It’s Spring finally and I can begin to plant all the things I’ve been waiting all winter for. I love gardening. There is something about playing in the food I am growing that gives me some peace and helps when I’m feeling panicky. If all else fails, I go and get my hands dirty.
Some things have been growing all winter and are now waist high, leaving me wondering if I’ve got room to dry strings of broad beans for winter.
This is about 1/8th of the beans I’ve got growing. Amy *might* have accidentally dropped 200 bean seeds into a freshly dug patch of garden and picking them up was too hard, so I just dug them in. This is what happens when you’re a lazy gardener.
So I have a metric shitload of broad beans growing and I am really not a fan of them. Although I can imagine drying them and adding them to casseroles and soups next winter will be fantastic. Dear family, be prepared to have loads of beans shared with you.
I’ve also got growing my standard things – kale (two types, russian and tuscan), lettuce greens, celery, beetroot, leeks, spring onions, garlic, cauliflower, radishes, capsicum, potatoes, parsley, chives, silverbeet, rainbow chard, strawberries and peas.
Planted but not yet sprouting I have carrots and beans (4 different types) and some sugar snap peas. Plus coriander, basil and mint.
We moved the A-frame that had been used for pulling out car engines by our houses previous owner into the garden too. I’m hanging my herb baskets on it in the hope that sunlight convinces something other than cress to grow. These baskets hold the aforementioned mint, basil and coriander.
The a-frame also gives me something to run our soaker hose over. Soon I’ll be planting strawberries in hanging baskets too and hoping it works. The plan is also to grow climbing beans up the frame, to hopefully make the frame part of the garden.
I went seed shopping yesterday which always makes me happy. I came home with purple runner beans, cucumber (2 types) zucchini, rockmelon (2 types, an experiment), corn and kohl rabi (another experiment).
I’m starting to wonder if maybe I need a larger garden – because I still have to plant enough tomatoes to make sauces with and I want to plant another 20 pea plants so I can freeze or dry some peas for winter.
It’s all very demanding and amazingly relaxing, especially when my social anxiety is playing up. Bring on the gardening. Just please, let’s not hide any snakes in there.
Unrelated: New theme! I bought Thesis, so I’ll probably have a play with the colours and stuff soonish. My brother’s girlfriend is drawing me a header in black and white, so I’ll have a graphic to pop up soon too. Until then, thoughts on colours, sidebar arrangements, things you’d like to see more of? Or we can talk about gardens and Spring.
We should be doing some more planting this weekend too. So far we have zucchini, yellow button squash, snow peas, corn, dwarf yellow beans, basil and two rows of lettuce (red & green coral). I am thrilled to have bought some heirloom seedlings last week so we have some heirloom cucumbers and pumpkin to plant, butternut pumpkin, coriander and parsley. In Princess’ garden we have 2 strawberries (I think we need a lot more than that!) and some sage, and there is a blueberrie in the pot on the front porch (again, we need need more!). I am desperate for my tomatoes, of which we will have several types because between Princess and I we can go through a bit and I want to make sauce this year too, and would love to get some fruit trees in somewhere. Having a clean slate out back means we can do anything, but our soil is clay, and so it is a lot of work, and we are hoping that successful planting this year will help start making it more workable from now on.
add a bit of gypsum to your soil as it helps to break down clay soils Also you will need to add tons and tons of organic matter to the garden. Put down some old newspapers (keep them damp) for the worms to hide under and they help to break down the clay as well.
We’ve been adding gypsum to every patch as we do it. 4yo Princess knows everything she needs to buy for the garden and recites it all “Gypsum, blood and bone, cow poo, compost, soil.”
That said, my horticulturally trained husband thinks he may have put down too much gypsum on the first patch. D’oh! But he also had me planting herb seeds at the wrong time too.
hehe I have found that it is very difficult to garden with my husband as he likes everything in neat rows, perfectly weeded. Where as I like a jumbled potager style garden. But we muddle along.
It sounds like you are doing everything correctly it will just take time to break down the soil. There are a lot of plants that like a clay soil.
I wish that I had some clay here 🙁
You can have some of my clay. I’m a sharing person.
We’ve got clay soil too, it’s a nightmare to work with. We’ve had some luck with loads of sheep poo and potting mix dug through, plus newspaper to encourage worms, etc etc.
I reckon that you should move the mint out of the hanging basket as mint is a marsh plant that likes it boggy. Don’t roll your eyes, I know you know that I am just reminding you ;)Those baskets dry out really quickly because of all the airflow around them and that fibre stuff is really porous. Thyme is a mediterranean plant and can cope with being a bit dryer as can marjoram or oregano. I don’t like hanging baskets because I always forget to water them, but I do like to see them full of lovely plants at other peoples houses 🙂
Yep, I’ve got a nice boggy patch for the mint, I’ll either pop it in the back corner (maybe some celery up there too?) or where the duck’s bath used to be.
Your garden sounds wonderful – but your mention of dried broad beans in casserole not so much. 30-odd years later, I am still traumatised by being force-fed them as a kid in mums winter cooking :-p
I’m not a giant fan either, so I doubt I’ll be force feeding them to the kids. Hehe. More adding a handful here and there. More likely, I’ll give the bulk of the beans to family.
Yes, give them to me, I love broad beans. nom nom nom
Your garden looks lovely. We planted broadbeans with Heidi’s gardening class at the beginning of winter. Been watching them growing over the months since and wondering what they are going to do with all those broadbeans. Suspect next school veggie market may well see broadbeans for sale.
I reckon! They seem to be the hardiest plant out there. Mine have been squashed, run over, dug in, snowed on, covered in frost, neglected and they are STILL going strong!
