All In A Day's Work

Work in the veggie gardens is picking up and constantly changing. I recently harvested the raapsteeltjes for the last time and dug the stubble under in preparation for the next crop.
I believe that raapsteeltjes are known as "turnip greens" in english.
I am very fond of these, and we eat them raw, mixed with mashed potatoes and bacon bits with gravy... or boiled. My partner makes a sauce to mix through them.
Here is the small bed before their last harvest.

...and a trug-full of the harvested leaves ready to be taken home.

That was a quick task, but there was loads of weeding to do and planning for the coming brassicas and beans that must still be planted out...but first I wanted to try making an espalier for our new Gooseberry bushes.
Granted, this technique is something that the Victorians popularized and perfected...for fruit trees like pear, apple and so forth.
Having said that, I always like to put my own twist on things and I really like trying something new. Doing things my way is fun but not always without a bit of scepticism from fellow gardners..and sometimes my owen partner. hahaha....I just plod along though. This espalier idea is the latest.
Here is what it looks like. I know that it is not easy to see at the moment because of the background and I can't get a good camera angle because of the blueberry fence, but perhaps you can see what I am trying to do here.
Hopefully as the plants get older and the branches grow longer, I can select and train them to the effect that I want.
Why I am altering the habitus of my gooseberries? Well to begin with, to make fruit picking easier...and to lessen the danger of being pricked by the thorns. Further, I feel that the fruit of espaliered plants are constantly exposed to the sun's ripening and not partially consealed by leaves.
The Victorians did this against a brick wall--I do not have one surrounding my lottie, so to begin with, I am not using any wall. I may well fashion one behind the plants with the onset of winter. I shall see.
Here is the simple structure made of small bamboo canes.

You can see a little better looking at just one of the plants.

It just occurred to me that some of you folks may not know what I am talking about when I speak of making an espalier for the bush.
An espalier is a form uses to tie the branches to, in order to train your tree or bush to grow in a certain way. Generally speaking, along specific horizontal and verticle lines. Because I am doing this with bushes, the typical model will not be easy to achieve (in the beginning, at least), so I sill use transverse guidence for some branches instead of proper form.
Doing an espalier presents a bit of a problem when the object is an bush rather than a tree, but I'm not letting that stop me. I'm not one to be limited by conventionality purely for conventionality's sake. Smile

Ok then, so after the long day's work it was late and we were tired...so we elected to head off to the harbour to have a fish meal.
There is a bloke who has a small stand next the old harbour tower. His "Lekkerbekjes" are the best that I know of.
Here is are a couple of pics of the entrance to and the inner harbour.
The entrance to the inner harbour.

The inner harbour

Finally the old harbour tower dating from the 1500's.

Ahhh (stretching)...it feels good to work hard and eat well.

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Sjoerd http://www.volkstuindersvereniginghoornenomstreken.nl/Page11.html

Looks like you had a great day that was productive and fun. A meal of fish is the best any time for me - very cute town and I like seeing where other people live. Your "lottie" is very fascinating to me -- we don't have anything like that in this area, though in the city of Baltimore, there are some community gardens where people have small veggie patches. I would imagine it is nice to have your lottie to work and your lottie neighbors to interact with. Do you have to travel far from your home to get to it?

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Daisybeans/MaryAnn

"Once the relation between poetry and the soil is well established in the mind, all growing things are endowed with more than material beauty." -Elizabeth Lawrence