We have been pacing ourselves with garden work this year with the unprecedented heat and dryness. Pacing ourselves and giving special attention to hydrating ourselves. We do not want want to dry-up and blow away with the next wind storm. The jobs haven’t been really big ones; rather a series of small but necessary ones. Rain or shine they had to be done. One of the important tasks was clearing up the second strawberry bed. After looking at the following foto, I realise that I need to explain what you are seeing and why I am doing what I am doing. First, here’s the pic: Now then, to begin with, we removed all of the old straw from around the plants and between them in the rows. This went onto our veggie garden path. Next we lifted the plants and laid them out exposing the root clump for a couple of days so that the soil could dry and be shaken off. We have done that now and we will rake it level and plant it in with a green manure. There was more weeding to do in the flower garden plots, schoffeling along the paths and the grass paths needed mowing and the edges needed strimming. Yes, and with all the heat, the toms were watered and fed every other day…and they were growing like gangbusters! This can only mean one thing— suckering and more pruning. You can see that we are entering the phase of severe pruning now. Only the bare necessity of leaves are left to facilitate fruit development and ripening. The time to top the plants is nearing now. The comfrey tea is the food of choice. We have made and bottled so much that I think that I am getting used to the smell. Heaven forbid! We have added a clock to the front of our garden house for the fun of it. We got it a goodwill place for a pittance the other day. It is chipped and runs on a single penlight battery but keeps perfect time. Then there are the harvests: We are getting trugs full like this every time we pick. That, of course, means that we are more frequently processing veg at home in the evening…as well as eating more often fresh veg. We have several areas planted with either Phacelia or Borrage. You could see on the strawberry plant foto above, that our spud patch is getting emptier and emptier. We have plenty of Summer leeks to harvest and will soon plant the winter leeks for fresh harvesting during the Wintertime. It has been an unusual season thus far, but the garden is doing fairly well.
This is looking really great Sjoerd. Your harvest looks wonderful. I didn't know that you did summer and winter leeks. I am new to Borage this year, and love the flowers and ease. Do you plant it as a polinator, or as a green manure?
Cheers Jewell. I can’t do ‘perfect’, but I do do my best. You are sweet to say so though. Mel—thank you so much. The Borage I plant as a green manure. The lovely blue blossoms go on a salad. Of course those blooms attract very many pollinators, and that makes me happy.
