From the garden to the kitchen

We don't go to the garden as often as we used to any more.  These days, it has been raining and grey and cloudy so the plants would have more than enough water.  Besides, we don't really want to go out in such dreary weather.  All I am worried about is always the weeds.  My fear is that the weeds would take over the garden and grow all over our veggies, herbs and flowers.

Yesterday, the sky cleared enough for us to brisk walk there to plant some Asters, a type of fower, that I had sown on my balcony.  When we got there, we were pleasantly surprised.  Finally the garden has shown some life.  A large part of it is due to the weeds but we were happy that our vegetables have done just as well. 

The lettuce beds are full of healthy, juicy leaves.  The potatoes have continued to grow.  The row of carrots have such long, healthy leaves growing above the ground.  The two surviving cucumber plants have even started flowering.  The squash plants have done very well, too.  Lots of yellow flowers are blooming and we found some beautiful, long squash growing from them. 

This week, we didn't buy a lot of vegetables and since the babies are doing so well, we decided to take some home.  We picked the biggest squash, pulled up a potato plant and some lettuce.  We also picked some baby carrots.  They could leave them to grow even more but we had to thin them anyway, so that the remaining carrots would have more room to grow.  So the baby carrots went into our bountiful basket.

With the vegetables, I decided to make a light summer salad with a quick, tangy dressing made with mayonnaise, mustard and lemon juice.  Soft, boiled eggs rounded off our light lunch.



squash and baby carrots



hand-picked lettuce



chopped squash



a thorough wash and a couple of whirls in the salad spinner and the lettuce is ready



the almost ready salad



the dripping yolk and creamy dressing made the salad even better



Those wascally wabbits

My sister keeps rabbits as pets and I am very familiar with their appetite for vegetables.  Having seen wild rabbits around our allotment, I guess I should have expected it.  In fact, when I saw a huge rabbit, which Pete said is more likely to be a wild hare, across the path beside our plot, I should have known they would be causing some problems at our garden.  Our plot is the nearest to a small cluster of trees and bushes and they are likely to have made that their home.

We have put up a fence using chicken wire.  It should be enough to keep away the rabbits but we have no gate so the gaping hole will let the rabbits in.  We still have a lot of things to work on both in the garden and at home so we're trying to pace our purchases.  We have decided to not spend too much on the garden as yet since we're going to treat this as a long term project.  A beautiful wooden fence with a nice gate is something we both want but not just yet.  But after this attack, I think we would need to look for a solution to keep the darn rabbits out.

Why am I so frustrated with the rabbits?  Well, they have nibbled up all the lovely green leaves on our pea plants and now they are not growing any more.  Where I used to have luscious, healthy green plants, only stringy stalks are left.  The bean plants are also not showing more growth and I am worried they are being attacked by the rabbits too.

I have planted more pea and bean seeds in the planters.  We have covered them with the fleece so I hope these will be more protected.  I have sowed some peas on my balcony.  No matter what, I am going to have fresh peas from my own plants this year!

What's a bit surprising is that the lettuces that are growing well are left pretty much alone.  I remember how my sister used to prepare a salad of greens for her rabbits and they love it.  I am surprised they have not eaten the lettuces.  But she did tell me that the rabbits are choosy about lettuces.  Maybe the ones I planted are not to their taste, which means more lettuces for me.

The potatoes are doing very well.  They are tall and strong and healthy.  We are very encouraged so we have planted another row of that.  Last week, we bought small potatoes, left them in a dark cupboard and let them bud.  Today, we took them out, halved each of them, making sure there's at least one bud on each half and then planted them.  Hopefully there'll be more plants to look forward to. 

It is really fun going to the garden to spot new growth.  Every time I see a new leaf or sprout or flower, I get so excited.  The feeling is almost similar to how I felt when my pupils were able to understand what I taught and ace their tests.  I have sowed some flower and herb seeds along the fence.  I hope by the time my family comes to visit, they would have sprouted and there's something for them to spot too.  

Garden work out

We've never worked so hard at the garden before.  Today was the day we did major work at the garden.  After Pete used the rototiller yesterday, we went back there today to clear up the land of the dried weeds and also manually removed those stubborn weeds.  And oh how they make us work.  These weeds are incredible.  They take such a short time to grow and their roots grow so deep into the ground.  We really have to dig deep to pull their roots out or else they will soon grow back.

