The weather here has been a bit crazy lately. We went through a patch of beautiful spring-like days in their low 20s and then, last week, that changed. The wind blew in and brought winter back, trees came down and the new seedlings that had emerged during the warm spell, shivered in their soil. They did - I could see them moving and could see their goosebumps too!
Across Sydney trees came down and branches snapped off and leaves blew. We had no damage here, but I hope other Sydney bloggers kept their trees and electricity. While it's still coldish today, the wind has dropped and the forecast says we are to return to warmer sunniness.
Today I potted up, raised seeds and inspected the progress.
Potting up
I potted up some mint and some curled parsley. I also moved some self-seeded violas around.
I always have violas in the vegetable patch. I just think they are so pretty and, because they self-seed so easily, they just keep coming back sometimes in slightly different colour combinations than last year.
The self-seeded violas invariably pop up in odd places - little corners and cracks between the patch boarders, in the patch pathway, or in the middle of the patch where you'd want to plant your veggies.
So digging them out and moving them around or potting them up becomes pretty essential.
I must say that one of my favourite things to do in the garden is dead head the violas... strange hey? There is something very meditative about removing the spent flowers to make sure the flowers continue. Do you like dead heading?
Raising seed
I also started raising some basil, long cayenne chillies, lemon balm, dill and zucchini.
I must say I have grown fond of zucchini (is that a pun?). They can take up a huge amount of space and can be almost scarily productive, and you can wonder what to do with them... but last summer I decided to get into finding zucchini recipes I liked and had some success ( and it wasn't that hard).
I am kind of looking forward now to the next zucchini glut so that I can make make those recipes again and perhaps find others I like (any suggestions of your favourite zucchini recipes?).
Being such an easy vegetable to grow, once you do find things you like to eat with the glut, for me including them in the patch becomes essential. But I know others feel differently.
Inspecting
I also looked around the patch a little... things are happening.
The espaliered Tahitian limes are flowering like crazy. I can see that, if some of the limes don't drop off, I am going to have to take some fruit off.
My relatively recently purchased blueberries first fruit are starting to swell. The bees love these plants and are doing a good job of pollinating!
And the pests are turning up - sorry for this blurry photo, but amongst the blur you can see the black aphids on my chives. I spent some time squashing them with my fingers.
That's where I am up to, what is getting going in your patch - fruit, flowers, pests?
Across Sydney trees came down and branches snapped off and leaves blew. We had no damage here, but I hope other Sydney bloggers kept their trees and electricity. While it's still coldish today, the wind has dropped and the forecast says we are to return to warmer sunniness.
Today I potted up, raised seeds and inspected the progress.
I potted up some mint and some curled parsley. I also moved some self-seeded violas around.
I always have violas in the vegetable patch. I just think they are so pretty and, because they self-seed so easily, they just keep coming back sometimes in slightly different colour combinations than last year.
The self-seeded violas invariably pop up in odd places - little corners and cracks between the patch boarders, in the patch pathway, or in the middle of the patch where you'd want to plant your veggies.
I must say that one of my favourite things to do in the garden is dead head the violas... strange hey? There is something very meditative about removing the spent flowers to make sure the flowers continue. Do you like dead heading?
Raising seed
I also started raising some basil, long cayenne chillies, lemon balm, dill and zucchini.
I am kind of looking forward now to the next zucchini glut so that I can make make those recipes again and perhaps find others I like (any suggestions of your favourite zucchini recipes?).
Being such an easy vegetable to grow, once you do find things you like to eat with the glut, for me including them in the patch becomes essential. But I know others feel differently.
Inspecting
I also looked around the patch a little... things are happening.
The espaliered Tahitian limes are flowering like crazy. I can see that, if some of the limes don't drop off, I am going to have to take some fruit off.
My relatively recently purchased blueberries first fruit are starting to swell. The bees love these plants and are doing a good job of pollinating!
And the pests are turning up - sorry for this blurry photo, but amongst the blur you can see the black aphids on my chives. I spent some time squashing them with my fingers.
That's where I am up to, what is getting going in your patch - fruit, flowers, pests?
Oh you were brave heading outside at all - brrr! My poor asparagus is acting like a deer in the headlights - it came up, sensed the danger and froze! I can't believe that it as now growing so slowly :(
ReplyDeleteExciting about the lime - my one is sad as always, although I can see some tiny new growth. The blueberries are fabulous!
It's definitely been cold. Oh your poor asparagus! It was looking so cute poking up thru its straw. It will get going soon. I cant wait to pick my first blueberry!
DeleteThe cold has kept the black aphids away for me - for the time being at least which is nice. Our forecast for tomorrow looks fabulous so I will glad of some mild weather - its been cold and wet here of late. I don't mind dead heading but I think my favourite task is sowing seeds - all that promise of things to come...
ReplyDeleteHmm, it's obviously not cold enough here! Sowing seeds is pretty good!
DeleteGood to hear you got through without any damage. I like deadheading, but often its at the bottom of the garden to-do list. Yay on the blueberries, I'm hoping mine will flower soon and I will get more than the two whole berries I got last year. With zucchini the one thing I've been wanting to try is an idea I saw on the blog Quarter Acre Farm - sadly she's stopped writing lately - for what to do with the monster zucchini that sometimes get away from you. You essentially thickly peeled the outside of the zucchini and used much the same as noodles. I believe she called them zoodles...
ReplyDeleteOh gosh, I love the idea of zoodles. I have managed however to keep on top of my zucchinis preferring to pick'em young lest they turn into stone age clubs.
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