Accomplishments In The First Week Of Vacation

Today the sun is back out and there isn't a cloud to be seen here over the gardens. It is such an odd sight to behold....but I like it, I like it--I hasten to add.

I have been on vacation for a week now already and my garden work has been more of a water ballet, as I would have to work in-between showers. There was (and still is) a long list of things to be done: Phytophthora has been spotted on the complex by the "Potato Police", and so I felt that I had to either remove the foliage or get the spuds out of the ground altogether. The grass paths in old and new gardens had become "wooly" and unkempt-looking, so they had to be made neater. The plums were being consumed by wasps and tits faster than I could eat or harvest them, so they needed some protection if I had any hope of making jam this season.

Since I had elected to lift my spuds, I would need to clean and work the soil that they were in, in order to plant a crop of green manure. I don't normally plant on overcast or rainy days, but time dictated a deviation.
Onions and broad beans had to be removed--the onions dried and the broad bean plants placed someplace to languish in limbo until they would be called upon to provide ground coverage...a blanket for a soil bed during the winter, as it were.
And of course there is the constant tantaluskwelling of bindweed, ground elder and slug removal--the bane of my gardening existence.

Tantaluskwelling. This is something like the torment one suffers when he strives to do something, comes oh, so close but never quite reaches the goal. Perhaps you know the Greek myth in which the punishment of Tantelus in the underworld is told.

Well then, shall we get on with the pictures?

The Food Bank pick-ups have again begun, so I can take the opportunity to show a handful of the cylinder beetroots that I grow. It is a shame that they aren't more uniform, but I really like their flavour.


The onions were lifted and hung on the fence between the neighbour and me to dry in the wind and sun (should it ever decide to appear). Once all the green foliage has dried thoroughly and turned brown, I will then make my onion strings for storage.


I have white onions and red ones as well. Here you can see the onions from my side of the fence.


...and here from the neighbour's side.


There are actually two fences right up against each other. The lower one was there, but did not stop the rabbits, so measures had to be taken, and the neighbour bloke and I put up a second, higher fence with smaller holes in it.

The onions out and the ground cleaned and worked, I needed a covering for it, so the last little patch of broad beans (you can perhaps just make them out yonder, all the way at the end if the path in this picture.


That accomplished, I could begin on the path edging. Look back up at the picture above to see the rough appearance of the path (even though it had just been strimmed) and the pic below where it had been edged with a tool. You can see that the broad beans have been removed there up front next to the pole beans.
The bare earth areas are where the spuds were and now have been planted with Buckwheat and Phacelia.
The blue plastic bags up front are full of the potato foliage (perhaps infected) to be taken home and put into the green garbage can for "Green Pick-up" by the council.


Back over in the old garden there were two veggie plots that needed path-tidying as well. Here is one of them.


The potatos have been something-else this year. I have an enormous harvest and struggle to find a place for them all, here at home. Here are some large International Kidneys.


Sadly, I have found a couple with holes in their centres. "Hollow Heart" is a physiological disorder that can occur when there has been an extended period of dryness, followed by copious rainfall.


That was a shot of an International Kidney potato. If the grayish brown isn't too diffuse, it can be cut out along with the hole and the potato can be eaten.
Another reason that I had to hurry up a bit and get my spuds out of the ground was because of this condition of overhydration. The wetness penetrated deeply into the ground and I also found a few rotten spuds because of the prolonged exposure to wetness.

I had to leave these potatos to dry out on the kitchen table because it was raining continuously. They filled the whole table and took two days to dry off.


Yes, the potatos required special monitoring and care this year.

This year I have not had a great deal of fruit in the three plum trees that I have, but this Reina Victoria tree has a few.
I decided to net one branch and try and save enough to jam-up. The rest I have already eaten ....along with the wasps and blue and great tits.--Those lil devils!


Whilst strolling about, I noticed this bumble bee floating in the full rain gauge, head underwater. I wonder how long it had been languishing there. I let it crawl out on my finger and took it directly to a buddleija bloom. This location had sun and waved up and down with the wind. Hopefully it would dry out and eventually make it back to its nest. Tja!--Can you imagine what a story she will have to tell once back in her nest hole! Her fellow workers will believe her like the Italians believed Marco Polo when he returned.