You bought thesis?
http://ma.tt/?s=thesis&x=0&y=0
That is all
LALALALALALAAAA. I’m not listening.
Okay, so I am. But I don’t want to be.
heh. Sorry.
No it’s not. I hope the family like the beans! 🙂
ME too!
Yay for gardens and spring! 🙂
(and woot for thesis! 😉 ) xx
I know, I think winter tried to kill me.
I have no gardening tips to offer but I would freeze the broadbeans, picked young and tender, and use them for Spring pasta or soup dishes with a variety of other green veggies. Yummy.
Currently trying to work out just how much pressure I’m going to need to apply to my Best Beloved to encourage the planting and nurture of a useful amount of vegetables this year. Also to finally replace the fruit trees that were burnt in the bush fire. He hates gardening but has finally accepted that ignoring it won’t make it go away and I can’t ‘do’ much out there at all. That’s progress in itself.
I’m definitely going to be freezing some too – and hopefully I’ll get enough peas to partially fill the freezer also.
I’m not able to ‘do’ much in the garden either, Nathan turns the beds for me and does the heavy work, I plant things (gently – using a spoon, heh) and do the small weeding.
I would be so upset about the fruit trees!
You got your seeds, that’s great 🙂
I don’t like broad beans AT ALL lol. But everything else I like.
Nath threw some capsicum seeds and tomato seeds into our garden here and we now have about 50 plants! All we’ve had is warm rain and intense sun and everything is going crazy. Since our yard is tiny we may have to get some planter boxes.
I LOVE the A frame, that would be the best thing in the garden. The hanging pots are a great idea! Some people hang them off the verandah and I’m one of those people who always hits their head on them. So a good choice of hanging space. 😀
Yes, I got some from Big W yesterday, but last night and this morning I bought some online from The Lost Seed Company (am sure I’ll have a gushing post to follow once they arrive) and I am so excited to be growing some heritage listed plants soon. Ones I can save the seeds from!
The a-frame, is to hopefully make better use of the space we’ve got. Also planning on putting in a larger garden out in the big yard, but I need to get some spoiled straw first. Hopefully I can pin down the farm manager next door and see if he’s got any hay gone bad.
Eat ’em raw, they’re way sweeter that way.
Or turn them into baked beans with all the tomato sauce from your tomatoes 😉
I think I’m going to have too many for eating straight! There are over 1000 flowers in that patch so far and more flowering each day. I’m not the greatest fan of broad beans, I planted 3 plants last year and had more than enough beans. If Amy hadn’t of ‘helped’ with the planting, we wouldn’t have had this many!
I am sure that we can preserve them and make a yummy version of tinned beans, like the beans in three bean mix. Oh Yum. I am getting excited thinking about jars of beans. I must be hungry 🙂
We should be able to actually. I’ve got some other beans planted, so we’ll see how we go.
looks fab!
And don’t worry about the broad beans… even if all you do is collect some as seeds for next year and dig the plants into the soil you’ll be doing your garden a favour as they nitrogen fix and make fab green manure, esp for clay soils. We’ve got heaps of them growing too!
Oh and be careful planting mint into the garden… it will go nuts. Our mint is now a rampant weed, all be it a lovely useful one! LOL
I think I’m going to have a do a large patch of beans out in the big yard too then, it desperately needs the nitrogen/green manure fix.
I want to plant mint in our back corner of the paddock, it’s where the grey water ends up and it’s really boggy, practically dam like during winter (an ankle deep boggy dam). I think the mint would like it there.
Can you please come over and do my garden? Pretty please?; )
and wheeeeee! You haz Thesis!
I am good with vegetables, but all my flowers have died. If you’re fine with that…
I know! Now just to work out exactly what I want to be doing with it design wise. Ideas?
Gardens, yeay! I’m so excited to have a small yard that’ll be perfect for growing things in…think I’ll be picking yours and your mum’s brain for tips on what to grow in a few months BG Xx
Yes! Gardens are brilliant, being able to pick fresh herbs and stuff makes all the difference.
Keep enough broad bean plants to supply you and your mum and slash all the rest to the ground (before they set beans), so they’re all broken up, then let them dry a couple of days and dig them in as green manure. It will help break up the clay soil, enrich it and encourage worms too. About six-eight weeks later you could plant other stuff in that patch.
I was going to post today about planting, but the words in my head won’t sort themselves out. It will have to wait until tomorrow.
I’d thought about that, but it seems like too much work. Heh, I’m a lazy gardener. Another 8 weeks or so and they should be finished anyway and I’ll be able to pop something else in. Probably tomatoes.
Working with plants and my own food and cooking creatively all help me feel a little closer to my version of God. Enjoy it immensely.
I agree. It might not be what others call ‘god’ but it’s something close. Connection.
A good cook and a garderner what a great combination! I’d love to be both but i do grow a few things in my pocket-sized garden.
Our season are briefly matching in temperatures at the moment. It seems like spring again here with enough rain to make nature lush and green and gold too because it is indeed autumn here and today we were picking apples. 2 days ago it was above 25°C and the kids went skinny dipping in the lake! La belle vie!
Fresh picked apples, mmmmmm – that’s the best bit of Autumn and for that, I can forgive it for heralding in winter. Hehe.
You have a lake! Lucky you!
There’s lots of lakes around here but I don’t have my own lake, no. This was at a friend’s place, a farmer who have organic sheep (and pigs, poneys, donkey, horse etc…)
and an apple a day keeps the doctor. We shall be fine till next spring then!
Ah okay. Still, fresh apples! Yum.
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