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Sunday, August 3, 2014

Garden Share


"The Garden Share Collective is a group of bloggers who share their vegetable patches, container gardens and the herbs they grow on their window sills. Creating a monthly community to navigate through any garden troubles and to rival in the success of a good harvest we will nurture any beginner gardener to flourish. Each month we set ourselves a few tasks to complete by the next month, this gives us a little push to getting closer to picking and harvesting. The long-term goal of the Garden Share Collective is to get more and more people gardening and growing clean food organically and sustainably." These are Lizzie's words who hosts the Garden Share Collective. There are plenty of links on the Garden Share site catering for all types of gardens. And if you're not a gardener then maybe you will be inspired to get started.
 

 

 This past month has been quite a slow time in my garden. That's quite ok with me because I know in just a little while, it will be full-steam ahead.


 The cooler weather is just right for tidying up and doing the heavier chores. Our empty compost bays have now had a good clean up and are ready and waiting for action. Only one bay is full at the moment and I'll turn it this week or next. There's never enough compost!

 Harvesting in July
  • the last of the limes (that are looking like lemons)
  • lettuce
  • cabbage
  • carrots
  • herbs
  • daikon
  • peas
  • cauliflower
  • 1 lonely broccoli (but more are on the way)
  • turnip


 Purple sprouting broccoli are starting to tease with loads of little sprouts. I just hope that they don't succumb to some sort of bug. They look good so far and I'm looking forward to them.


 Lettuce are doing really well. The crunch of a good-old Iceberg is nice but the cut and come again varieties are my favourite to grow.



Cauliflowers are going from strength to strength. Plenty of lovely white heads ready or almost ready and my successive sowings are coming along to replace the spent plants. Sometimes it all works well... sometimes.

Planting
  • not much at all
  • potted up some small scented geranium plants
  • nothing new in the vegetable garden
I have daydreamed about planting though and August is more conducive to planting. I use Gardenate as a loose guide as what to plant when. It's not exactly right for my climate but it gives a good reminder.

To-do in August
  • sow seeds
  • turn compost
  • gather manure
  • source mulch
  • avoid bee stings (2 stings on the face on Thursday...ouch)
Tracy

10 comments:

Jan said...

Love the look of your limes. My son is currently renting a place with a prolific lime tree. He made lime cordial from a lemon cordial recipe which uses some cream of tartar and citric acid. It's very nice, although I rarely drink cordials.

Your cauliflowers look great. I love them.

I made a Hungarian cauliflower soup last week from a recipe in a gifted Gourmet Traveller. Melted butter, lemon zest, a couple of decent size teaspoons of sweet paprika and some crushed garlic was spread over cauliflower florets. Bake for about 30 minutes till golden. Cook in chicken stock and blend. Adjust seasoning and serve with one yoghurt and a big squeeze of lemon. I make lots of soups but this was particularly pleasant and quite different from my usual recipes.

Zara said...

I agree, you can never have enough compost. Your garden is looking lovely especially at this time of the year.
I'm looking forward to August and getting the summer vegie seeds going.
x

Anonymous said...

Your plants look so healthy and lush. My broccoli and cauli plants are still looking like seedlings. Taking forever to grow. Here's hoping they start looking like yours sometime soon. Lovely photos. T x

Cheryll said...

Wonderful veggie garden Tracy ...gotta love homegrown!

Daphne Gould said...

I agree there is no such thing as too much compost. I wish I made more, but I only have so much space and raw materials.

Peg - Happy In Quilting said...

What a great garden lucky you....

Anonymous said...

Your cauliflower is rather handsome. Its good to have a slow month- next month will be crazy.

lizzie {Strayed Table} said...

I am so jealous of your cauliflower it looks amazing, if only I could grow them like that. As per usual your garden looks amazing. Hope you stay away from those bees. See you next month.

Joolz said...

Oh, to have some time to potter around the garden. I still have some roses to prune!
Your veggies are looking great - I can just imagine how good that cauli would be with some broccoli in a cheesy bake...
I really need to get off my proverbial and get composting - we live on 2.5 acres for goodness sakes! I want to grow some potatoes and a few other veggies too!
Must get to it!

Cheers - Joolz xx

Anonymous said...

Hi Tracy your veg garden is doing awesome still supplying you vegies,and what lovely pics you have taken,i must invest in a better camera,enjoy your day my friend.xx