I’ve been a little busy and the garden has been slightly neglected the last week or so. We’re still eating veggies from it most nights but I’ve been trying to turn a blind eye to the weeds, the funny black aphids and anything going to seed because once I start I know it’ll be a big job. I had a couple of hours between jobs this afternoon so thought I’d try and harvest anything that was ready but about to go past its best.
From top left clockwise….there are 4 smallish heads of Great Lakes lettuce, about 3 meals worth of broad beans that I will freeze, a few little strawberries that will be stolen by hubbie, two loose heads of cauliflower, I knew that they were ready but had another and a couple of heads of broccolli to go through first. I’ve heard that if you cut part way through the stem it will slow their growth so I’ll try this to stagger my harvest in my next lot, these two I’ll blanch and freeze. A mixture of radishes, some are small as they were grown in the shade of my bean and nasturtium teepees but they taste great, then a couple of rogue spuds that the puppy found while digging underneath the lettuces and a good meal of snow peas, some of the pods are amazingly long and some from my older plants have little peas inside which makes a nice contrast.
As the weather has picked up suddenly a few things have gone to seed, my rocket needs to be resown and my older fennel is trying to seed. I’d like to try and save some seed from it so will leave a couple of plants but will pull the others up in the next few days. A few weeks ago I felt as though I didnt have room in the garden for more veggies but as I’ve had this clear out there is plenty of room to plant some other things I guess that this is where the planning comes in! Although I’m tempted to just resow I need to remember to look after my soil so will spend a bit of time getting that right to make sure my next crop is a success.
Jobs for the next few days – tie my tomatoes, clear my early potato beds, replace rocket and half of mesculun bed, tie back last snow pea plants, plant corn seedlings, weed strawberries and plant out eggplant and capsicum.
Who has time to work? Happy Gardening.
That is a really nice basket of produce. It is nice that your dog helps out in the garden by digging up potatoes. Usually they dig up things they shouldn’t.
That is a nice haul!