Pushing up the daisies

A long weekend - the perfect excuse to do things in the garden.
On Saturday there were friends coming to eat so I was actually able to harvest enough to make a nice steamed veggie combo, which everyone thought tasted "garden fresh". We ate a mixture of shredded cabbage, carrots (not mine), green beans, fresh peas, red onions and courgettes.
And salad with lettuce, thinly sliced raw fennel, and red onions from the garden too.
Monday, public holiday (thank you to all those revolutionaries that stormed the Bastille some time ago). Time to dig...
I harvested all the yellow onions, the remaining red onions and the echalote. I was quite pleased with the latter, they are healthy and well formed, perhaps some are a little small. But nice fragrance. The onions are again a little small, I think I will try seeds next year... I asked my neighbour who has massive onions, how she did it, she said she bought sets and did nothing special!!! well maybe just luck then. The onions are now in a wooden box on the window sill drying out.
In place of the red onions I put the sprouts which are really big and healthy, and a few smooth head cabbages that I bought as plants. Very pleased with my brassica seed efforts, all the red cabbage, broccoli and sprouts look terrific. Much cheaper than plants too! In the place of the yellow onions, I put the rest of the bought cabbages and I sowed some autumn spinach.
While I dug up the onions I also dug up about 1 and a half kilos of spuds that were volunteers!! bonus harvest! They were red ones, probably got more there than from the harvest last year :-)
Then ran around the other side, lifted the tarp and dug over the ground, a doddle, it was damp and crumbly, and only had bindweed. However I have found that when covered, the bindweed becomes very white, and its roots consolidate underground which curiously makes it easier to rip up. It will keep coming back but that gives me a head start. I dies off in a few weeks' time anyway. In that place I planted 60 leeks, grown from seed. De Carentan, winter leeks.
Just enough space now to sow a few more green beans and the garden will be full for the cooler season!
Most of the rest is doing well, especially the three sisters, I have a few pumpkins developing, I put a little straw under them to protect their little botties and the beans and corn are splendid - the corn is about 120 cm high but is already developing bearded bits! which I think means cobs will soon follow. That is definitely a good idea, I will do that again next year! and since that area was heavily manured this year, I think it will make a splendid patch for the alliums at the end of the season.
I wil try to post some more close ups soon, now that it looks relatively tidy :-) The little celery plants, the red chard, the fresh rows of tiny bean plants, all look so cute and so edible...

Labels: cabbage, echalote, harvest, leeks, onions, red onion, spinach, sprouts, summer