Monday, December 17, 2007
Operation Big Freeze...
-2c here this morning, there was actually a sheet of ice on the car. bbrrr
so yesterday it was down to the allotment to snatch up everything we could, which included a kilo or two of parsnips, two cabbages, the romanescos, a heap of big Brussel sprouts, all the first leeks and all the tiny carrots and beets that were still in the ground. I think I might have to put some veg in the freezer this week :-)
It is my first experience of seeing the garden over the winter, all the fruit bushes have lost their leaves and gone to sleep, the leaf mulch I spread out has started to decompose into the earth, as has all the other vegetation. The rhubarb has disappeared and the artichokes have sort of sprawled out as if they are kipping.
The compost bin had collapsed again, so I took the opportunity to dig over the compost before rebuilding the bin.
The water barrels are full of ice! that is quite a spectacular sight! luckily they are not sealed. Maybe it will kill any nasties in the water too. And just think, it is not even winter yet!!
Still I took a moment to look around and think, in the spring I will be digging all this up again, but keeping in mind that next year I am going to cover and mulch as much as possible. Because I have made so much effort not to walk on the beds, the earth is still soft and aerated. The things I dug up yesterday, I dug over a little to let the frost into the soil. And had a little moment to visualize in my head, ok where the tomatoes were, that will be beans and peas - and over in the onion bed, the spuds - and in February I will see the sprouts of garlic there - ok the spuds were there so that will be the squash next year and this bit here will go out and be root veg. Now where will I put the broccoli....
Gardening - 2 parts sweat, 7 parts weeds, 3 parts delicious home grown veg and 0.02 parts pure fantasy
-2c here this morning, there was actually a sheet of ice on the car. bbrrr
so yesterday it was down to the allotment to snatch up everything we could, which included a kilo or two of parsnips, two cabbages, the romanescos, a heap of big Brussel sprouts, all the first leeks and all the tiny carrots and beets that were still in the ground. I think I might have to put some veg in the freezer this week :-)
It is my first experience of seeing the garden over the winter, all the fruit bushes have lost their leaves and gone to sleep, the leaf mulch I spread out has started to decompose into the earth, as has all the other vegetation. The rhubarb has disappeared and the artichokes have sort of sprawled out as if they are kipping.
The compost bin had collapsed again, so I took the opportunity to dig over the compost before rebuilding the bin.
The water barrels are full of ice! that is quite a spectacular sight! luckily they are not sealed. Maybe it will kill any nasties in the water too. And just think, it is not even winter yet!!
Still I took a moment to look around and think, in the spring I will be digging all this up again, but keeping in mind that next year I am going to cover and mulch as much as possible. Because I have made so much effort not to walk on the beds, the earth is still soft and aerated. The things I dug up yesterday, I dug over a little to let the frost into the soil. And had a little moment to visualize in my head, ok where the tomatoes were, that will be beans and peas - and over in the onion bed, the spuds - and in February I will see the sprouts of garlic there - ok the spuds were there so that will be the squash next year and this bit here will go out and be root veg. Now where will I put the broccoli....
Gardening - 2 parts sweat, 7 parts weeds, 3 parts delicious home grown veg and 0.02 parts pure fantasy
Labels: autumn, cabbage, freezing, planning, romanesco, sprouts
# posted by antipodesgirl @ 10:45 AM 
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