August is the month for...

Each month has it's own to do list depending on where the earth is in relation to the sun. August whispers to me that Spring is just around the corner, while it pours out rain from the sky. August tells me to hurry hurry hurry you need to get ready for the main growing season of the year.


But I do not want to hurry hurry hurry or be busy busy busy all the time, I want to crawl into my warm bed with my dog, warm bean bag and Bible and soak up the Living Word for a bit. I want to make a cake for tea and rusks for the week...I don't want to be getting ready for Spring. Hurray...as I type this the rain has started and I am excused from working outside :)

On another day, when it is not so cold and wet, these are the plans for the garden in August:

Garden ~ Foremost on my mind is that the 1st of September is Spring. I think it is still going to be wet then but we can get all our newspaper pots ready. We need over 1000 of them to start off our spring plantings. The crops we always plant in Spring are:

Corn
Tomatoes
Beans (bush and runner)
Courgette
Cabbages
Carrots
Cucumbers
Lettuces
Peppers
Potatoes
Butternut
Chard

Some of these we have to start in newspaper pots as they give them a fighting chance and it gives us time to finish the crops in the beds so that when they are done we can dig in new compost and manure and plant the seedlings into the ground for Spring. Others, like beans, carrots, potatoes can go into beds directly and will have to wait until the ground is clear.

I need to source mowed grass for our compost heap as we are lacking in this vital ingredient. I also need to turn the compost, but will get faithful Des in to do that.

Home ~ The fullness of days Monday - Saturday leaves my home in an unorganized state. This makes me feel quite frazzled. I am not a neat freak, but I do like a semblance of order and right now we are very far from this mark. Part of the problem is discpline of myself to return things to their rightful place immediately, the other problem is that we have 6 people with lots of interests and 4 businesses (2 big and 2 little) running from this space. All this makes for tight space constraints and we cannot afford to be disorganized.

The plan is to allocate an area each week to be cleaned and sorted. So Monday will be the lounge/dining room, Tuesday my bedroom, Wednesday and Thursday the kitchen, Friday my office area and Saturday will be overseeing the kids rooms. I have one child who is a born organized and she will be off the hook on Saturdays...mmmh maybe I will set her to work somewhere else.

Food ~ I have to admit here in cyberspace that cooking takes up most of my time when I am not schooling the kids or taxi-ing them to sport, art or music. I do feel the need to simplfy our eating but I just love love love to cook and bake and try new things. However, I find that while producing gourmet meals is great fun and very welcomed by our taste buds and stomachs, I must cut down on time spent in the kitchen.

The plan is to limit myself to two really special meals a week. This will be on Sundays when I have loads of free time and Tuesday's when we generally have a single guy from our little church for dinner. For the other 5 days of the week supper needs to be simple.

Soups are still on the menu for lunch until the weather warms for salads and breakfast is in a flow with a variety of protein based options.

My little baker has been a bit slack of late as she has been getting her upcycled denim business going, but I think I will get her back into the snack baking habit.

August is also the month to be inspired....so I have been watching this BBC series of Alys Fowler called the Edible Garden. While her garden is tiny and she is only growing for her husband and self, it is so inspiring and full of hints and tips.

I also am about to start reading my all time favourite gardening book called Living the Good Life and will dip in Harvest Diaries as each month looms.

 So what are your August plans?