Garden Treasures

 11 -14 April 2021

This is a very busy time of year in the garden, and one of our greatest pleasures is the walk around 'the grounds' every morning to see what treasures have sprung up overnight.

 

These little treasures are wavy-leaved monkey orchids.  I had their location marked with a ring of stones, as they are in the two new on-contour beds that are our embryonic forest garden.  When we dug in the swale paths, I made sure the orchid location was not swamped with earth (they are now in a little dip in one of the new beds).  Good to see they are thriving.

For once, I got the oregano harvest right.  The best time to cut is just before the flowers appear, as the plant essence is strongest then.  I have developed a technique where I swing the hedge trimmer over the whole bush, and then just collect up all the fallen stalks (which are left lying on the top) into a large paper carrier bag.  As they dry, the leaves fall off the stalks into the bag.  Clever, hey?

Houdini the chicken was at it again.  She spotted a new place where she could fly out of the enclosure and was happily pecking around in the long grass.  I would love to have the chickens out more often, but we would have to fence off large areas if we didn't want all our plantings eaten or scrabbled.

This is another one of the Moringa trees proving it has made it through the winter.  This one is now in its third year - although it has to start from scratch each year, but hopefully the roots are well established.

Some strawberries starting to show up.  Well straw-mulched, like the name says.

We did some planting out of the things we started in the solarium a few months ago.  This one is New Zealand spinach, also known as 'Captain Cook's Cabbage' which is an edible leafy veg that forms a good ground cover and doesn't mind a drought.  Planted in a cut bottle to dissuade slugs.

This one is Krambe Maritima, or sea kale.  Not looking very strong, but I hope it makes it.  A perennial kale.

Pink sky at night ...  Strangely enough, to the south, from the living room window.  Lovely colours.

A big golden bucket of diluted worm pee from the worm farm.  Full of nutrients and microbes to feed the soil.  A big job, carting buckets all round the garden, but well worth doing.

Somewhere to plant the sweet peas.  Dave made a tiny raised bed, just to give us somewhere to put in a bit of compost over the hard stony ground just here.

 Filled and planted, next to the trellis arch, for them to grow up, we hope.