The last week has disappeared in a flurry of activity….I really meant to post this image of our structure-building efforts this time last week, but with preparation for Saturday’s Summer Kitchen Gardening day, I got a bit distracted. Then the scene was no longer wet and rainy, but today I feel justified in posting the image as the newly built structures are covered in droplets of rain once again!
This week however, there are emerging bean and cucumber seedlings at their feet, which is terribly exciting (you’d think it was the first time I’d done this, wouldn’t you??!!). My excitement at emerging seed never ceases – season to season, year to year, as fragile stems unfurl, the case of the seed still attached like a little hat on top. Oh but the worry.…I’ve been out there with sawdust to surround each one, in fear of something ‘getting them’ in the night! Or day – at this early stage, anything can happen…
I know I’ve mentioned it before, but really I am as enamoured of structures in the garden as I am of plants. I enjoy the aesthetic they create and that they’re there for a reason – to support our climbing beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and sweet potatoes; as well as the sturdy one I’ve built with Alex this year (best one yet), to support willow panels for shade over our leafy green bed once this overcast weather fades and the summer sun is fierce.
We harvested the bamboo rods once again from our dear friends over the way, spending time in their paddock cutting, trimming and tying the rods together for the trip home in the ute, where they were sorted, grouped and eventually, over a period of days, erected and tied together. As I write, I’m still intermittently planting the beds as time permits and hope to have most of the ‘rotation’ beds completed this weekend.
Also last week, in a panic with the rain (as really garlic oughtn’t even to be watered during the final weeks before harvest) I pulled the entire crop on the spur of the moment, for fear it might rot in the ground. The colour is exquisite, and including the ten or so I pulled green, we’ll have had a crop of around 150 heads, which I’m delighted with. Although still ‘wet’, I’m thoroughly enjoying the pungent new cloves direct from the drying rack and should be able to bundle them up to store in a couple of weeks, once their papery shells have dried.