Holidays always get in the way of gardening. By the time we got back from the High Country, our veggie garden was full of nettle seedlings. I adore nettle, but it has a nasty habit of taking over when you aren't looking, so that was the first job. Besides, it had obscured the beetroot seedlings.
There was a lovely abundance of peppers in the greenhouse, and the chillis are finally getting some heat to them, as I found when I had a stir fry and my eyes were watering just frying the chilli and garlic. Hopefully there's enough for hot sauce.
The self seeded flat leaf parsley in the wicking beds loves it there and hasn't gone to seed all summer as it never dries out. We have lots of spring onions as usual, probably the easiest thing to grow and just sprouted from super market ones. Anyone can do this just in a pot.
There's a lot I don't bother planting from seed as it comes up every year, such as fennel, lettuce and coriander. Sometimes the garden knows what is best and doesn't stick to human schedules.
We have had a lot of quince but as I don't really have sugar I haven't been sure what to do with them. Inventing a honey quince cake might be a job for next week.
The eggplants finally bore fruit - only fifteen or so which is disappointing as I love eggplant. But I think I'll do these wicking style next year in the greenhouse for the longer season. It's meant to be hot and dry so that'll be a better option. El Nino will bring it's trials I'm sure.
We did our best to remove the last hops bine yesterday. I feel sad about it but it's very uneconomical in garden hours and takes over like the wolf it is. For my fresh hops next year I'll have to shout out to growers in the area. I'm going to get rid of the chayote for similar reasons. It's just too hard to maintain and whilst I can manage it, if we go away to Europe next year I can't imagine a tennant keeping it under control.
I managed to get Jamie to help weed one of the native beds that's the west side to our whole garden. The bottom end is the back entrance to the chook coop and I'm slightly embarrassed anytime anyone comes over as it's always a weedy mess. It took hours as the grass there puts down insane roots. But it looks great now. All it needs is mulch. There's a huge dumped pile of mulch in the reserve but Jamie has to hook up the trailer to one of the Landrovers and he is not willing to do it yet which is causing some argument, as I've been asking for some time. I know if it doesn't get mulched the weeds will grow and cause more work, but from his perspective is busy and tired.
I also found where one of the chooks has been laying, in the comfrey patch. Two have been escaping a lot and I can't figure out how. I know there's probably another clutch of eggs hidden somewhere as we aren't getting many in the nesting boxes. Sometimes I wish we didn't have chickens.
A favour for any Hive Gardeners reading this. Could do with another helper in the community, particularly one that knows their way around Leo Threads. If this sounds like you, DM me on Discord riverflows#4691
Oh, and it's time to vote on Leo Threads for your author of the week as well. Head over to 