Our November garden
is one of promise – the hard labour of clearing, composting, bed preparing and
building is almost complete and nearly all the summer crops have been sown. Melon, winter and summer squash, runner and
bush beans and cucumber seedlings are slowly but surely being planted out into
the said prepared beds. With sowing
season pretty much at a close, I've had to hurry with getting eggplant and a
few other essentials into newspaper pots.
Our summer planting season may have begun a little later, but it ends
right along with everyone elses...
Bell Pepper...
We have been having a
frustrating time with the tiresome snails and cutworm... I have come to loathe the creatures as they
continue to feast on our young transplants and seedlings. This battle must be won, so we keep a stiff
upper lip and begin again. Gardening is
all about success and failure and failure and success. No use getting down in the dumps – I couldn't
quit even if I wanted to as our growing family is always needing nourishment! When I speak of our 'growing' family, I am
not actually speaking about our human family. We have recently acquired chickens which need
plenty of healthy greens in their diet.
Having chickens has been a life long dream of ours, so to realise it the
other day was simply delightful. Nancy
is in charge of the chooks while Mom and I keep our hand on the garden.
Coriander...
Three weeks ago I was
fortunate enough to have a compost making lesson with a gardening
neighbour. I thoroughly enjoyed the
experience and came home all fired up to make our own heaps and get growing in
earnest! We've always had a compost heap
of sorts, but it was wonderful to learn the proper way to make a heap which
should be ready to use in just four weeks.
Compost is amazing and I love it – not everyone around here shares my obsession
for this incredible plant food, but they all appreciate it. Though I must add that Mom is also very
excited about having compost available for her little garden. Dad does his bit by carting manure and other things
to our compost making section and slashing grass to dry and grass to use
straightaway. If he has time, he'll help
Mom and I with building tripods, clearing new bed areas or anything else that
is just too challenging for us girls.
Gem Squash...
The peas were finished
halfway through last month and the broad beans only remain because of the
valuable beans which are drying on the plants for next season's planting. I had to clear out most of the bean plants to
make space for the cucumbers. I've just
left two or three bushes to dry.
We are enjoying our
strawberries most of all. There are
times when we get frustrated when the plants don't produce well or the berries
get nibbled by slugs or caterpillars. But on the whole, I think they're not
doing too badly. Mom picks a small
bowlful nearly every morning, washes, dries and removes the calyx off each
berry and places the whole lot in an ice cream tub in the freezer. Come a hot day, we open a tub of strawberries
and blend them up with homemade yoghurt, frozen banana, paw paw and pineapple,
a squeeze of orange juice and a good dollop of pure honey. Strawberry smoothies are such wonderful and
healthy treats in our home.
Fresh berries are
eaten in our breakfast once a week or so or for snacktime.
Mom's two raspberry bushes
are doing beautifully. The berries have
just begun to ripen and Dad had the first one the other day. We added another three smaller bushes to our
bed of raspberries and another two will be planted out later today.
A few other smaller
crops include radish, beetroot, Swiss chard, carrots, lettuce and herbs.
Both the runner and
bush beans are sporting beautiful flowers – a truly beautiful sign of the
goodness to come!
And the sweet peas we
planted in Autumn are flowering prolifically along the fence and in the kitchen
garden. Mom loves to gather her bunch of
loveliness every morning and being able to give a gift of pretty sweet peas to
someone is too glorious for words!
We really do feel
like we are finally enjoying a homestead life – our days are simple and sweet
yet extremely busy. Everyone falls into
bed after a day of breathing in fresh air, making meals together in the kitchen,
looking after our little animals, working in the garden and helping each other
with school work. Sewing, crafting and
leisure activities happen somewhere inbetween...
This is where the
Lord has placed us for however long He deems fit. Now we enjoy it and work with it and ‘bloom
where we’re planted’!
I hope you enjoyed
reading about our toils, tribulations and triumphs – please feel free to share
what is happening in your container/kitchen/large farm garden with me in the
comments section. I love to read about
other people's experiences and be inspired!
With much love,
Kelly-Anne
