Aug 5 2012, Garden no 15

I’ve spent the day alternating between sitting here and playing in the garden, and then sitting here, and then playing in the garden, etc etc etc…..
And considering I haven’t spent the WHOLE day out there, I think I achieved quiet a lot. I had a space in the veg garden where the first of the broad beans were. I’ve dug it over and removed a bucket full of stones. I’ve no idea where all these stones keep coming from because I keep removing them and they keep coming back. In my garden stones are more prolific than weeds. I dug in some pellets and fed the earth because I know the soil must be pretty tired by now but I want to try to get a little bit more done this season. I’ve sown a whole row of carrots. I know it’s a bit late but all the books and all the packets say you can sow up until the end of July and we are only a few days into August so I figured it would be OK. Also, my sister left her late carrots in over the winter and they were fine when she lifted them in the spring so maybe I’ll do the same.
I took the last of the radishes from this box, fed the soil and then sowed a few more beetroot. Again the books say you can sow up until the end of July so I figured it would be OK. These are the lettuce, radishes and rocket I sowed a couple of weeks ago. I’ve still got plenty of lettuce to last until they are ready but I’ve run out of radish until these grow. And I decided to use up the last of the carrot seed in the potato barrels. The potatoes came up a couple of weeks ago and the compost has been fed so I’m hoping it will be OK. Even if I get nothing from the seeds I’ve put in today I’ve not really lost any thing because I didn’t want to keep the seeds for next year anyway. All the books say you shouldn’t keep seeds from one season to the next because they are not as good if used the year after purchase. That could just be a ploy to get us all to buy more seeds but it could be true, so I like to get fresh seeds every season.  And this is today’s harvest. From left to right, tonight’s harvest is; a little lettuce, nasturtium leaves, spring onion and radish for tonight’s salad, the first of the beetroot, the first garlic and the first clump of shallots, more broad beans and dill for the freezer. Looks like I’m off to buy pickling spices tomorrow. I’ve left the rest of the shallots, garlic and beetroot in the ground because I think they will benefit from a little more time. I had to take these few, they were pushing their way out of the ground.
Oh and also………..a little more fruit that’s heading straight for the freezer ready for my jam making weekend sometime soon.

This rather out of focus picture is lavender and tansy. I’ve picked about half of what is there to make these years sachets for the draws. The smell is so very, very good. Decided to leave the out of focus photo, I quite like the effect.And…………..did you know that Buddleia blooms smell like hyacinths,  well even if that’s not normal, mine do.

delete reply brendainmad wrote on Aug 6 Your garden looks lovelier every blog.

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Aug 5 boy ~ for a lousy summer it sure looks good :)

delete reply rabbitfriendhere wrote on Aug 5 I found with my honesty seeds that I planted a year after I'd collected them that they looked a little rattier than the original. However, the honesty seems to have recovered and taken over. Go super worms! They're heroes to me! :-)

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Aug 5 greenwytch said well done, Loretta! thanks Deb :-))

delete reply aaranaardvark wrote on Aug 5 forgetmenot525 said actually.............stones in my garden, their origin and their means of migrating are some of the random thoughts I experience while out there playing in the dirt. I've discovered I know absolutely nothing about how stones are made and how they get into my garden. BUT...........if worms are pushing those stones around, I have mega strong worms in my earth, some of my stones are very big. LOL maybe you have superworms ....but then again maybe not Loretta? In just one acre there can be a million or more worms, eating 10 tons of leaves, stems, and dead roots a year and turning over 40 tons of soil. Imagine them all over the world -- billions and billions of earthworms, tunneling through soil, chewing up fallen leaves and animal remains, pushing heavy stones. http://kids.discovery.com/tell-me/animals/bug-world/worm-world/the-earthworm Charles Darwin calculated that worms push up eight tonnes of earth through the casts at the entrances of their burrows. He even carried out experiments to show this could happen within a human lifetime, he laid a stone in his garden, which was not to be disturbed, and measured the rate at which the earth was raised around it. http://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/darwin200/pages/index.php?page_id=c7 This excavating could be what reveals the stones....I'm hard pressed for any other answer as to how they get there Loretta?

delete reply greenwytch wrote on Aug 5 well done, Loretta!

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Aug 5 aaranaardvark said Those stones must be pushed up by worms which has to be a good sign surely Loretta? actually.............stones in my garden, their origin and their means of migrating are some of the random thoughts I experience while out there playing in the dirt. I've discovered I know absolutely nothing about how stones are made and how they get into my garden. BUT...........if worms are pushing those stones around, I have mega strong worms in my earth, some of my stones are very big.

delete reply aaranaardvark wrote on Aug 5 Another fantastic little harvest here, you eat very well Loretta, the fruit and veg is doing well and I'm sure the planting instructions on the carrot seeds pack is for southern England, so its only right that you plant them a little later in your own northern latitudes...sounds logical to me anyway. Those stones must be pushed up by worms which has to be a good sign surely Loretta?

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Aug 5 mitchylr said ! I think you're right about them saying don't use seeds from one year to the next to make you buy more seeds. I kinda think so too, and if I do have seeds left I probably will use them next year, but I am going to start planning a bit better and try to use most if not all the seeds in the year they are bought.

delete reply mitchylr wrote on Aug 5 The garden looks just great!! I think you're right about them saying don't use seeds from one year to the next to make you buy more seeds. When I had a garden, I often used ones left over from previous years, more often than not the results were just as good.

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Aug 5 hedgewitch9 said Oh Loretta, I LOVE your garden :))) Thank you Emma.............I rather love my garden too :-))

delete reply hedgewitch9 wrote on Aug 5 Oh Loretta, I LOVE your garden :)))