Shortest day!

Yes indeed, now we're at the shortest day of the year things can only look upward thank goodness, though the weather gurus say the coldest weather will come in the next 4-6 weeks.
:(
The few frost we've had so far have made for stunningly beautiful days though of course.

Anyway, did the time honoured thing and planted another 50 or so garlic bulbs today, we should have a good crop come late-ish summer. The ones I planted a couple of weeks ago have almost all come up already, really nice to see, gives a feeling of growth in spite of the winteryness.


Also transplanted quite a few rocket seedlings into the warmest and sunniest spot.
The sprouts and broccoli are doing well, the cold mornings are just what they need to flourish.


Pruned the top 2/3 off a large lilly pilly tree today to keep it down to size and to also let quite a bit more sun into the back courtyard area. Looks a bit naked and ugly but it will soon sprout with new growth and look much more better. I am a totally spoilt gnome as I have a brand new step ladder (tall and sturdy) all to my self, as you can imagine that is a really useful tool for a height challenged individual such as myself.
:)

Garlic planting

Just planted 40 odd cloves of seed garlic in a well prepared bed of nice free draining soil with a good dose of granular thrive fertilizer. They need a good bunch of frosts to do well so the sooner the better I thought. I got clever and laid out a grid of unused stakes to make the planting nice and even and to deter cats from digging and pooing there.



Also picked a few of the beetroots to see how they were faring, not bad, a little small but just perfect for a small salad with feta cheese etc.



Took down the chilli plants today and harvested all the green and red ones off, hopefully the green ones will last a while, obviously the trick is to use them up first as the red ones will just dry up and can be used like that much later. One of the plants had been hit by frost and the peppers didn't seem to be maturing anymore.
Not a bad crop for small chillies, these tabasco ones are nice and hot and you only need a couple.
:)