August has been a mixed bag weatherwise. Frosty some days and warm enough for short sleeves on others. The best news for the month though is rain. 95mm in fact which is the highest monthly tally we have had for 2014... so far. The paddocks are green, grass is growing and I'm itching to plant.
Our bees have not had much of a rest over the winter. Quite a few eucalypts have been in bloom and now the wattles are joining in. The gardens are just a secondary source of fodder for the bees really but I really do think they enjoy all of the flowers which are coming out now.
Harvesting in August
- lettuce
- rocket
- herbs
- peas
- beetroot
- radish
- daikon
- broccoli
- cauliflower
- lemons
- rainbow chard
broad beans |
Yellow podded peas |
Rainbow chard |
Purple sprouting broccoli |
Thanks to the Garden Share Collective I was out and about taking pictures today. All was well on Friday but sometime between then and now, birds had decided to raid the lemon tree.
So some spur of the moment lemon harvesting in my ad hoc basket. It's the same basket I use sometimes for some high risk egg collection. I think lemon drizzle cake might be in order.
Planting
There is that springtime feeling now so planting and sowing just feels like the right thing to be doing. I sowed corn last weekend. Three punnets worth and once they are doing well, I'll pop in another batch. I also sowed directly some radish, lettuce and kohl rabi.
It's September that will be the big seed sowing time though. All of those frost tender vegetables will go into the greenhouse.
To-do in September
- make compost
- turn compost
- mulch the fruit trees
- seed sowing
- mow
- check bee hives
- shear sheep
- collect manure
- and loads more things I can't think of. Plus deal with the minor dilemmas that always crop up
Happy gardening
Tracy