I'm cold. Freezingly-turning-into-an-ultra-frozen-icicle-cold. Brrrrr.
After having a lovely little holiday away in a 'sweltering' 26 deg (I kid you not that is how the English press described it) in London, the Italian summer of around 34 deg and a melting 44 deg in Dubai, I get back to a high of 6 deg. 6!! I don't think it could even be classed as a 'high' as it hasn't reached double figures! I am finding it a little hard to warm up.
After seeing so many veggie patches in the estates on the outskirts of London and through the Italian Tuscan countryside, I was starting to get a little homesick for my own little patch.
Luckily, everything had been well cared for by good friends, and was going well.
Overall view of veggie gardens
Here we have broad beans, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, beetroot, silverbeet, lettuce, leeks and carrots
Snow pea seedlings
Bit of a mess but I call this my 'reality' shot :) In the greenhouse we have chilies and eggplants potted up from last season, a peanut bush still hanging on, a sweet potato vine still hanging on, bok choi, silverbeet, assorted herbs, tagasastes and some salvia cuttings my mum gave me to hopefully plant out in spring.
And look at these cute little guys! I have managed to sprout 9 little Mary Washington Asparagus plants from seeds. Won't be ready to harvest for another couple of years yet, but so far so good. I seriously need to get in and repot them though.
An update on the retrofitting of the orchard. Not an overabundance to information to share here, but we have moved the oranges and feijoas (companion plant) nearer to the pond to hopefully displace a bit of the frost and deflect some heat onto the plants from the rocks and water during winter. You never know if you never try. I have planted some comfrey with them as I have read that the comfrey draws up minerals from the deep to make available to the orange's shallow roots. We have also planted a Cox's Orange Pippin apple and another apricot in the orchard.
The tagasaste are growing super-doper well and are on track to be planted out in spring in the orchard when it gets a little warmer.
I was speaking with a friend yesterday and we came to the realization that winter is almost over as the first day of spring is only about a month away! Can you believe it! I feel a little behind as I have yet o plant any seeds for the spring planting and I have a list a mile long for jobs to do in the garden before it becomes too hot.
I will hopefully have some more time on my hands as I am taking a break from studies this semester. This is for a couple of reasons, firstly, because I'm not sure what I'm studying is exactly what I want to be doing. Its not my passion and I have been finding myself 'cheating' on my studies by looking up much more exciting permaculture and food gardening topics when I should be studying instead. I have put my name down to assist with the Urban Agriculture Australia's stand at Floriade this year and hopefully will gain some really good contacts with the people around this region. I have given myself these six months to see if I want to go back to it. But I really don't want to.