When I went to bring the blue plastic bags to the bike for transporting home, I saw this big fellow gliding over the plastic. I asked him if he couldn't just sling the bag across his back and crawl on down to the bike with it for me, but he acted as if he couldn't understand a word I was saying.


Checking on the few pumpkins that I have 'doing something' this year, I saw that the vines, which I am training up a rack are producing well. if the weather becomes sunnier and warmer, I may get a few of these things.
Here is a picture of an adolescent Uchiki Kuri. I keep meaning to take a net for that thing, but forget it every time. Well the info said that a supportive net wasn't necessary, but I plan to use them anyway. I don't want to have to say, "If only....", do you know what I mean?


What would a garden spread be without a couple of flower fotos?
The Echinops ritro 'Veitch's Blue'.It is very popular with the honeybees, so I added a few more to the plot.


Some Astilbes just came up here. I do not know how they got there, for I have not bought any for ages. The place isn't exactly right, but they seem to be doing alright. They are getting a few minutes of sun where they are sitting, so perhaps I will leave them there and see how they do next year.


The Crocosmia 'Lucifer' is doing very well this year in the three locations that I have planted them.


Even on a gray day, they still have a certain playful rich redness about them.


Right then! The sun has an unfettered rein over the cloudless blue sky and the lotties beckon. I am off to get some gardening in and perhaps I will just sit and enjoy the birds and flowers too, as I am caught-up on the "must do" work list. The weeds can wait, I can't beat them completely anyway.
Ah, I've got it-- I shall pull out the little salt shaker and have some fresh toms, right out of the greenhouse as I sit in the shady arches and observe what's going on in my milieu!

Seeya.

 

Beautiful and bountiful

 

I think KK summed it up nicely!
Lots of work with excellent results.

 

A truly wonderful garden, thank you for sharing!

 

great pics and narration! thanks, I enjoyed it all. The spuds look bountiful for you this year. sadly, I didn't get many out due to the excessive rains this year.

 

Lovely result! That potato-filled table was really something to see. Needs must I suppose. I found the onion-drying interesting too. You make good use of what you've got.

I'm glad you managed to save the bee. Poor bee.

Now tell me, how much are you hurting? Is it just back-ache or is it arms, legs and neck too?

 

Thanks very much for the nice comment, KK.

Thank you, CHERYL--That was a nice thing to say.

Thank you, TONI--You are kind to say that. I have only had this hollow heart thing once before. Netty, up the way, says that she can thump a spud and hear if it is hollow. Well, that woman has a few years on me, I shall have to try this. I to that when buying melons.
I eat the ones with hollow heart as well.
There are a lot of potatos on that table...in fact the table LOOKS like a huge potato. hahaha. I have had five big harvests like that this year...but now I have them all out of the ground and stored on the north balcony in crates, under a quilt.

You are welcome, DELLY--I am glad that you like the looks of the gardens.

Thanks loads, CAROLYN...I appreciated your compliment. but the happiness was lessened when I read that your spuds didn't do well because of moisture. There have been other gardners on our complex that had the same luck as you. I don't know how you plant your spuds, but the folks here usually just scoop a hole in the loose soil and plop a potato in and cover it up.
I get raised eyebrows when they see me plough a furrow and then dig holes in the bottom of the furrow, planting the spuds even deeper. I may have had more potato loss due to waterlogging and rotting 2° to that if I had not lifted the spuds as early as I did. I did it on a gut feeling and sometimes dug in the rain to get them out.

Takk DROOPY--hahaha...didn't you have to laugh when you saw that table? I thought that it looked like a big potato itself when looking from the door.
Yeah, that fence drying idea works well this year. I had some crates that I nailed small-holed fencing onto to dry the spuds on in the past. It worked well, but this is much better...and it doesn't take up any space from the over-all ground surface that I have.
Yes, I do have a little generalized stiffness, but actually it is less than I expected it to be, hahaha. Ach, it think that has to do with the way that I pace myself...sort of 'FORCED' pacing, due to the intermittent showers. hahaha.

