Bonjour all,
After glorious spring weather with temperatures up in the mid 20's, thank goodness today we have rain. I say that for selfish reasons as it means I won't have to go out and water my newly planted potager/vegetable garden. I've abandoned my fears and decided to learn by my mistakes, because let's face it, it is how I have lived my life to date and by and large I don't have any complaints.
So with a fat wallet in hand, (this gardening/self-sufficiency mallarchy hardly comes cheap), I took myself off in search of products that would make my mouth water and belly rumble. When I mentioned to someone in passing yesterday that I have planted my tomatoes they were shocked because apparently they shouldn't be planted until the end of April but the way I looked at it is, if they are in the shops, they then it must be planting season. So throwing caution to the wind I jumped in feet first and filled my potager and some.
The gardener planted green beans, sweet peas and winter lettuce at the end of last year which have grown a treat so my first job was to weed out the potager and stake the beans/peas. As this area doubles up as the perfect drying area for sheets, the rough patch on the right is supposed to be there, I didn't forget it!
After all the focus on the house interior, I have finally started to reclaim the garden. We have 35 olive trees which have not been pruned for 6 years so this was slated as the first job of the year and as we come to the end of this monsterous task, I found myself with an amazing amount of stakes and mulch. As you can see from the picture above, I have put some of the stakes to good use. If I ever find myself with some time, I wouldn't mind trying my hand at making a fence with the rest.
So as of today, these are the babies I will nurture and grow over the next few months;
- Green Beans
- Peas
- Winter Salad
- 3 types of potato
- Celery
- Broccoli
- Tomato's - cherry, beef, zebra
- Red Pepper
- Green and Red Chillies
- Blueberry
- Raspberry
- Strawberry
- Herbs; Parsley, Corriander, Chives, Mint, Rosemary, Oregano, Sage
Impressed? Gosh I am, infact I'm wondering if I need to buy a freezer. It is without a doubt cheaper to pop down to the supermarket and buy your produce but there is no way it tastes the same as home grown crops plus, I know the soil it has been grown in and that it is totally organic. Last night we finished the last jar of pasta sauce made from last year's tomato crop, it was so delicious that I will definately be making some more to see us through the coming winter. Remember these pictures?
The gardener nearly had a heart attack when he saw how many plants I had bought and started to express his concern that we didn't have enough space. I agree that our vegetable plots are bursting but we do have a sizeable garden with plenty of flower beds so I made the call to utilize as much space as needed. As far as I am concerned a garden is a garden and I am happy to mix my garlic and onions in with flowers so that is exactly what I did. This is the barren spot where I added garlic and onions to my list of ever expanding produce. Did you know when you plant garlic you just break off a clove? Don't do what I first did which was plant the whole bulb - what? it was a first for me and after my friend google put me straight I dug it up and did the job properly!
I'm so hooked on tending my garden now that I find myself looking forward to popping over to take a look on a daily basis to see if anything needs attention and of course the growth progress!
You will be the first to know when I have success.
MamaB
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