I kid you not… clear sunny morning… absolutely gorgeous. I put on my gardening clothes and within 60 seconds I was being rained on!!!
So I went out anyway and soldiered on!!
I picked the jam melons from the dead vine and salvaged the seeds
If next season behaves itself I am hoping to grow a number of these – they sell well with the older generation on the market stalls
Mash, scraps and yogurt for the chooks – a couple of eggs in the nest today! Yay
Some of the garlic is shooting up nicely! Very pleased to see that!
Time to pick the remaining runner beans
There are a lot… (More seeds than I will need – hopefully give away/sell extras where I can)
The bean arch has broken down – sadly my beans never managed to grow up and over which was disappointing!
Really it was time to pull it all up so I can start again (time to browse pinterest for ideas I think!) and get rid of whatever weeds I could while the weather didn’t go completely feral!
I didn’t use any digging tools today.. just concentrated on what I could pull out by hand and in particular anything that was flowering or had seed heads
I got quite the pile of weeds!
I still need to get into the above garden with the fork and dig through it for twitch
A fair improvement but still a long way to go!
Jeff picked up a lot of newspaper from his work mate so I plan to line the paths with it and dump that seaweed onto it
Still getting nice handfuls of produce here and there!
Eventually I got too cold to stay out so had to quit, stock up on firewood and come inside and keep the fire company (and do photos and knit a bit!)
Hope everyone had a fabulous day!
Cheers
Hi. Love the blog. Look forward to it daily. Really missed it when you were in America. Have a suggestion for the bean arch. Here by us in South Africa we have a PVC pipe/conduit that they use for electrical wiring in houses. Its really inexpensive and has just the righ amount of bend in it to bend into a arch. I just drive 4 thin stakes firmly into the ground, about 1m apart in a square, and then slip the conduit over that. One end of the conduit over one stake and the other over another. Repeat with other two stakes and another length of conduit. Now you have two arches. I then use cattle fence of pea netting or something similar between the two arches as support for the beans. Works like a charm for me and hardly costs anything.
Hello! Thanks so much for your message!
I have used a type of pipe before similarly to throw netting over…. You are right – It would be good to do something easy and inexpensive. The last one was made from the branches we pruned off the apple tree and was fun but time consuming to put together. I knew it wouldn’t last forever.
I am looking forward to creating something new!
Great to know I have a reader from South Africa too! That’s super cool!! 🙂
Yes I saw your posts over on Mavis’ blog and although o loved following her vegetable gardening progress our seasons were swopped around, so was delighted when I discovered your blog as our seasons are similar. Think our climate is quite similar too, you might just be a bit wetter. And you have way more awesome hiking trails in your area than we do. Im envious. Have a good day.
Thanks Harry! Mavis has been so good to me, posting my stories and giving my blog a boost! Glad you are enjoying what I write about. I am really looking forward to spring when I can get my teeth into it again – and hike in warmer weather! Although I can do without the Arizona-Level hiking heat! 😀
I had never heard of a “jam melon”. That is interesting. I did a Google search on it to see all about it. Thank you for educating me about something new today!
It is raining in Tennessee. We have had rain at the perfect time this year and have not had to water anything. The blackberries are big, juicy, sweet and plentiful this year. We can hardly keep up with picking them and preserving them into jam or berries for cobblers later. I’ve never, ever seen as many blackberries as this year. And these are wild blackberries. The deer and turkeys are leaving them alone and my sister picks them almost every day. We have been richly blessed with blackberries and tomatoes and zucchini this year.
Hi Kathy!
I probably should have written a little more about the jam melon as I had never heard of it until I was given some seeds by a cousin a few years back (and recipes on how to make them into jam!!) 🙂 They are a bit of fun to grow as normally they go a bit crazy with no help from me.
This lot just appeared randomly in the front garden so I just let them do what they wanted
Lucky you! Rain at the perfect time!! Your blackberries sound divine!! I just pulled a container out of the freezer and made blackberry ice cream with it (I had mooleyed it to remove the seeds before freezing) and Jeff is really happy about that! 🙂
And you can’t go wrong with too many tomatoes and zucchinis!Yum! Each season acts a bit differently – you never know what is going to go totally mad or on the flip side, struggle – for whatever reason!
Really enjoy your daily posts here in Southern California. Thank you for all the tips and sharing your wonderful photography Love your Kitty too. I also have one named Suzy Q.
Had an art studio gallery for years but am retired now. Still drawing painting and occasionally teaching. Have done it all my life, don’t know how to stop. Haha!
Also have a vegetable garden that includes blackberries, strawberries and rhubarb but it is much smaller that yours. Looking forward to your next post.
Hello! Thank-you for your message!
I love the name Suzy Q for a cat!! Very cool!
What a lovely thing to have an art studio/gallery! I don’t think it would be possible to retire from something that is part of your essential make up! I can’t even draw realistic looking stick figures (haha – hence the camera) so I really admire those who can draw and paint!
Blackberries, strawberries & rhubarb?? Dessert time at your home must be divine!! I am already hanging out for spring – even though I haven’t done my ‘winter tasks’ yet! 🙂