Today is such a different day from yesterday. It is so hard to get your head around how different things can be in such a short space of time. Which was just as well it was a nice day as there was a lot going on today and very little of it was in the garden.
I was able to go out and have a quick look at the emergency measures put in place to hold up the peas seemed to have worked and will have to continue working until I can find the time to make permanent repairs.
It is also after a day like yesterday that I am so grateful I changed my tomato system. In the past I have used bamboo poles to hold them up – but as we saw yesterday they are no match for a strong wind and peas are one thing – but when your tomatoes go down – there are actual tears. Plants snap along with the poles that are supposed to be giving them support.
Then I used untreated wooden stakes that just loved all the deep watering I was giving my tomatoes and so they were as useful as a chocolate teapot when it came to a windy day as they had rotted below ground and snapped easier than the bamboo poles!
So this year it was heavy metal. I have metal warratahs or T-stakes deeply pounded into my soil and wire strung between them. The tomatoes have been tied to the wires along the length of the garden and aside from slipping a little along the wire in the wind there is absolutely no damage to the tomatoes at all. I feel a little smug right now – but I need to reign in any thoughts like that as it has been quite humid – when it isn’t windy – and we all know blight likes it humid. I need to keep a watchful eye over my garden.
It has been so warm and humid the lettuce has grown exponentially. It is probably four times bigger than it normally would be – if not more. Accepting defeat in the knowledge that there is no way I will ever be able to eat it all – and it’s not like you can freeze it for later – so in order not to waste them before they go to seed, I harvested a load to take to church and give away. There were six supermarket shopping bags FULL of lettuce, which was all gratefully received.
Oh and today is a great day – it is officially the first day of summer! The tumultuous weather of spring is well and truly behind us and I am looking forward to typical summer weather – all hot and sunny and lovely. I’m sure that’s how it goes – it’s been a year since we last had summer and I have a terrible memory.
Come again soon – irrigation is still on my mind.
Sarah the Gardener : o )
I remember your last summer and it seemed it was either totally boggy or frightfully dry. It’s the bane of farmers and gardeners–the weather. Why, even now, I note that your blog has snow! What’s up with that?
Hi there. Great remembering. Last year was the dry year as we had a huge drought – the worst since some record or other. I think the year before was the terribly wet one. So I guess we are due for a perfectly average one this year.
The snow is a nod to Christmas. Maybe festive lights would be more appropriate, however down here a lot of our Christmas imagery is snow, snowmen, sleighs, red breasted robins (we don’t even have these) and santa inappropriately dressed for the weather in a big thick fluffy suit, hat and boots! We even sing about dreaming of a white Christmas – in fact most of the carols are winter themed! We can even buy fake snow for our tree! It’s madness!
Cheers Sarah : o )
I’m missing my outdoor garden … I’m growing indoors because it is almost winter in my Ohio garden. Thank you for sharing this post!
HI Bren. I enjoy Northern Hemisphere gardens in my winter so I’m just returning the blessing.
I hope your winter isn’t too harsh.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Awesome lettuce! I am getting excited by veggies all over again and picked up an Egyptian walking onion and a perennial leek when I was down in Hobart on the weekend 🙂
HI Fran. That is the second time this week I have heard someone mention Egyptian walking onion – it must be trendy right now. I had a leek in the winter flower and then instead of going to seed like the rest, it grew little shoots and then it bowed down and rested on the soil and they all took root. But I didn’t have space for them at the time and definitely didn’t want as many as came up so I reluctantly pulled them out. Quite bizarre!
Cheers Sarah : o )
That is very strange indeed! This perennial leek does the same thing but just keeps on producing side leeks exponentially. You just pull them off and it grows more (apparently) and the Egyptian walking onion grows bulbs at the top of the foliage then bows down as they grow and get hefty and when it touches the ground it roots and starts again. Could be a most interesting garden plant let alone food. I am waiting (eagerly) to get some potato onions from a local source. I love me some weird and wonderful veggies. Most of the time the wallabies leave them alone but they LOVE onions and alliums and scoff them down to the base. This year there must have been enough food for them as the garlic underneath the mulberry tree was left alone and has been left to flower. I will collect the seed and start some from seed this year. I want the whole of Serendipity Farm to be covered with the stuff…it seems to grow really well in our conditions and aside from the odd wallaby scoff, nothing else touches it. The outside chook enclosure where we have a rooster that got almost killed by his brother and father (we call him “Wonky” as he now walks funny) and the hens that we manage to find before the feral cats eat their chicks is very sparce in vegetation. All that has survived in there are agapanthus (that they use for nesting in) and 2 stray garlic bulbs that almost look alien surrounded by bare scratched earth. You have to say that garlic is tenacious!
Oh those strawberries and lettuce look great, but that lemon balm is amazing. I have a nephew who welds rebar into stands for tomatoes. They are very spendy, but I think I may splurge for a few next year. Keep up the posts, love to see green while looking at the white out the window here.