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| counting the millimetres of rain so far = too hard basket |
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| Northern end of the Mandala Garden |
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| Southern end of the Mandala Garden |
Here we are in the middle of August, after a particularly wet first seven months of being 'home'. Not that I'd know for sure, as I've found the extra little job of dashing out in the morning to read and empty the rain meter just one thing too much and definitely sitting in the too hard basket at the moment. I'm relying on the local farmers who tell us this is the wettest they've found the area to be. Which has a bright side - if this is the wettest, surely, it can only get drier from here...?
The hens are still sitting on the bed just next to the one they started on back in February, patiently awaiting their relocation...maybe tomorrow?
To their right is 'the state of it all', in general - wet, sodden, puggy, dense, slightly smelly, clumpy and not terribly bad, just not the wonderful airy, loamy, worm-filled, crumbly, nutrient-rich, mulch-covered magical garden beds I'd been wishing for!
Each one is needing to be left as long as possible before planting into - just so wet and heavy. The idea for planting into this system is for immediate transplant of super-sized seedlings in individual bottomless pots, so they would have a head-start and minimal transplant shock - well, this season that is just not happening!
Having said that - here are some lovely-looking photos (partly because they are taken on a sunny day and I've only let you really see what I want you to see (HA!)) of what has been a success over the past few months.
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| triple-curled parsley |
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| Gigante Italian Parsley |
Of our greens, the lighter-leafed plants have fared better - so both types of
parsley - the
Gigante Italian and the
Triple Curled are striding along very fervently at the moment.
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| coriander |
Coriander is doing well and has done all through the Winter - and it was 'Indian Summer', a few seedlings planted at the last of Summer.
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| tatsoi + bumblebee |
Tatsoi has pumped along, looking beautiful in its pleasing posy form - here a fat Bombus bombus (Bumblebee) is enjoying sitting atop the sunny Tatsoi flowers.
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| celery |
The celery, although a bit slow, has been one of those marvels - I
grew it myself! - I hear myself saying to myself out there in the
garden.
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| swede |
And, although
swede and
turnips may not be
everyone's cup of tea - we have grown plenty of these, swelling to very
decent sizes with all the rain, and our favourite recipe has been the
'Turnip Soup Italien', which seems a world away from boiled veg!
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| broadbeans |
We have some very nice-looking broadbeans, standing to attention.
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| garlic |
Garlic is in and all looking like it is surviving quite well, so I'm very happy with that, too!
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| Oats waving lushly in the sunshine |
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| Spring is around the corner... |
Overall, given the very poor levels of sunshine and huge quantities of rain, consistent throughout the Winter, we've still managed to grow food and feed the hens and ourselves - I for one am certainly not suffering a lack of food!
Each sunny day is a gift we relish at the moment and a day closer to the real warmth and vigour of Spring - it feels as if it is only a sniff away at the moment...when the ladybirds get busy like this...Spring is definitely in the air...
How is your garden?
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