Assessing The 'Old Garden' - Lots to Do Before We Move!
I feel like I should be posting this for the Hive Garden Garden Journal Challlenge, where we all write about our gardens at the beginning of the month. However, I was in my garden today, feeling a little sad that I'll be leaving this space after working so hard to make it function well, with the soil as good as it can be. Besides, I'm kinda excited about showing you the new place, which is a blank slate and ripe for making our own.
Anyway, back to the old garden. The purple kale variety is gorgeous this year. I read that the colder weather brings out the colour and the taste. I'll be letting these go to seed to plant at the new place for sure!
About two weeks before we decided to move, I planted a cherry with two varieties grafted onto rootstock, and a nashi. I dug them up and put them into pots ready for the new place - no way am I leaving them, I'm leaving enough!
Meanwhile, the other fruit trees are all bursting into flower - this is a plum. The new owners, whoever they might be, are literally going to enjoy the fruits of my labour! I won't have much room at the new place so will have to choose carefully, and will likely espalier along the fence.
I'll also be collecting seeds from this gorgeous broad bean - how amazing is the colour! Just stunning.
Walking around the garden this week I've realised just how much seed I'll need to collect in the next few months! I really love the freckled lettuce that comes up every year. I do like to grow a variety of lettuce. I'm still planting the bottoms of spring onions as they grow so fast and there's time for another crop. I always do ends of bunches rather than seeds.
This year I grew some yellow beet instead of red, which I do have regrets about, but I thought I'd try something different. I keep thinking it's chard but it's definitely beetroot! Early in the year I pickled some ordinary beetroot with herbs, garlic and a bit of chilli - beetroot with a little kick is AMAZING and I'll be definitely doing that again!
Coriander - heaps this year. I scatter the seeds so it grows everywhere and I collect the seeds. It's such a pretty flower as well. Ah, that reminds me I'll also need to collect the seeds of calendula flowers.
The snow peas are about to give some pods, but I'm the only one that eats them. They just look so good and I wanted the vendor to see the potential in the garden. I'm generous enough to keep planting even if I wont be around and I'd appreciate it if someone did the same for me.
Jamie doesn't eat broccoli either, so I choose the sprouting variety and stir fry it separately with ginger and lemon to add to my noodles. I chose the sprouting variety so that I can cut what I need and the rest will sprout up ready for another day, rather than big heads I can't get through.
Last but not least, the native garden. There's a few natives I've planted recently I'm going to dig up and put in pots, but most I'll leave because I'm not a miser. I'm really hoping someone will love the place as much as we do. I think we'll take the three standing stones though - they were a nod to where we'd lived in England and I can imagine them in the front garden of the new place. I don't think they'd miss them and there's plenty of other stones and garden features to keep them happy. I haven't told Jamie yet - I don't know how his back is going to hold out as we move in the next few months.
I've also consolidated the worm farm so I have one and sold the other, and I've put one lot of compost into tubs and buckets ready to take down to the new place (again, poor Jamie's back). I'm going to get some big feed bags to put the chicken manure and straw in that's been their deep litter all winter, ready for the new compost and garden beds. There's a lot of thinking to do to get a garden started well.
With Love,
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He doesn't eat broc? There is something seriously wrong with that man. I love to eat the broccoli stalk. Cut it up, stirfry it, delicious. All of the broc is.
So many things in this garden of yours. My chilli plants just need to somehow survive this week, then they would have survived the worst of winter. One is definitely gonna make it, one is looking sketchy, and the other two ... are not well, either.
Still, a 25% survival rate is probably pretty good considering I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing :P
We also have spring onion growing in the garden, but that's from onions that we got at the shops we didn't use "in time", so I just planted them. They're flourishing, and I have a practically infinite supply of it.
If you ever get bored of your own garden, you can come and do mine, but there's a bit of a trek.
Ha yes well it makes his stomach hurt! There's a good Hare Krishna recipe where you use grated veg for the veggie kofte and I used to save the broccoli stalks for that! So good.
Hope your chilli makes it .. mine would annoyingly die just before weather ☁️ got warmer! Bastards.
We're due to have some torrential rain over the next two or so days, and some potential SNOW in the Mount Lofty ranges... we're too low for that, but there will probably be a final frost before winter relents.
I still have 4KG+ of chilli in the freezer, anyway, so I'm not incredibly concerned if they don't make it through.
Jamie sounds like the four year old in our family who doesn't eat broccoli. Actually he doesn't eat any greens, so Jamie is doing much better 😄
I love the standing stone, such an interesting and unique feature. How to does it relate to your time here? How deep down does it go in the ground?
We always used to go find standing stones, not just Avebury but stone henges all over south West. Jamie's sister was an archaeologist so we spent a lot of time talking about Ancient Britain. So a henge in our garden was a must.
Haha yes he actually gets a stomach ache from it so I'll forgive him!
Can you have chickens at the new place?
Yes, up to 12, no roosters! I will keep it at six.
Cool!
I love how you carefully planning to bring seeds, trees and memories to your new place, it's truly inspiring. 🌿
Oh that's sad, I've experienced that too...starting again and months of waiting to harvest.
I'm excited for you!
I have to admit I don't broccoli, or its evil cousin, cauliflower, but I do admire their nutritional properties :D
Moving a garden is a lot of work and will make that back hurt a lot, especially with those stones 😅 But I get the sentiment attached. It's not easy to leave those things behind.
My garden is quite small, most of it is used by kids as a playing field when they visit the restaurant. I fenced off a little part where I grow a thing or two, some chili, beans, peas and most recently dill (I noticed some in your picture). I was very happy to come back from the coast and see that the dill seeds had worked wonderfully, there are little plants shooting up everywhere now. I hope they all make it, so I can get some serious dill pickle production going.
Most of the garden is green and flowers now. It was barren when I moved into this house, and I really like how it has evolved. The owner once came and was very happy about everything I did to the place (his sister manages the property, he lives in Spain). That was encouraging, too.
Good luck with the seeds and moving the garden! I hope it all goes perfectly!
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It’s such a beautiful balance, leaving behind a garden full of memories while carrying forward the best parts to start fresh.