We still have a lot of space that is not utilised and so the weeds decided to take root there.  We tried our best to till as much as the ground as we could and remove as many weeds as possible.  And that was just part of the list of things to be done.

We also had to put up a new fence at the front of our plot.  The old fence that was there was falling off and only half of it was left.  Last week we tore down the remnants of the fence and we had only enough material to put up half of the length.  Today, we finished up the rest of it and it looks nice and neat now.  That took awhile since we had to hammer some metal poles deep into the hard ground and then fasten chicken wire to them. 

Then it was more hammering.  We finally got around to building our planting beds.  The ready made ones are so expensive.  We bought our own planks of wood and cut them to size.  With the money we spent, we were able to get two 2m x 1.3m beds, which would not even buy us one ready made planter which is much smaller.  Pete helped to hold the wood in place while I hammered away. 

Then we had to fill the beds with more soil and that took more hard work.  We had to keep on tilling and removing weeds and stones that were all over the garden.  The bending and squatting and lifting all gave us a really good workout for the whole body.  But the weather was very cool and I hardly broke a sweat. 

Once the beds were ready, we watered them and then in one, I planted two rows of peas and two rows of beans.  The pea shoots that were planted earlier had shown a lot of growth but they didn't seem to grow much the past few days.  After a closer inspection, I noticed that the leaves looked like they were eaten.  Rabbits!  They have been eating from our garden!  So this time, luckily his mum brought some garden fleece.  We covered the whole bed to protect the seeds from the wind, birds and rabbits.

In another bed, we planted a few rows of carrots and a few types of lettuces.  Again, we covered them with the fleece.  I noticed other plots had them as well, so I'm hoping they would work.  Once we're done with the last round of watering and packing up, we realised we've been working at the garden for 3 hours.  Luckily the sun wasn't too strong or else we would have been burnt.

We still have other things to do at the garden.  We have to continue to till and get rid of the weeds.  We have to level the soil after the tilling.  We have to plant some more potatoes.  And I want to plant some flowers and herbs along the edges of the plot.  I don't want to leave the ground empty for the weeds to take over.  I have already started sowing some flower seeds in my balcony.  Hopefully they will be ready to be transplated soon.  Hopefully soon, our garden would look a bit more alive and I don't mean with weeds!

Give peas a chance

That was what Pete said when we were discussing our plants.  Such a joker.  But he is right.  In fact, I have to give all my plants a chance to take their time to grow.  Is this the mistake of beginner gardeners?  To expect too much too soon?  It has hardly been two weeks since I planted most of my seeds and seedlings.  Also, the weather hasn't been too kind.  The last two weeks were quite cold and frosty, not exactly perfect for growing.  Maybe the plants are waiting for better weather to sprout.

I guess I have to be more patient.  Luckily the weather seems to be getting warmer and there's more sun.  And the garden is waking up.  When we visited the garden today, we found more sprouting plants!  From a far, the garden still looks sad and empty.  But, when we got closer, we saw the pea shoots continuing to grow.  We also spotted bigger shoots off the beans.  Another good news is that the carrots finally look like they are sprouting as well.  I don't really know how carrot leaves look like so I didn't dare touch the carrot bed.  I was afraid I'd mistake the carrots for weeds. 

The squash plants looked like they have stopped growing after sprouting two huge leaves.  But they have now shown more signs of growth.  They now have more leaves budding.  The petunias are starting to grow again.  Over night, more flowers have bloomed.  Although the plants are still small, there were up to five flowers per plant!  Amazing!

What was amazing as well was how the pea shoots seem to be growing during the time we were there.  I watered the peas when I first got to the garden.  Then after weeding, tilling, watering and planting a new row of lettuces, I would always inspect the plants again before I left.  I swear the peas have grown taller and started to open up their budding leaves. 

So, yes, I am glad I didn't give up on them.

Seedlings!

Last Sunday, I sowed some lettuce seeds in small seed trays.  I wanted to try sowing them indoors first and plant them outdoors when they are a bit bigger.  I was supposed to plant them outdoors in the garden but I have not prepared their beds and I didn't want to plant them too late.

I got some soil from his mum and put some into each container.  I put 2 seeds into each and topped off with a bit of soil and water.  I put them in the balcony and made sure the soil is always moist.  For 2 days, there was no sign of any activity.  But yesterday, I could see tiny leaves peeking out and today, the seedlings are growing nice and tall, though they are kind of thin.

Let's see how they grow over the next few days.