 

Thank you Sjoerd for the tour of your garden! I always learn so much...this week a lesson on onions. Path tidying? Do you use a mower? It looks so very tidy in the photos. I can't believe the size of that snail ... it would surely make short work of my Hosta's!!

 

always a pleasure to read your posts sjoerd, very jealous of your onions.

out of interest how do you make onion string?

also jealous of your lucifer, i put some in this year with no sign of flowers hopefully next year.

we have been pulling some cylinder beets for salads and plan to leave the rest for pickling but was surprised at how good they taste.


i must admit i don't miss european slugs, our Canadian ones are tiny in comparison.

 

Great post sjoerd...I want to thank you for saving the Bee...I would of done the same thing. In fact in the morning when I put a clean jelly jar outside for the birds I had some small moths stuck in it so I poured a little water in it and they are able to fly off most of the time. About the only insect I want to get rid of is the mosquitoes really...I just want to peacefully walk around my flowers and deadhead what needs done but with all the swatting I do, it takes me twice as long...

Great pictures...

 

Wow... Everything is soooo neat. I'd have to show your pics to my parents. They've got so much work in different locations that nothing ever looks so neat.
I always nag them.
They have no time to water tomatoes in the evening cause they have to milk the cow, etc- no great tomatoes...
etc

 

Thanks for reading, NETTY--Yes, that slug was a monster, almost as long as one of my fingers. They can do an enormous amount of damage in a garden. I am glad that I saw him and was able to toss him across the canal and let him do his munching on the railroad margin. There is lots of vegetation there and he won't be able to get back across.
I am glad that you got something out of the onion segment. Thanks for saying the grass path looks tidy. That makes me feel good because it is a lot of work to maintain. So much that I can only allow 2-3 treatments a season. I "mowed" it with a light-weight, inexpensive strimmer.

Thanks very much, DAN--for your very nice comments. I was well chuffed with my onions this year as well, and the fence-hanging was a better way to dry them.
How I make an onion string is simple. I did a posting about it here back in 2008. Here is the link: http://www.gardenstew.com/about11490.html

I hope that is is clear enough for you to understand. My partner was the model and I took the fotos.The Crocosmia 'Lucifer' doesn't always bloom the year following transplanting, I have noticed in my own garden. They can sometimes be a little slow to start, but they are hardy and will eventually begin to do their 'firey' thing.
Yes, those cylinder beets ARE tasty aren't they. They are the primary reason that I grow them. I eat them fresh and freeze them in. Ahhhh...the flavour. Mmmmmm.
Let me know how it goes with the onion string, if you decide to make one.

great to hear from you, SHERRY--Yes, I couldn't see letting that poor bumble bee die an agonizing death floundering in the water. Apart from that, I sort of see bees as gardening partners and in fact I put a great deal of thought into what plants I plant, with bees in mind. It would be odd then if I left the creature to just drown, wouldn't it. I mean, in gardening, one has to be a bit hard about some things, but not this. I know what you mean about mozzies, though. They lay their eggs in the rain water collection barrels here and so it is always full of larvae...but other than that, I do not leave things lying around that water can collect in.

WOW! What a nice compliment, CALIN. I know how it goes with having things to do in different places at the same time. Because of that, my plots do not always look neat either...but I always have a plan and while things look a bit messy for the passerby, it is really just "in transition" and MUST be like that until the next step can be carried out. My garden work works like dominos falling, if you know what I mean. Maybe your parents garden like that as well. It all has to do with what follows what and when, in my scheme of things. Your parents must be proud that you nag them though--it shows that you care and that you are interested. That means a lot, you know.
I know what you mean about no time to do one thing because there is another job that has to be done. I sometimes get into those sorts of situations, but I must then, in the instance of greenhouse watering, give the water earlier in the day. My little greenhouse project is essential to my harvesting, so I must find ways of tending it's inhabitants. You know, I don't think I could do without my toms. hahaha. I use them fresh and I preserve them for use later on in the year.
My grandparents were real masters at canning, but I am not so exotic, I just make a concentrate for use in soups and sauces.
Anyway, thanks again for your comments.

 

Thanks for sharing Sjoerd. I hope you have vacation time left to not work so hard' although I know gardening is very relaxing to me especially on a beautiful morning.