First day of summer 2010

It's officially summer!  The days are just starting to get really hot, and today is no exception.  It's gorgeous outside, but too hot to spend long doing much, but everything has had a major growth spurt over the last couple of days, and we've got a few more things to plant out soon

Wild radish

The kids were all keen to spend some of their pocket money, so we went for a walk to the local garden centre and they spent a little money each on edible plants they wanted.  We even incorporated a bit of a wild food walk with it, and learnt about some of the edible and inedible weeds along the way.  Fairly well received was the wild radish, which has a nice spicy tang to it.  As there's a fair bit in the garden at home at the moment, I'm sure the kids will try it a few more times



Our two youngest boys decided they wanted berries.  So, we ended up with the youngest buying an "Ivory" variety raspberry (yellowish berries instead of red) and 4 strawberry plants, while our middle boy bought a blueberry bush and 4 strawberries of his own.

Raspberry "Ivory"

"Pajaro" & "Seascape" strawberries

"Centurion" blueberries

Our oldest boy wanted something a bit different, and after quite some deliberation, he picked a Kumquat.  None of us have ever tasted one before, so we figured we'd try it.  It'll go out with another "Meyer" lemon and the "Satsuma" mandarin in the chicken enclosure.  Our oldest girl picked herself out a "Love Heart" rose.  Not strictly in the edible vein, but we'll try the rosehips in autumn and see what they are like.  It is a lightly fragrant rose too, and will go nicely in our front garden.

Kumquat

"Love Heart" hybrid tea rose

The rose will get a few herbs and some of the onion family to try and help it keep pest and disease free.  Maybe another rose or two in time, but all in all it should turn into quite a pretty wee spot, with some nice fragrance for the summer.

Dwarf beans...  You call that dwarf???

I've been really slack about not prepping garden beds and planting out my seedlings, so had a big surprise when I went into the greenhouse today and saw the size of my beans...  Okay, okay, I promise to get them into the garden on the weekend...

Sweetcorn for the school fair

 The school fair is only two sleeps away, and the seeds I planted last week are looking ready to go along to it.  I wasn't sure and only planted them to see how quick they grow...  Most impressed with my sweetcorn.

 And our footpath finally reaches our gate!  I couldn't help but giggle though, when the guys poured out the cement, then saw me leaving the house with all 5 children in tow, to take them to school...  We jumped the fence and used the driveway next door to get out to the road, but I think they'd forgotten that I leave that time every morning...  Priceless

Now with exposed aggregate - looking nice!

My footpath, prior to exposing aggregate :)

Baby zucchini!

I poked my finger into the lasagna garden this morning, to see how it had fared after two or three days with no water...  There was moisture only an inch down still, which would explain why Sam's zucchini has gone from seedlings to actually flowering and starting to produce in just a few weeks.





Well, that's about it for today, but hopefully I'll be able to post up some of the stuff we harvest over the next couple of weeks!

Cheers,
Mama Fern