Monday, November 12, 2007
After a long break I managed to spend a bit of time in the garden this weekend. Everything is really dry so number one job was watering everything.
I had an excellent harvest yesterday, a lot of which went into a big veg stir fry with coconut milk yesterday lunchtime:
I am very proud of the cabbages which are compact, beautifully white and yellow on the inside and a nice sweet flavour.
Otherwise it was down to a bit of hard work. I didn't have much time, so I did the most urgent, chopped down the green manure and the butter bean plants, which I left on the ground to rot. Pulled out the last tomato plant and chopped up the dying pea plants, but left them in the ground. Then I did a bit of digging, to open up the earth in the bare patches so that the cold could get to it.
Another nice surprise was a delivery of mulched leaf, that was for everyone to take some, I guess it must have come from the council. I took away a big garbage bag full that I will compost as soon as I get a cylinder of chicken wire up on the ground.
It is interesting to see the effect of this season, which I didn't see last year. The rhubarb is dying back, and so are the weeds. I did a little weeding of the edges, to keep it tidy (and stay in well with my neighbour - he actually congratulated me on Saturday for all the stuff I had managed to grow. He's one of the pleasant crowd on our site. He also told me that I had bought the wrong leeks, confirming what Tee Gee told me on the Allotments4All forum. I must have bought an autumn variety as they really need eating urgently, they are starting to yellow. Next year I will be more careful, or sow my own from seed perhaps. )
The broad beans are starting to flower! I don't know what this means, must ask on the A4A forum.
All in all it was a pleasant afternoon spent surveying the year's work and planning in my mind what next year's lot might look like :-D
I had an excellent harvest yesterday, a lot of which went into a big veg stir fry with coconut milk yesterday lunchtime:
- a nice smoothleaf cabbage,
- at least a pound of Brussel sprouts,
- 3 parsnips,
- a big handful of yellow beans (the last),
- 4 leeks,
- Rocket,
- parsley,
- a few bits and pieces (broccoli, peas),
- and some pretty pink chrysanthemums.
I am very proud of the cabbages which are compact, beautifully white and yellow on the inside and a nice sweet flavour.
Otherwise it was down to a bit of hard work. I didn't have much time, so I did the most urgent, chopped down the green manure and the butter bean plants, which I left on the ground to rot. Pulled out the last tomato plant and chopped up the dying pea plants, but left them in the ground. Then I did a bit of digging, to open up the earth in the bare patches so that the cold could get to it.
Another nice surprise was a delivery of mulched leaf, that was for everyone to take some, I guess it must have come from the council. I took away a big garbage bag full that I will compost as soon as I get a cylinder of chicken wire up on the ground.
It is interesting to see the effect of this season, which I didn't see last year. The rhubarb is dying back, and so are the weeds. I did a little weeding of the edges, to keep it tidy (and stay in well with my neighbour - he actually congratulated me on Saturday for all the stuff I had managed to grow. He's one of the pleasant crowd on our site. He also told me that I had bought the wrong leeks, confirming what Tee Gee told me on the Allotments4All forum. I must have bought an autumn variety as they really need eating urgently, they are starting to yellow. Next year I will be more careful, or sow my own from seed perhaps. )
The broad beans are starting to flower! I don't know what this means, must ask on the A4A forum.
All in all it was a pleasant afternoon spent surveying the year's work and planning in my mind what next year's lot might look like :-D
Labels: autumn, cabbage, dying_off, green_manure, harvest, parsnip
# posted by antipodesgirl @ 10:49 AM 
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