Saturday in the garden

The weather was good and things are starting to grow after all the rain we've had over the past few weeks so I spent a few hours just tiding up, and filling in some bare patches with seeds (radish, marigolds, carrots and beets) and planted out the lettuce seedlings. I also made a new triangular bed near the chicken coop and planted out the zucchini and cucumber seedlings that I had raised in toilet rolls. I hope it isn't too early but the roots were starting to grow out the bottom. I found loads of worms when I was digging over the new bed which is a good sign.


The soy beans (edamame) have germinated, along with the purple king and lazy housewife climbing beans. something (birds? snails? ) is eating them so I might have to get the netting up again, or improve my bird scaring devices in the garden. I'm still fighting the battle with the earwigs too :(


Saturday's harvest included about 20 pea pods that went into a delicious bruschetta topping to take to my neighbour's impromptu front-yard barbie (recipe below, adapted from a Jamie Oliver one) plus mint, salad leaves, one egg from the girls, and some sage flowers that look very pretty on my kitchen table.

Smashed pea bruschetta
Fresh peas (couple of handfuls, podded)
1 clove garlic
3-5 mint leaves, roughly chopped
2 tbsp fresh grated parmesan
Couple glugs olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Smash all the ingredients up in a pestle and mortar to a bright green paste, add the olive oil and spread on warm toasted bread (we did ours on the barbie) Mmmmm!

New book purchases

I splashed out and bought a few books last week:

One Magic Square by Lolo Houbein. It is a lovely, enthusiastic book that encorages companion planting and general happy chaos in the garden. I am moving away from my neat plots of one crop type and trying to embrace the ideas of inter-planting with flowers and herbs; trying to repel bad bugs and attract good ones, so this book is perfect.

In praise of slow by Carl Honore. I'm 3 chapters into this and really enjyoing it. The book has some interesting insights into why society in general feels the need to do eveything fast: driving, working, eating. I know that I have a tendancy to rush about too much, trying to cram as much in as possible, and get annoyed when I can't finish everything so it is though provoking reading.

And finally, a complete treat to myself....

Kitchen Garden Companion by Stephanie Alexander. I've been drooling over this book in Readings for a week and then a found it online for a lot less that the recommended $125 sale price so I ordered it. It hasn't arrived yet but I'm very exited. It has a lovely red fabric cover, beautiful photos, tips for growing fuit and veg and over 250 recipes that I can really see myself cooking from the produce that I grow.