Monday 11 November 2013

Garlic braiding

A few days ago I harvested all the garlic I planted mid winter, having no idea what I was doing really. It was a bit of a long shot as to what exactly I would be pulling up as I wasn't exactly sure when I should be harvesting them, so I just took a rough guess and went for it. None of the bulbs were massive, but all looked roughly like garlic, and I planted enough so that even though each bulb isn't huge, we should still have enough home grown garlic to last us until next winter. Then where and how to store it were the next questions. I had seen garlic braided before so thought I'd give that a go (thanks YouTube) it was a bit harder than I imagined, as apparently I didn't braid enough hair in my youth. I think it is slightly twisted from subaverage braiding skills but I still think it looks pretty cool and now can hang proudly on the bathroom door (only nail in or around the kitchen I could find). So here are some pictures along the way to the finished product. :)





The haul of garlic after drying and cutting off the roots to make em' look purdy.





Mid braid. Maybe Girl Scouts would have given me the braiding abilities I am obviously lacking.





Finished string of garlic! Looks almost like a modern work of art, maybe it can symbolize the protagonists struggle against voodoo economics.





No vampires in our bathroom tonight!

Sunday 10 November 2013

Summer is here!

Well summer seems to have arrived with a vengeance! These last two weeks have had almost every day over 30, with yesterday reaching 39 on our home weather station! Poor veggies, but they all seem to all be doing well even in the heat. With all the beds heavily mulched with the pea straw I got a few weeks ago the soil seems to be staying cool and moist even through the long hot days. This morning before it got too hot I went out and made a trellis for my beans to climb up that are already growing quickly. Hopefully they'll start growing up the support system now it has one, and I'm just hoping its tall enough!!


Bean trellis, two different varieties of beans, both runner style, one is a yellow butter bean and the other is a purple variety that I've forgotten the name of at the moment.


Cucumber bed with one of the two trellises that the cucumbers will grow up. I'm hoping because cucumbers usually require lots of space to spread out, I can fit a lot more in a small space by growing them vertically, making it easier to pick the fruit and keeping it off the ground should reduce pests eating the cucumbers.


Little cucumber seedlings just sprouting!


Blackberries are coming along well, most should be ripe and ready to eat within a week or two. Yummy!


Front bed with pumpkins, zucchini and a couple of extra cucumber plants. There are a few little zucchinis already, and the pumpkins are flowering nicely. Thankfully they are right next to my flower bed out the front so hopefully they'll get pollinated by bees attracted to the garden by some colour this year. I struggled last year to get certain plants pollinated as there weren't any flowers in the garden, so I think the bees weren't enticed to check out my veggies. Hopefully this year that will be different! :)