It was a fine morning today at the allotment. Early mornings are a bit nippy but once the sun is up the days are really lovely at the moment. I started off with a jumper but soon hung that over my sweet-pea frame and worked in my T-shirt.
I spent quite a bit of time there yesterday watering, harvesting and drinking tea. Thank you Zu for sharing the dinky little chocolate muffins. Delicious. Then I picked a few flowers and herbs to make a herb posy. Judith, a talented florist, put it all together for me. The big leaves are Lemon Myrtle which makes a nice tea if you add them to a cup of boiling water.
A herb posy
You can see the curly parsley, and the dark leaf poking up at the back is a fancy basil, not sure what it’s called.
A side view
So all that was left to do today was to give my veggies a liquid feed and get the camera out. I fiddled about with the settings to try for some ‘artistic’ shots. I was quite pleased with some of the results as I tried to capture drops of water on the leaves. Bare in mind I took nearly a hundred, how the time flies, so there are a lot on the cutting room floor.
Lettuce, too pretty to eat
More pretty lettuce
Still more pretty lettuce
Some of my lush parsley
Beetroot
Young silverbeet with a new row of curly parsley. I can never have too much parsley.
Staggered planting. My follow-on lettuce crop
My vegetables are looking really healthy at the moment which is very satisfying. However, I know there are some caterpillars just waiting in the wings ready to take centre stage. But for now I’ll just bask in my success.
Happy gardening.
May 27, 2013 @ 19:40:19
Gorgeous flowers and veg, Jean! How early were you working at the lottie? It must be so peaceful to be there in the morning 🙂
May 28, 2013 @ 06:51:47
Thank you for your comment Tanya. It was a beautiful morning. I didn’t arrive until 9:30am as I had arranged to meet a friend for coffee beforehand. In the summer I am happy to turn up at the farm at 6am when the sun is well up and before the real heat of the day, but during these cooler months it’s very pleasant from 9am and you can work away in the garden as long as you like without getting exhausted with the heat. It is very peaceful in the morning but there is always someone else turning up to do a bit in their ‘lottie’ which is nice and companiable. (Is that a real word?)
May 28, 2013 @ 04:42:33
Hi Jean from us 2 girls near Hever Castle in Kent where we have spent the day looking around their fabulous gardens. Say hello to Judith and Zu. Di is is finding it a bit cold at 11 secs. Off to Chartwell’s gardens tomorrow. Do and Beth
May 28, 2013 @ 06:04:40
Di and Beth. Well hello you two girls over in Blighty. Delighted that Di arrived safely, Tell her to put her Long John’s on! I will say hello to Judith and Zu for you. Caught up with Judith and Zu at the allotment on Sunday afternoon. Zu and I went for a coffee Monday morning at the usual place Riding Road. We miss you but pleased you are having a good time Di. I am very envious of you both visiting Hever Castle and now off to Chartwell’s gardens tomorrow (your time). Lots of love to you both. Now you keep out of trouble won’t you. Ha ha.
May 28, 2013 @ 06:29:54
I just read a post from AfricanAussie about how bacterial wilt had killed just about all of her veggies and she lives in Queensland. I always had extreme jealousy of you guys and thought that you could grow any and everything up there. Here we struggle to get enough daylight hours to ripen our veggies before the frosts come and I figured that everything was tropical fruity hunky dory up there. I forgot about fungal things loving the combination of heat and moisture. My own garden fell prey to powdery mildew this year thanks to the hot dry conditions that we suffered and I just left it to the mould ladybirds to get stuck in…someone may as well get the benefits of all that mildew! ;). I love your gorgeous veggies Jean and its full on winter planting (leeks, broad beans and garlic) down here on Serendipity Farm! You wouldn’t think we lived in the same country would you?
May 28, 2013 @ 07:01:44
Hi Fran. No, you wouldn’t think we lived in the same country. I hadn’t heard about that bacterial wilt outbreak in Queensland, sorry to hear it. I find it hard to do any good in the garden during our summer months, darn hot and humid and a playground for bugs and diseases, but we do have a wonderful growing season from April to October here. We are now in the best time of the year and it’s a wonderful time to be in the garden. I love to be over at the allotment just fiddling about, weeding, a bit of watering, liquid feeding and generally nurturing my veggies. Sorry to hear about your powdery mildew. That’s a bummer. We get plenty of that up here in the summer. I have almost given up trying to grow zucchini as they seem so prone to the problem. Pleased to hear that you are now well into your winter planting down at Serendipity Farm. Keep those critters out of it!
May 28, 2013 @ 10:33:40
We are in the process of building a MASSIVE big fully enclosed veggie garden Jean. It’s about as big as a tennis court with plans to make it even bigger next year and a fully enclosed orchard to really “stir the possum” 😉
May 28, 2013 @ 10:54:33
Lovely pictures, Jean. I am so jealous of your garden right now as frost has killed off most of my plants and I will have to start over.
May 29, 2013 @ 14:19:26
Sorry to read about the devastation in your garden Lois, heartbreaking after all the nurturing you have given them. But I gather from your latest post that the carrots are poking their heads through.
May 29, 2013 @ 17:17:55
Yep, the carrots, radishes and strawberries are doing fine. If we only had some warm weather I’d have fresh berries in no time.
I planted seeds of some things, they weren’t up yet so I have hopes.