As I write I'm in a classroom, babysitting teenagers for my emergency teaching job. Outside, the sky is bright blue and there's a gorgeous old pepper tree, wizened, gnarled, and drooping. Although it's cold, it's one of those late winter days that make me long to be home and in the garden. On Sunday the weather was just beautiful, reminding us of how hot it can get in the sunshine!
I find myself doing small things every day just to physically cope - if I overdo it, I'm out again for a few days. It's not quite long COVID I don't think but I've found the recovery hard. I've had to enlist my husband to turn the compost, steaming in the winter sun, and move the horse poo - we've found a guy who is keen to dump it at our place as they train horses. I need to build a neat bay for it to sit in and rot down, so I've put a pause on the delivery for now.
I've been trying to work out where to put tomatoes this year - they'll go in before the garlic is pulled so those patches are out, and I have space saved for other plants in remaining beds.
What I thought was dotting them about the place, using flower wire cages to keep chooks and rabbits away from them and contain their growth. So I've been marking the spots with a stake, adding compost and preparing the ground for the tomatoes to go in, which won't be for a while yet.
Chicken wire seems to be everywhere, even under the mulch where the lemon, lime and artichoke is. The rabbits like the soft soil against the vegetable patch, so when I find a hole I have to lay mesh down and hide it with thick mulch, which seems to keep them away as it's harder to dig through. As you can see, I've ringed a few of the young fruit trees with wire as well as the rabbits like to nibble the young bark. I think it looks neat enough.
There's still little mushrooms popping up in places, like the mullein.
The fruit trees are definitely starting to blossom, and we've been busy pruning some. Some have had a harder prune than they probably should have at this time of year because I missed the pruning earlier in the year. Nevermind, there's always plenty of fruit to go around the neighbourhood and I can never keep up with it anyway. Hopefully we've set a habit for next year so that can keep on top of it better. Time is always an issue. My electric shears broke so I need to go to Bunnings to swap them over. I really do find them handy!
It's such a beautiful time of year to be in the garden - everything is so full of potential.
I think the broccoli is going to go to seed in the greenhouse as it's a bit warm for them, even in the winter chill - the sun can heat it up fast. We'll be eating broccoli leaves for the next few weeks in that case, which are nice in stir fries! I did google that they don't like the warmer weather, so it's probably too late for them in the greenhouse. The cabbage doesn't seem to mind it though!
I do like to use the whole plant - I also use the broad bean tops in stir fries, salads and even toasted sandwiches!
I've put heaps of Spring seeds in, and it sesems the capsicum are the first to show themselves. I always end up buying a few tomatoes as seedlings anyway but need to put in another lot of mortgage lifter seeds and big yellow cherry tomatoes that I grew last year and loved - have no idea what they are called. They haven't shown themselves from the first sowing so maybe it's too early, unless the seeds weren't viable - I always worry and then I have three million tomato seedlings haha.
If you're in Australia I'd love to hear how your garden is going at this time of year, and in the north, I bet you're busy harvesting!
Don't forget to join in the Garden Journal challenge at the beginning of Spring in Australia and Autumn in the north, unless you're using the astronomical calendar (we don't) so starts this year on the 22 September 2021, the equinox. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the US marks it via equinox too, which makes more sense to me!
Happy Gardening!
With Love,
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