Self care by growing a garden

Finished getting the espalier wires up for our apple trees today. Slowly, slowly our kitchen garden is taking shape.

🙂 Sounds good @Former-Member. 🙂

I pruned our guinea pig, (Not going to get a long haired one again, too much upkeep.)

Also divided up the punnet of capsicums I bought recently which are being mollycoddled inside until the danger of frost is reduced. Wouldn't be game to put them in the greenhouse right now, it's not enough protection.

Also planted some seeds for weird veggies, the kind of things you can't usually buy in punnets. Cape Gooseberries, Tomatillos, and Asparagus Peas. Those will be kept inside for now too.

A friend in the nation's capital is quite organised and has put her tomato and other seeds in a mini greenhouse under cover.

@Former-Member, I've always baulked at starting tomatoes early, because we've occasionally had November frosts. And usually get at least one or two in October. But every year I get frustrated at not getting my tomatoes in until way too late, and I barely get anything back from them. So I'm biting the bullet this year. Cape Gooseberries and Tomatillos are both close relatives of tomatoes, I'll take the plunge with some actual tomato seed sometime soon. And I'll need to start getting beds ready so there's somewhere to put them all too. 🙂

Our tomato needs are minimal @Smc as we are not sauce/relish makers and I found that as cherry tomatoes don't take so long to ripen I have had better success with them but do have a longer growing season in our new location so could try some bigger ones. We had cape gooseberries at one place and they must have been in just the right spot as they self seeded.

Our Younger Daughter loves salsa, and tomatillos have a reputation for taking it to the next level, so I want to try them that way. If I get a successful crop this year, I'll probably make some sauce, but what we really go through is canned tomatoes. One time a couple of years ago, the owner of a nearby display garden invited us to help ourselves to the last tomatoes in their kitchen garden, because they'd used all they wanted, and the plants were due to come out for the next crop. They were mostly cherry toms. I squashed them as tight as I could into small-ish Fowlers jars, along with a few herbs, topped up with just a little bit of water and put them in the water bath. They turned out great, and were about as low hassle as anything could be.

Both tomatillos and cape gooseberries could be dealt with in the same way, except I'm not sure I'd want to use a whole bottleful of those at one sitting. 🙂 But at the moment, they're all just tiny seeds... so I won't plan too far ahead yet. Generally though, I like experimenting with unusual vegs, and I usually find a way to use them.

Small but steady progress today, got the espalier wires finished in the cherry bed today as well as raking up a bit of garden debris and putting it in the green bin.

The guinea pig doesn't like me anymore. 😛 He dashes off to hide whenever he sees me coming, so I make sure I regularly put some yummy greenery in his pen so that he thinks of me as food-person instead of hairdresser.

Transplanted a couple of aquilegias that were crowding out other more valuable plants into a bed with empty spots... and planted a potful of chamomile into a concrete chimney section that I'm using as a planter, to have a shot at a chamomile seat. Something I've wanted ever since I was a teenager. 🙂 It won't be as fancy as this one from Sissinghurst, but I'll be happy anyway if it works.

And I picked some nice daffodils and hellebores so that I could enjoy them from inside. The week coming is due to be damp, and progressively colder, so I don't think I'll be spending much time gazing at them if they stay in the garden.

Feeling just a wee bit chuffed - our kitchen garden set up (phase 1) is now complete. The berry trellis wiring is done and all our fruit trees are now planted.

Big YAY to that @Former-Member. 🙂

I've been spreading a few more woodchips, plus associated cleaning up. The worms are moving into the woodchips, which is all good. I could happily have a massive "worm farm".