Every day we do a little something. We recently harvested some leeks and spuds to make a dish called, Prei Schotel. When we lifted the leeks, there was this anomaly. Two plants had this. The skinny young ones were coming out of the base of the main plant. Obviously there was too much leek for a meal, so we processed it into the freezer. Leeks are good frozen, but as with most veg, it is better fresh. To this end we did not lift them all, further we went out into the countryside and bought more plantlets of Winter Leeks to enjoy freshly lifted throughout the winter. Another thing that we had to do was get more beetroot. The extended heat and dryness recently had caused irreversible changes in the flesh of the tubers. I will wait a short ime to see if this moist and cooler weather will somehow bring them around. I have my doubts because the beetroots have become like cork and the voles are no longer interested. Now then, they can do what they will or can, but I have twenty new plantlets in the ground and hope for a fall harvest. The old beetroot bed will be planted with my usual green manure seeds. We have been in the greenhouse again. A bit of suckering, a bit of pruning, a bit of topping and of course, feeding and watering. I can show you some progress fotos. The West side—the sorts are, Money Makers, Marmande and Mountain Rouge: Then some individual sorts. Here, a Roma: A Marmande: The weeding continues as does the succession of blooming annuals and perennials. The Spirea japonica I have trimmed right back to their ball-shapes. I usually do this later in the season. I hope that my cavalier action will not have a negative result. We shall see. Right then, it is tea time here…so I am going to do the ritual.
Oh, nope won't work here. 14F is a mild winter for us. Oh well it sounded good. I'm actually thinking about putting a small cold frame in front of my garage. That may be a good winter project.
That sounds good to me, orrrrrr— you could put that cold frame together now and even try a few winter leeks, just to see if they would work. I like experiments.
I thought of that as well. Right now I'm going out and putting chicken wire over the hoops in my strawberry patch. The bunnies chew through everything else. My granddaughter gave me a roll of chicken wire for my birthday. (I try to think of inexpensive useful things for her to get for me). I put a fence around my raised beds last year. I went out one day and all the leaves were gone off my baby beans. I blamed it on the squirrels and/or chipmunks, the bunnies were too big to get through the spaces. I came out a few days later and I saw the culprit....a baby bunny! I now have chicken wire 2 feet up and a few inches into the ground....just in case they dig. Stupid baby bunnies!
Loggie, I knew I could count on you. Ha ha. Well, I did have the first tom of the season tonight. It was a known British type—Money Maker. It was delicious.
Sjoerd, how hot do your summers get? I've always just grown tomatoes in the ground....I guess I've always lived in warm summer locations. Your little & spuds look beautiful. As do those tomatoes.
Cayu— the summers here are usually in the low to mid 20’sC with a short 2-3 day heatwave somewhere in there. Thanks for the veg compliment. They did well this year, both were new types for us.
No Cayu, not too cold to swim. But then Dutch folks are nutcases that strip-off and go for a dip every january 1st. — I just looked over my shoulder at the weather station and see that the outside temp is 16*C and inside it is 21*C. Speaking of swimming, we have a new, large beach area for swimmers and sunbathers ( it opened 30 june ). It has taken a while to construct. There is the beachy bit down by the water but they have also laid a rambla for the strolling folks at a level just under the dike’s top. A lot of attention has been given to keeping children happy. Yes, generally the temps here are milder than in other places there is humidity, but the wind off the Zuider Zee keeps us reasonably cool.
