Potatoes

Well, I fianlly did it. I got the potatoes in the ground!

They are on a slope so it was an interesting logistics exercise making sure I had enough of a gap between the rows to ensure I wouldn't uncover the ptoatoes above whilst clumping.

I planted mainly Dutch Cream and King Edward, but I did replant two rogues that popped up in the soil I turned up for the summer garden.





The plum tree has blossoms and the mystery tree above it has started to blossom. There are not a huge number of blossoms on the plum but enough for eating. We may not have a store of plum jam to get us through the year this time around. The tree above the plum has pink blossums, we are slowly getting closer to identying it.

The peaches have started to blossom and I even found a couple of little grape hyasinth in the garden. Nothing seems to be coming up where I want the sand pit, so it looks like that is ready to be built.

 The avocado our wonderful landlords so generously gave us has buds on it (lots of them)! How wonderful if we get avocados in the first season!

 The little garden outside the back door gets almost no sun in winter, but the sun has moved and the morning sun now streams in throguh there. The lettuces and herbs have sprung up. I just need to work out what to do with it in winter....



This is the summer garden. I haven't planted anything yet - but my celery is ready to go in and I will try to get the fences up (to keep the chooks out) this weekend. Just a low fence - the chooks don't go into that area anyway. We will see how high I need to make it... The pots that are in the background are my temporary solution to needing something to hold the raised bed in place. I am going to fill them with soil as well and plant marigolds (or something like that - maybe herbs not sure yet) in them. They will do for this year as I have them and they will do the job. Over the summer one of my aims to to find something more permament. My MIL has terracotta pipes in the ground and they look greeat planted up with chives and the like.

Summer garden - next move

Well, things are going very slowly as everytime i do anything in the garden I spend the next hour in the house trying to breathe. I will not let this beat me though. I am focussing on getting out in the patches of sun we are getting and only doing one smallish part of a job at a time.

So, the gardens were formed up last entry (still need to get the photos up) and today I mucked out the chookyard and dumped it on top of the three beds. I took the more mulch like layer off and dumped it on top of the compost and the risidual layers are now sitting on top of the gardens. I ran out of steam to dig it all through - that will be the next task. One step closer...

I have also given our two little chooks some new bedding. The whole plan is slowly coming together. So all the paper that I have been shredding is now beddign for the chooks. Someone told me it is one of the best options as straw invites vermin. So my gril and her boy have new shreded paper beds and the kitchen is empty of all shredded paper (for at least today).

I have also come up with a solution to our edging issue. I was going to get flitch from the local saw mill, but they only have soft woods available and it just isn't worth the effort it would take to do it by myslef. So, I hunted around the yard. A while back a friend had given me a whole heap of moss pots. They are like the inserts for hanging pots. She moved into a place with thousands of them. So, I have used them to form an edge around the garden. They will not last long term, but they should get us through this summer. I plan to fill them with marigolds or some similar plant that will distract the nasties from my summer harvest.

It looks like I will be ready to start planting in a few weeks - which should be right on time.

The potatoes are still not in despite my best intentions. I have been told this is not a bag thing, but I am keen to get them in soon. Every day it is my chief task, but somehow it keeps getting gazumped (yesterday by a desire for Tarte Tatain).

The winter harvest iscoming along. I have styarted picking the odd snow pea here and there. Lots of flowers on the bushes but not a lot else at the moment. The brocili and cauliflowers have shot up and everything is looking like it is about to burst into fruit or tuber as the case may be. I was just too late getting them in the ground this year.