This past week "Veggie World" in the backyard here at Struan Farm experienced a major clean up. I needed to get the troughs and beds prepped for spring and summer planting, and pull out winter veggies that have done their dash. Quite a bit of weeding happened.
Right now the peas are flowering profusely, and the broad beans flowering and growing visibly each day. They know they're on notice to be replaced in late October by seedling tomato plants and corn seed. The peas seem to have read that memo a bit more thoroughly than the broad beans. Garlic and shallots are growing away, have settled in for harvest in December.
There are carrots and silverbeet back by the water tank that we'll be using over the next few weeks, along with wooden planters of kale, rocket and lettuce leftover from winter in the glasshouse on their last gasp. I've already planted coriander, dill, radish, spring onion and edible flower seeds, since they're able to cope with colder temps, along with large plastic planters with "chicken greens" to carry out to Chook World for the hens. We've got a corner of that paddock fenced off to plant them a proper field of "chicken greens;" we'll see if this works or if they'll crash the party and jump the fence in anticipation.
I'm also prepping part of a bed for kumara, after reading that Maori used ash and sand to help them grow. You will think I'm being a bit optimistic on the kumara front, since my mothers have yet to send any sprouts out from their warm, damp, sandy haven in the glasshouse. Yes, hope springs eternal with Karen, at least when it comes to vegetables!
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