Full of advice and wonderful quotes!
"The best place to seek God is in the Garden. You can dig for him there."
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
" Life begins the day you start a Garden" Chinese Proverb
Happy gardening / reading
Tuesday 29 November 2011
Just Because!
While out shopping for presents (i tend to give what i would like) i couldn't resist buying this for myself.
Full of advice and wonderful quotes!
"The best place to seek God is in the Garden. You can dig for him there."
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
" Life begins the day you start a Garden" Chinese Proverb
Happy gardening / reading
Full of advice and wonderful quotes!
"The best place to seek God is in the Garden. You can dig for him there."
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
" Life begins the day you start a Garden" Chinese Proverb
Happy gardening / reading
Monday 21 November 2011
GARLIC HARVEST
Garlic is my favorite of all vegetables and fruit to grow.
I enjoy every aspect of growing it , getting the soil ready for planting , dividing the cloves and pushing them into the soil.
Seeing the first shoots break through, watching them grow, standing tall with early morning frost.
Waiting for the perfect conditions to harvest and then spending the day pulling, laying them out to dry and then hanging bunches to dry.
The Girls Help
I first grew just small amount from cloves given to me by a friend but soon realised if i wanted to have enough to last a year and some to give away i needed to get serious.
In 2007 I brought Heronswood certified organic cloves of different varieties to see which would grow and taste the best.
Soft Pink , Oriental purple, NZ varieties white and purple.
New shoots
My first harvest, was very successful and i was able to keep cloves(stored hanging up in a dark shed) for the following years planting.
Unfortunately over the years i have forgotten which garlic is which, i still have purple and white and they both grow well.
I have found the best conditions to harvest is late November after a couple of dry/windy days and on a day which is going to be warm and sunny but not too hot.
I pull them in the morning, shake off any excess soil and then lay out to dry in the sun, later in the afternoon I hang them in bunches in the shed and when i have time i plait up some for Xmas presents for friends and family.
This year, Sunday 20th was perfect to harvest.
First meal with newly harvested garlic was potato pieces, whole garlic cloves roasted in olive oil and fresh rosemary.
What's your favorite meal with garlic?
Hey there's lots of harvesting over at Daphne's Dandelions why not take a peek!!!!
I enjoy every aspect of growing it , getting the soil ready for planting , dividing the cloves and pushing them into the soil.
Seeing the first shoots break through, watching them grow, standing tall with early morning frost.
Waiting for the perfect conditions to harvest and then spending the day pulling, laying them out to dry and then hanging bunches to dry.
I first grew just small amount from cloves given to me by a friend but soon realised if i wanted to have enough to last a year and some to give away i needed to get serious.
In 2007 I brought Heronswood certified organic cloves of different varieties to see which would grow and taste the best.
Soft Pink , Oriental purple, NZ varieties white and purple.
My first harvest, was very successful and i was able to keep cloves(stored hanging up in a dark shed) for the following years planting.
Unfortunately over the years i have forgotten which garlic is which, i still have purple and white and they both grow well.
I have found the best conditions to harvest is late November after a couple of dry/windy days and on a day which is going to be warm and sunny but not too hot.
I pull them in the morning, shake off any excess soil and then lay out to dry in the sun, later in the afternoon I hang them in bunches in the shed and when i have time i plait up some for Xmas presents for friends and family.
This year, Sunday 20th was perfect to harvest.
First meal with newly harvested garlic was potato pieces, whole garlic cloves roasted in olive oil and fresh rosemary.
What's your favorite meal with garlic?
Hey there's lots of harvesting over at Daphne's Dandelions why not take a peek!!!!
Wednesday 16 November 2011
Thursday 10 November 2011
7 week Challenge
Well here it goes............. Finish "THE" Stone Wall around the Veggie Garden.
In one of my earlier posts I spoke about finishing projects one of which I started 6 years ago! well you can't rush things if you want a good job done I've been telling myself !!
So this last week I have started , firstly with some photos so you can see all the hard work and sweat that's going on.
Why i planted this horrible wormwood I'll never know but it had to go so you can actually see the wall.
Lots of hard work swinging the maddock until i realised i could just use my body weight and jump on the branches and they easily broke, hey I'm not that big !!
Now you can see the wall and rocks (1 wheelbarrow load) collected from around the rocky paddocks.
My kind husband helped me collect a 1/2 ute load and I'm on my way................
I did consult a few books before starting but mostly followed the way they existing walls on the property have been constructed. Large rocks form the base then rocks are overlapped and placed slightly leaning in towards center lots of little rocks are used to fill in center and any other holes.
Did you notice the mini horse in the background sneaking some of my lucerne mulch which is for the garden?
This is one side of the wall
The other two sides of the veggie garden fence will stay as they are, part of the original chicken wire fence.
In one of my earlier posts I spoke about finishing projects one of which I started 6 years ago! well you can't rush things if you want a good job done I've been telling myself !!
So this last week I have started , firstly with some photos so you can see all the hard work and sweat that's going on.
Why i planted this horrible wormwood I'll never know but it had to go so you can actually see the wall.
Lots of hard work swinging the maddock until i realised i could just use my body weight and jump on the branches and they easily broke, hey I'm not that big !!
Now you can see the wall and rocks (1 wheelbarrow load) collected from around the rocky paddocks.
My kind husband helped me collect a 1/2 ute load and I'm on my way................
I did consult a few books before starting but mostly followed the way they existing walls on the property have been constructed. Large rocks form the base then rocks are overlapped and placed slightly leaning in towards center lots of little rocks are used to fill in center and any other holes.
Did you notice the mini horse in the background sneaking some of my lucerne mulch which is for the garden?
This is one side of the wall
And this is the other side and as you can see there is a lot more rocks to be collected, any offers of help?? those who need their finger nails need not apply!!!
The other two sides of the veggie garden fence will stay as they are, part of the original chicken wire fence.
Sunday 6 November 2011
My Place and Yours.
Joining with Vic at My Place and Yours for this weeks meme "My favorite Piece of Clothing".
Only brought these last week but just love wearing them whilst in the garden!
I do have quite a selection of gardening footwear, gumboots with green frogs, black gumboots and pull-on safety boots for the heavy work.
I keep these by the back door so i can just slip them on for my early morning walks around the garden with my cup tea/toast. No more dirty slippers as i usually end up digging away in the garden!!!
They are very comfy and clean up with a quick hose down .
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