Easter/ANZAC

A rainy 4 days holiday, very pleasant and a bit lazy. :)
Managed to do a few things around the garden during fine patches though.
Pulled out the green beans, they looked blotchy on the leaves and weren't flowering anymore. Still got quite a few beans from them when I stripped them down.
The leeks have very much survived their strange planting and are thriving, some of the holes have filled in already as the gutters were overflowing onto them. I was on the roof the next morning risking life and limb clearing the gutters with a small spade and bucket.
Now that the broccoli are under their cosy nets they are getting to be strong healthy, non holey specimens. The onions are looking pretty



Picked a couple more huge red peppers, not too sure whether the rest will get to turn red. We don't use green ones much.

The forest pansy is looking lovely in it's autumn coat, three leaves on the grass...

Leeking away for winter

A very wet Saturday led to a surprisingly lovely sunny Sunday. We even had old and lovely friends visiting for the morning leaving much of the afternoon free for a good old fossic in the garden. As you do.

The leek seedlings that have been loved and tended on a daily basis finally had their moment of glory today. I prepared their bed with a couple of buckets of manure and raked it flat and tamped it down firmly with the flat face of the rake. I used a piece of an old broom handle as a dibbing stick, about 3-4cm thick with a ring of tape 15cm up the stick to indicate ideal depth. I left about 15cm between the holes, I also gave the stick a good round and round motion in the hole to firm up the sides (It also makes the stick easier to remove).

My dibbing stick on the right



Then the individual seedlings are dropped into the hole. Don't fill the hole in, simply water gently and bits of soil fall down to cover the roots and as the leeks grow the holes slowly fill up.



This allows the root system to start well below soil level and eventually you will end up with wonderful large long white leeks! We hope!
I planted 35 today. Made a netting cover to stop certain cats from prancing all over them. :)



Picked heaps of green and yellow beans and the chilli plants are still producing well, though leaving a red one on a day or two too long and they split and try to get their seeds out and about. I may leave some to do just that. As long as I can recognize the seedlings in spring for what they actually are. The broccoli seedlings are now rapidly growing and the netting has been great at keeping them caterpillar free.



The red capsicums are huge we have to make effort to use them, one made for two very red pepper pizzas Friday night!
Yum.

And of course we are up to our armpits in feijoas!

The end of the line for the tomatoes...

Yes, the end is nigh, in fact it's been. The poor old plants were looking pretty terrible, scrawny sticks with green and orange things hanging from them.



So out they all came, still got a nice bucketful of fruit for another batch of chutney or passata.



Haven't done too badly with the tomatoes this year, they certainly weren't pretty but we got a reasonable amount.
Here are our wonderful sauces and chutneys so far

passata


Jamie Oliver's ketchup


And more of Pauline's most delicious hot chutney


Also pulled three of the basil plants just leaving one huge one, they grew so large and bountiful this year, it was lovely to brush through them to get the lovely smell in the air and over yourself. Very end of summery!

Was given a lovely grey pumpkin on Friday, just had to take a photo of it's tendril...



Planted out seedlings of beetroot and more rocket and half a dozen new lettuce. Gave them all nice little tents of white butterfly proof netting so they may survive the onslaught. Trimmed the ivy hedge and mowed the lawns, not bad for a weekend!
:)