Our little patch of Earth

This time of the year is such an in between time where we have vegetables finishing off their turn in the beds and new ones starting out. There are beds that appear empty but under the soil little seeds are casting off their jackets and sending out their roots and radicles. Other beds are full of growth, rich and green. Here is a quick overview of what is growing on our little patch of Earth.

Left hand side, coriander. Front lettuce and courgette underground

Tiny corn plants under the "cat traps" to stop them digging up the seedlings.

My youngest's magical square foot garden, it is plentiful and pretty with all the different leaves

Potatoes in the foreground, broad beans behind

Gorgeous broad beans, loved by adults, hated by kids!

Spinach bed - all the bright lights!

What is growing in your "in-between" garden?

Simply too much to do...

Homeschool convention season ended this weekend and with it, my last trip for the year for my business. It was a great weekend in Johannesburg and it is always a blessing to encourage other homeschool moms.

The double blessing is that each year when I go to JHB my business partner comes along. We get to see each other at this once a year event and share 3 days together catching up and sharing...so good.

But then it's home again and seeing soooo much to do in the blossoming spring garden, the end of year need to finish school books, choir concerts, tennis tounaments, olives to be put into vinegar, a home to be decluttered and on it goes.

Weeds...weeds...weeds...I have decided to call my garden a mature garden on account of the weeds. We picked up a sticky weed through some horse manure and this horrible plant grows everywhere. So on Sunday afternoon when I got in from the airport I decided that there is no time like now and got stuck in.

Garlic was dug up as the leaves had turned yellow...a very dissappointing harvest I must have done something wrong! But we managed a plait and the ones that broke off are being used already.

Onions are being harvested and used daily...some bulbs are developed others are used as spring onions. I need to empty the bed soon for the next marrow planting.

Broad beans are in, these were the late crop planted mid-winter which should go until December. Then they will be pulled and tomatoes will go in. I sowed seed of 4 different heritage tomatoes for this bed which should be ready in 6 - 8 weeks.

Weeding between corn and tomato plants took most of the time on Sunday and things look promising all around.

 We have four broccoli plants left from the winter planting. I think my plan worked to confuse the bugs as I scattered broccoli around the garden in different places and we had a very successful harvest this year with no cabbage moth.

 Cucumbers are trailing their way up the trellises. I planted 4 different varieties but have forgotten which is which and I hope that I haven't messed up too much and that they will all be cross pollinated and a failure.

 Garlic chives doing well and yummy chopped into salads, quiches, frittata and other meals.

And our strawberries are coming in nicely. I see that we have bird visitors again as many have just one hole in them...I still use them like that - we just cut off the damaged part.

Last year I used old CD's to scare the birds away as they reflect in the sunlight and it worked well, so I had better rig that up again.

Even though there is soo much to do, I am glad that I can put away my bags and wrap up the year now...and there is nothing like being home!

Mmmh...East West Homes Best!

Polenta nests with Italian garden salad

There is something so comforting about polenta...the color, warmth and texture just gives me a warm gushy feeling :-)

This weekend I had a lot of corn, cherry tomatoes and basil to use up so it ended up in this dish.

Cook your polenta - 1 cup polenta to 3 cups water, 1 teaspoon salt. (I dbl this for my family.)

In the meantime, halves 20-30 mini tomatoes of different colors, cut the corn of about 5 cobs, and pit and slice about 20 olives. Toss with a splash of olive oil and some black pepper and salt. Make a basalmic reduction.

When polenta is slightly cooled place a heap on each plate and using a greased spoon make an indentation.

Spoon your salad into the hollow, add lots of fresh basil, drizzle with the reduction, then ENJOY!

Entering this in Heidi's Cooking Challenge.

Getting ready for the changing seasons.

It's time to get ready for the next season here at our little urban homestead. We have slowly been removing spent plants like tomatoes and corn and gooseberry bushes and digging in the compost from our heaps.

Our sunflowers are over and the heads are now drying.

We also gave the chicken coop a deep clean by removing the sawdust, washing down, sprinkling Diatomaceous Earth and then replacing with fresh saw dust. My sister put us onto this deep bed method and it has really worked.

This coming season still needs a lot of planning but I really really want to try to grow garlic this year. In anticipation of that I ordered pink and white garlic from Living Seeds.

The kiddos have started their daily quota of 20 newspaper pots each. We need about 400 in total to start our seedlings for autumn.

Our fig tree is full of fruit and I am getting exctied thinking of what I can make with them. Jane's Delicous Kitchen has a recipe for a fig and walnut salad that I am super keen to try.

We need to have all planning done and seedling sown by mid March as my elder son and I travel to the UK to visit my sister and her family in April...I am soooooo looking forward to seeing her. I miss her so much! She has moved onto a farm since I was last there and has chickens, orchards and veggie gardens for me to admire. Can't wait!

