Things have been so slow in the garden this week. Mostly because it has been raining. I am determined not to complain or bleat about this state of weather so I have gone out into the garden today and found some bright side stuff so I can feel good about my gardenless week.
It hasn’t been an entirely unproductive season – I have all these jars to find a home for in the cupboards. There is feijoa jam, cape gooseberry jam, quince jelly and pickled eggplant. This season I am using green lids on all of my preserves and last season I used gold ones. Next season I’ll order black ones. That way everyone knows to eat the gold ones first before starting on the green ones. That way we won’t end up with manky old jar at the back of the cupboard that no one knows what it is because the label had long since come off.
This is Apricot. She has been poorly so I have been looking after her, but now it is time to reintroduce her back to her friends in the coop. I hope she’ll be ok, chickens can be a little mean.
I’m about a month behind on my pea schedule. The plants in the garden should be giving us fresh peas by now but aren’t even flowering yet. These new Novella babies are more tolerant of the cold so hopeful it will be pea business as usual in spite of the delay.
The wheat seedlings are doing well in spite of being under the weed mat. So much for that suppressing growth of unwanteds. The seedlings are quite green but I don’t want them to go yellow for lack of sun, but there are still a lot of seeds to germinate and I don’t want the birds in there scratching about, so I might replace the weed mat with frost cloth until the plants are established well and of no interest to the birds.
I’m excited to see my mustard cover crop seedlings are germinating and they are such a pretty colour.
I’m sure next week will be better. I have an exciting project to get my teeth into – more on that later, a tree to plant and general potting about the place. I’m not even going to check the weather because the forecast is always changing so I am believing for sunny days.
Come again soon – any day in a garden is a good day.
Sarah the Gardener : o)
SARAH THE GARDENER 
What a great idea to use colored lids! You come up with the most creative, useful ideas. Thank you!
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Thank you so much. I got tired of everyone eating the new ones and then I ended up with unknowns in the back of the cupboard that no one wanted to eat! So got creative. : o)
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Love the idea if using different colored lids, so simple, but makes a big difference.
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It is the easiest way to get the family to use the oldest first. : o)
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How much wheat are you growing, Sarah?
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Hi Helen. At this point I have one bed of 1m x 5m with wheat and am hoping to do another couple of beds of 2m x 3m but they are still too wet after all the rain. : o)
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And what do you plan to do with the wheat?
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Hi Helen. I don’t grow it for the wheat itself – I grow it for the straw to use as a mulch. I get enough from that bed to mulch my strawberries. : o)
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That’s a brilliant idea, Sarah 😃.
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