I feel like I should be posting this for the Hive Garden Garden Journal Challlenge, where we all write about our gardens at the beginning of the month. However, I was in my garden today, feeling a little sad that I'll be leaving this space after working so hard to make it function well, with the soil as good as it can be. Besides, I'm kinda excited about showing you the new place, which is a blank slate and ripe for making our own.
Anyway, back to the old garden. The purple kale variety is gorgeous this year. I read that the colder weather brings out the colour and the taste. I'll be letting these go to seed to plant at the new place for sure!
About two weeks before we decided to move, I planted a cherry with two varieties grafted onto rootstock, and a nashi. I dug them up and put them into pots ready for the new place - no way am I leaving them, I'm leaving enough!
Meanwhile, the other fruit trees are all bursting into flower - this is a plum. The new owners, whoever they might be, are literally going to enjoy the fruits of my labour! I won't have much room at the new place so will have to choose carefully, and will likely espalier along the fence.
I'll also be collecting seeds from this gorgeous broad bean - how amazing is the colour! Just stunning.
Walking around the garden this week I've realised just how much seed I'll need to collect in the next few months! I really love the freckled lettuce that comes up every year. I do like to grow a variety of lettuce. I'm still planting the bottoms of spring onions as they grow so fast and there's time for another crop. I always do ends of bunches rather than seeds.
This year I grew some yellow beet instead of red, which I do have regrets about, but I thought I'd try something different. I keep thinking it's chard but it's definitely beetroot! Early in the year I pickled some ordinary beetroot with herbs, garlic and a bit of chilli - beetroot with a little kick is AMAZING and I'll be definitely doing that again!
Coriander - heaps this year. I scatter the seeds so it grows everywhere and I collect the seeds. It's such a pretty flower as well. Ah, that reminds me I'll also need to collect the seeds of calendula flowers.
The snow peas are about to give some pods, but I'm the only one that eats them. They just look so good and I wanted the vendor to see the potential in the garden. I'm generous enough to keep planting even if I wont be around and I'd appreciate it if someone did the same for me.
Jamie doesn't eat broccoli either, so I choose the sprouting variety and stir fry it separately with ginger and lemon to add to my noodles. I chose the sprouting variety so that I can cut what I need and the rest will sprout up ready for another day, rather than big heads I can't get through.
Last but not least, the native garden. There's a few natives I've planted recently I'm going to dig up and put in pots, but most I'll leave because I'm not a miser. I'm really hoping someone will love the place as much as we do. I think we'll take the three standing stones though - they were a nod to where we'd lived in England and I can imagine them in the front garden of the new place. I don't think they'd miss them and there's plenty of other stones and garden features to keep them happy. I haven't told Jamie yet - I don't know how his back is going to hold out as we move in the next few months.
I've also consolidated the worm farm so I have one and sold the other, and I've put one lot of compost into tubs and buckets ready to take down to the new place (again, poor Jamie's back). I'm going to get some big feed bags to put the chicken manure and straw in that's been their deep litter all winter, ready for the new compost and garden beds. There's a lot of thinking to do to get a garden started well.
With Love,
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