A year ago....

I have been wondering why the garden isn't so demanding this year and then it dawned on me, this is the first year since 2008 that we haven't been establishing a new vegetable garden.

Last December saw us undertaking the most ambitious project which was converting the last remaining yard space into a vegetable garden. It was a mammoth task as trees needed to be cleared through to the roots, lawn lifted, raised beds built, compost dug in, pond made and plants to sow. At the end of this time period it looked like this:



Today I took a photo of it at almost the same angle and it looks like this:



Here is a bed by bed description....



This is the second bed form the gate which holds salad leaves, coriander and radish.
I forgot to photo the first bed but that has new corn seedlings and winters brusell sprouts.



The second bed holds cucumbers in the front where the climbing poles are. Around the edge of the bed, not interfering with the cuucmber seedlings, I planted quick growing salads like rocket, watercress and coriander. These will be used up by the time the cucumbers are climbing.

Behind the trellis which you cannot see are marrow plants and behind that my gorgeous asparagus in all its summer glory.



The next bed holds our heirloom tomatoes like Black Prince. Behind them is the second asparagus bed.



The last bed in this area has some left over cabbages which we will still eat and in front - carrots. I have never done well with carrots as I feed the soil too much. But I picked up a hint from another gardener who grows long gorgeous ones that she plants hers after brassicas. So that is why they are here.

From this last bed is a rather unruly area where we are growing our corn. The photo is a little overexposed so its hard to see, but we have about 100 corn plants in different stages of growth from knee high to shoulder high. We used our own compost in this area which, we realised, held lots and lots and lots of tomato seeds.



The tomatoes have sprung up amongst the corn and whilst we removed many of them I did leave a few to grow alongside. This area also holds our blackberry bramble whose berries we are eating everyday now with our breakfast or in smoothies. Hanging up against the wall are some strawberries and we even have a few stray sunflowers to boot!

Today in the garden

Some snapshots from today in the garden...spring visited for a couple of hours and then the NW wind pushed in with sprinklings of rain.

Potatoes were banked, but the bed needs new sides then we can add more soil until just the tippy top leaves stick out. Lucky, the potato dog, decided to check the bed for any last spuds before we planted it up with transplanted seedling. The bees have done their job and all our boysenberries have set their fruit.

Tomatoes were trimmed and staked. The potato planters that were started at the end of August are growing so well. Hope this experiment works!
Asparagus in its full glory all frondy and waving in the wind. When we let the chickens out we have to cover our newly planted beds to protect new seedlings. Littlest one dug out these self seeded (from compost) squash and tomato plants which were transplanted. Some of our best tomatoes and butternuts came from self seeded plants last year. Granadilla is in bloom.
Once littlest one had moved the above seedlings he turned the bed and planted out the last corn with me. The chickens are so funny because they have figured out that as soon as we start digging they can feast with little work on their behalf!

A good day in the garden. What's up in yours?

Inside and outside today.

My list for the garden was quite long today so we attacked it nice and early again. The biggest things were pruning the grape vine. Sadly we got no grapes this year as it was attacked by a fungus. I need to look into the treating of this vine...I was a bit negligent with it.

We also harvested some more corn, the last beans, some chillies and lots more green peppers. We have loads more corn to go...really happy about that.
The potatoes we planted in December have died back, and it was a nice, but not near what I expected, harvest. We have all sizes to enjoy over the next little while. In this bed we dug in compost and planted broad beans.

We also transplanted some sweet potato vines, banked another set of potatoes, planted out chard stated in newspaper pots and did a general tidy up.

Inside - I have been convicted for a while about heating up the oven for daily bread and am trying a new thing - I made 4 loaves of wholewheat bread, 3 of which I will slice and freeze for the week. One will be used tomorrow.

While the oven was on my daughter made butter rolls for lunch and I made Rhonda's whole orange cake. It won't last long as it is scrumptious.

I also made an upside down apple cake - that's for teatime later.

Now it's time for a lie down!

Guess what we are eating?

Corn is in! It is a meal accompaniment every second night or so...sweet delicious, 5 steps and 5 minutes from harvest to plate...what a pleasure.

It's so hot here that we are eating easy dinners that don't require long in the kitchen. Hamburgers are the easiest thing to make. Chicken burgers are also frugal and quick. I have figured out the perfect hamburger roll recipe.

Into my bread machine I put:
210ml milk
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup buter in small blocks
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 3/4 cup bread flour
2 tablespoons usgar
1 sachet yeast

Set to dough cycle. When alarm goes shape quickly into rolls, this is a soft moist dough, do not overwork. Allow to rise slightly while oven heats, cook for 20 minutes at 180 deg C.