The community garden was vandalised again on Wednesday night. This morning we spent a few hours digging up all the t-sections where the taps join the irrigation system. The fence was cut again, the shed broken into, plots and row covers generally pushed about and a few other silly things. Worst of all, in mindless wonderment our little vandals had fun pushing the taps too and fro. If this is done with enough enthusiasm, it breaks or cracks the join where the metal post on which the taps are placed screw into the t-joints in the irrigation pipes. The only way to assess the damage is to dig down and have a look. There are about 16 taps in the garden- so that's lots of digging.
Rather than angry I feel sad that these folks are so empty on the inside that it feels good to trash our meek little garden. Luckily the fruit trees were left alone. And obviously whoever it was didn't know the real value of fresh winter veggies......poor things.
In other news, I put another cost of gum turps/linseed oil on the bee box bits. Still a few more costs to go methinks.
And here are some shots from around the backyard.
Italian Parsley loving the cool weather.
Brave little China Flat Peach. This is a low chill variety - which didn't actually loose its leaves this year, and it about to flower already. It may be that it is just too cold here for this little one. This is however its first winter here in the ONC, so it may just need a year or two to adjust.
Chickens in the orchard. You can clearly see where the fences are around the tree trunks! The pitchfork is sitting the the compost filled hole awaiting the arrival of my three pear trees. Most of my plantings along this north facing fence line are duo or trio plantings (two or three varieties in the one hole). Notice the hessian avocado shanty. That little avocado is valiantly persevering with the cold weather.
The orchard from a slightly different view, plus ducks and duck pond (which needs cleaning!) The pink tree guard is guarding a goldmine peach.
And finally, there is no picture, but I am going to share with you my recipe for the quickest, yummiest, healthiest winter soup in the world:
SUPER GREEN SOUP
Ingredients:- About a half to one cup of green frozen peas
- A medium to large bunch of fresh English spinach (say three whole smallish plants)
- A desert spoon of miso or soy sauce.
- Bring peas to simmer/boil in saucepan with small about of water.
- When hot, add roughly chopped spinach
- Replace lid and leave for a few minutes for spinach to wilt.
- When wilted, add a dollop of miso or soy.
- Blend or wizz to make a smooth amazingly green soup.
- To serve, a drizzle of olive oil on top. Slivers of roasted peeled capsicums look great too.
Yum yum.
5 comments:
Oh that soup is so easy and yummy! Thank you.
I'm so sorry that your community garden was vandalised again. I honestly don't know why people do that. I can only think how awful their world must be that they think the only way to relieve it is to make the rest of the world awful too.
Your garden, as always, is looking fantastic! I am just about to get the courage to start my own garden now. I'll probably start doing it when the kids are back at school. Wish me luck!
Hi there Eilleen - the soup IS really yummy - I hope enjoy it as much as me.
How exciting re your garden - it is a great time to start thinking and preparing. If you need a hand, just yell!
Duckie
Hmmm. That's poop about the break in...it is sad, and they were probably just bored by the sounds of it. A lot of work to fix though.
I enjoyed your garden round up and can't get over how much you have growing. I'm going back outside to reinstate the tree barriers - the girls are now into deep excavation.
Wanted to ask you about the book from the previous post which I'm interested in getting - does it center around having green houses for growing during winter or is there more to it than that? We are such novices and this is our second winter where we just don't have anything really growing - there must be something we can put in, even just as green manure crops.
Nice to have you back.
Hi there Jacqui! What do you mean your garden always looks BEAUTIFUL! I bought two books by Eliot COleman (from amazonn) - one called the winter harvest and the other called four season harvest. They are both excellent! The four season one has lots of more general information about making compost etc - perhaps more suited for the home gardener whereas the winter harvest one is probably suited to both market gardeners and existing home gardeners who already know about those things....The whole winter thing is about right speicies, right varieties, optimum planting times, succession plantings. He uses both unheated poly tunnels big enough to walk into, and smaller single row poly tunnels, and floating row covers as well as having lots of things just growing in the open garden beds. I have always grown a few things over winter, but these books just take it to an whole new level!
Cheers
Duckie
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