Child of the Planet

The zucchini and cucumber are drinking up the sun and rain and are fruiting like mad. As a response to the explosion, I’ve made piccalilli for the first time. The idea to make this condiment came to me after I had decided I was bored with making zucchini fritters, zucchini omelette, zucchini chips, zucchini crustless quiche, etc. The numbers of bottled cucumbers were advancing across the shelf so I needed a new spin.  There is a half full jar of the commercial piccalilli sitting in the fridge. Maybe like mayonnaise, I can rid myself of another store bought product? I harvested a large zuc that was making the bolt to marrow status, clipped a couple of cucumbers, and found a few capcicums that had survived the catapillers.    After the storms we had this month, I noticed several posts on Facebook from people who had lost tomato plants, and now had a heap of green tomatoes that they had to dispose of. For my part, I've lost a couple of plants to stem rot. ...

A few years back I started out with a compost pile out in the front garden. It's job was to feed the new raised gardens I had installed. It was almost two by two by two meters square and the photo on the right is it’s remains. The spot where it lived (it was literally alive) is going to be a third raised bed, so I started a new compost heap. This is perched on the top of a slope where the backyard gently falls into the neighbours property. Friends who can’t compost and a local gardener drop off their green waste at my place and I incorporated this material into the heap. As green waste rolled in this became two, and a third started to form between a couple of the apple trees. These mounds proved to be inconvenient when I decided to plant a windbreak of akie akie along the fence. This corner of the yard is getting a bit crowded. When I uncovered an old feed bag I had stored in the wood shed, I thought that it was time to build something a bit more permanent and tidy. ...

This week it rained! Well ok... it was super moist! Anyway. A heavy ‘mist sort of rain’ coated everything outside with a glistening film of water. It didn’t look like the weather was going to dump anything heavier so I planted out the saffron. A couple weeks back I had dug a hole almost a meter deep and filled it with well matured horse shit. Into that I dropped handfuls of seaweed and comfrey and chopped them all through the horse manure. Shoveled in a layer of compost to bring the level up to about fifteen centimeters (reading from the packet insructions). Lined up the saffron corms ten centermeters apart (also from packet). Filled everything in with crumbly compost mix leaving plenty of room for expanding the crop if they thrive Laid some mulch over the top to keep the water in and then some fence wire to keep the little buggers out.

A few weeks back a mate dumped a load of bamboo at my place  (detailed here) . Having to clear this pile inspired me to create some gym apparatus for the plants in one of the raised gardens. Cucumbers have a standing mesh to climb. I find that I’m spending a lot of time grooming this burgeoning wall o leaves. Possibly more time then I spend clipping and preening the tomatoes. I haven't had many cucumbers so fat this year so I’m thinking that the plants are putting all their energies into climbing? The Cape gooseberry had some fruit on it when I purchased it from the nursery and those are starting to ripen. After planting it, I was advised to pinch off the tops of the few spindly canes to improve bulk. The plant seems to be filling out now. The two ‘spires’ I constructed now have peas clinging to the base. I’ve lost a few plants from lack of watering. I’m watching the ones that are left closely. The beans are just starting to reach for the p...