Cabbage Time

It is Cabbage time at Our Place. No photos - only a lament that it has taken until this age to discover this way of preparing it:

Finely slice desired quantity of Cabbage.

Grate a Carrot or two.

Finely slice some bacon and lightly fry in a spot of oil in large saucepan (with available lid)

Throw in Cabbage, Carrot and a good pinch of Coriander Seeds, plus no more than a quarter of a cup of water.

Gently cook for about ten to fifteen minutes with lid on saucepan.

Eat!

Wonderful with mashed potatoes and sausages. Make a bit more of the spud and cabbage, and it makes a stunning bubble and squeak for brekkie.

Back from Hibernation

I've been hibernating over winter - except for looking after the Broad Beans and Onions.

Time to wake up, get the Green Manure in, get the Mulch on, and start planting.



The system I have now developed is that I only fork over my beds twice a year - once when I plant the green manure, and once when I dig it in. I now pull my green manure, dig a trench, cut the green manure into it (so it doesn't shoot again), and cover the trench. That is the second dig-over for the year. I then dig the next trench beside the last one.

It was only towards the end (not photographed), that I added some refinements:



Firstly, I jumped the fence (note the bag, it is barbed wire), and collected a few barrow-loads from the neighbours. This was added to the trenches with the manure.

And I discovered that if I put the soil from the first trench in the barrow, threw the soil from the second into the first, and used the barrow load to fill the last ....... it saved a heck of a lot of work!

The mulch is now on, the brew is cooking, and some seeds are in. Tommie seeds into punnets next!

Limes with Frost Bite?

This happened once before, a couple of years ago. I had a heavy crop of limes (seems to happen every second year), and all of a sudden they started to turn grey in patches and go rotten on the tree. I thought then it was some sort of fungal disease.

It has just happened again, and this time I have twigged. About a week ago there were a couple of very heavy frosts.

I think they have got frostbite. Even though there is no rhyme or reason for which part it gets - those in the centre of the tree are just as susceptible as those on the outside, sometimes it is around the stem, sometimes not.

They have been going up to the local cafe by the basket load, where there is a sign with "Free Limes" on it, and people take them home. Guess these ones are going in the compost.

The rest on the tree will be going out too - just I haven't had time to pick them all.

Has anyone else had this happen to them?

I'm Back

I'm back after my winter blogging break. Time to dig in the green manure, so time to get blogging.

After I wave to Alice. Hi Alice!

Time too, to introduce everyone to the new neighbours.

I came home one day a couple of weeks ago, and there they were.

Ever since then, they have been helping me prune the Lemon Tree. And I notice they are handily depositing manure in one spot (where they sit in the shade on frosty days and chew their cuds. And I thought sheep were stupid!). I will be jumping the fence soon with a bucket.

In the meantime, I have started work on the Winter Veggie Garden.

At the minute I am working on digging in Green Manure, and finalising compost tanks so I have somewhere for next season's pumpkins.

More Pumpkin photos

It was too much for me - here are two more photos, taken with time to position things a little better.

Total for the year - 46 pumpkins. There were 28 last year, and I thought that was good!

First Frost

First frost was the night of 30 April - so it just made it into that month. And it was a corker. That's the end of the pumpkins.

So I picked the last of them:

Hint to photographers - choose your shallowest barrow - it makes it look much more impressive.

Change of Seasons

It definitely is the change of season time. Today I dug out a whole heap of tomatoes that were not ripening, and gave the lot away to pickles makers.

This is what Bed #1 looks like now:

This is what it looked like in December - before I had exactly worked out my photo naming system, so I am unsure of the date (I edit pics and lose the date taken)

There is one thing this has taught me, for sure. It is that I need to stand at the same place (ie a set place each end) and take the same photograph, month by month. Even now, I cannot believe how much there was in this garden in December and January.

Tree Onions all Gone

The Tree Onion bulblets for this year have all gone. My Beloved wanted to try pickling some (in Beetroot Juice), as cocktail onions. He didn't like them, but it considerably reduced the number I had available.

If you would like some next year, you can register with me by e-mail and you will be top of the list for the next lot.