonked in an odd spot near the raspberries, so we removed that and Jamie extended the area with some spare fencing and poles and a gate, so it cost us nothing to do.
I love how well everything works in our garden - we think we have the best garden on rural acreage in town. A lot of people are looking out onto dust bowls at this time of year, but not us - we have our little slice of paradise.
The compost area with the adjacent planting of comfrey is doing well, as the leaves go straight in the pile as one of the layers or into a fertilizer tea.
New plantings this month are swedes, beans and some more silverbeet, as well as planted seeds of purple sprouting broccoli and spring onions.
With Love,
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You have a veritable warehouse of potential stuff out there! Looks like a full time job to maintain.
I've only got a strip about 6 metres by 1.5 (postage stamp yard) and I'm super happy that I can grow four chilli plants to feed my hot sauce addiction. I just posted on someone else's thread that I've gotten 1.2KG out of those four plants over the last few weekends, and they show no sign of stopping!
I haven't watered them in over a week, and they're probably due for some fertiliser soon.... I just wing it, no theory. Any tips on how to maximise chilli yields? :D
As for full time job, yeah it takes a bit but we have good systems. Because we are high energy people we can get a massive amount done in a morning of a weekend when things need digging, weeding, pulling out, pruning. But we made a pact that we garden for half an hour every day at least four days a week. That actually keeps the time you garden down, believe it or not. It's a pleasure to walk round, water, snip a branch or two, pick a few weeds, plant seeds, turn the compost - and that way it doesn't build up so massively. This year Jamie's promised to help more which makes it easier.
Was thinking of downsizing but I really have realized that I've always loved a garden and cannot imagine not tending one. It'd be interesting doing it on a suburban block I guess - mini small holdings are a thing after all - but whilst I'm fit enough I may as well keep it up.
I was so annoyed that I didn't plant chilli before I left for Tassie. I am addicted to making hot sauce too - I do a fermented version. We may have spoken about it before.
My chilli always have had most success in the wicking beds, so in my experience, water helps, and I think they like very fertile soil so topping up with compost or fertilizer (I do comfrey and broad leaf weeds and nettles rotted down in water) seems to help.
My last hot sauce was made with jalapeno from the Feed Me Surfcoast shop (it gets excess food destined for landfill and you pay by donation). In the absence of carrot or celery I fermented them with beetroot and spring onion. It's not bad but I reckon I'll add some raspberry to it as I think it'll lift the beetroot a little.
It is so funny for me to read about you all "down under" being so hot, while we are freezing our tails off up here in the Northern parts of the Americas. I can;t wait for some of that heat to make its way here. We (read that as I) plan to plant at least some miniature tomatoes in a potted garden on our back patio this spring. I love them in salad. Having a larger garden thatn that is just too much for me to keep up with. I say that, but my 90 year old neighbor plants and tends a gaden every year. Have you made zuccini noodles before? My wife likes making those and we love them.
Oh yeah zucchini noodles are great! That's tomorrow nights dinner with a roast tomato sauce and some salmon and olives. Yum!
oh my goodness that sounds so good right now. We are working on finishing up a big pot of chilli and then I might make a request of my wife to make some zucchini noodles too. Not sure why I get so hungry when I am on Hive, but ....
Hahah yes there's some good food recipes here!
I know, I get on here in the morning sometimes and by the time I close the laptop my stomach is growling and I;m raiding the fridge. It is ridiculous!
I love seeing how your garden evolves over time. More space for chickens is always a good thing!
Thanks lovely. I'd expand the chicken area even more but I have t work on Jamie slowly...😂
It's really gorgeous. I am so jealous!!! My garden is now under 10 inches of snow. I don't mind having time off from the garden though. I can finally make jelly from all the raspberries I froze in August.
Oooh raspberry jelly!! Yeah the garden season is massive and yours was huge this year.
We can grow all year round...so it never really stops for us, but winter does slow things down and you don't get insane amounts of zucchini and cucumber haha.
it’s always nice to see a garden evolve with the seasons. Your dedication truly shines through.
i like it