A Quick Back And Forth To The Lotties

Yesterday morning it rained and rained and rained...until 12 noon. We hopped immediately on the bikes while the rainwater was wtill dripping from the leaves of the trees that line our street.
We made a quick detour to pick up some free horse manure to add to the compost piles and out manure "mountain" for the future.
We no sooner parked the bikes than we made a quick 'round' to check it all out. There had been some wind damage to some of the taller plants and they had to be tied-up...but first the harvesting should the weather change back to rain again.

We had a generous harverst, although not as heavy as it will be in a couple of weeks.

The bean sorts and kapucijners are coming right along.

The 'Alto' Beets (or "soldiers" as my partner calls them) are starting to come in by the dozens. The first calabrese fell under the knife also. That (paprika or capsicum) "sweet chocolate" will turn a sort of chocolaty colour if left to ripen on the vine.

The real top of the day was the first bouquet of Lathyrus. Gawd, wot a smell!

Mother Nature's June Drop of the plums continues...making my job easier soon.

...and a new addition to my lottie: A water reservoir located in between the flower and old veggie gardens. This will be really handy when we have lots to water and not much time to do it in.


Well, before I knew it, it was almost 16:00 and time to rush back home and get cleaned-up to go and visit my partner's sis and family for fotos to look at and a good natter...we would be fed as well, so I didn't want to be late.

 

Sjoerd, how do you guys store all of your bounty? I know you can and jam and pickle -- do you also have a way to save your root crops? You must have a pretty impressive pantry at the end of the day.

 

I have a stand-up freezer as well as a fridge. It all goes in there. Lots and lots can go in the freezer--enough for a full year.
As for root crops per se we use what we call a "clamp". I wrote a little piece on how to make a clamp last year sometime.
Have a look here if you have any interest:
http://www.gardenstew.com/about12230.html

I mostly use the freezer though, because I simply do not have a cellar or any place like that to store things. I build the clamp in the fall on the lotty wherever there is room.

 

Very impressive. I'd take that there broccoli. that bouquet of flowers are wonderful. Thats for sharing.

 

The Clamp is interesting. I wonder how that would work here.... Does it matter if it is above or below the frost line? Here, the frost line is, I think, at about 2 1/2 to 3 feet (sorry I can't convert to metric off the top of my head... shame on me). I will have to share this with my back-fence neighbor. He grows and stores a lot of veggies in lots of different ways. He will appreciate this for his root veggies.

 

Well, I do not think that it will maqtter too much bercausae you ca see on the pics how deep it is dug...and once the veg is placed in the clamp, then you put the earth back on top of the veg . What I am getting at is that you have de depth of the hole say for the sake of the story here, 3 feet. Then you pile the earth back on top of the whole lot (including the "insulation"", adding more to their depth and protection.
I have never had anything freeze, and I believe that longitudionally speking, I am further north on the globe than you are.

It's a very old-fashioned method, but works for me.

Thanks for your words, Petunia. I wish you could smell those Lathyrus--they have a fragrance that is nothing short of 'Divine'.

 

Gotcha. The insulation is probably more key than the depth of the hole.

 

The more I see of your Lathyrus, the more I know I NEED to try planting some again next season Sjoerd!
Mmmm those fresh veggies look good too

 

Thank you Eileen...I wish that you were here to harvest too. Why, you could take a whole bunch of fresh veggies back home with you.
You are right--it sure is grand to reap the benefits of all that hard work.
What a great hobby gardening is.

Netty, I hope that you will try the Lathyrus again next year. I find that they give such a rich payback for the modicum of trouble germinating the seeds is.

 

Everything looks so nice sjoerd....and so good to eat.

At our last home we had a building that was partly underground on our property. I think they called it a root cellar. We tried keeping potatoes and squash over winter or to eat in the winter and they did not keep. We even put the food in styro-foam coolers filled with sand. Someone told us that is how to do it but it was a lot of wasted food...

Enjoy your bounties...Sherry

 

Thanks Sherry,
I am very sorry to hear that storing your veg didn't work-out well.
I have never heard of storing potatos insand or styrofoam.

One thing that potatos need is air circulation if they are not in a clamp.
Squash can be difficult, buy they can be kept to early spring sometimes if they are kept dry and relatively warmish.

If you ever want to try and store things again, send me a PM and we'll chat.

 

What a wonderful bounty of veg Sjoerd, puts my little raised bed to shame

 

I wonder what Sjoerd will be harvesting this week??

(Aside... I love your raised bed GG. It amazed me how much you got into the space and it all looked so happy.)

 

Thank you daisybeans. I must admit we have harvested quite a bit from it so far