August Garden

At the moment, it seems that we don’t really walk around the Farmlet. Rather, we wade and slither. Everything is sodden, and we and our animals are all feeling ready for some spring weather to dry things out just a little. Even though the farm is soggy and the garden scruffy, August finds us full of plans and hopes for the growing season ahead. We have drawn up plans for the spring and summer garden, and the new packets of seeds we ordered have already arrived.


Lemons

Today, I started organising the area under the front porch that I use for starting seeds. I had the help of my parents’ elderly dog, who is lodging with us while they are on vacation. The “to do” list is long at the moment. A couple of overgrown areas of the house paddock need to be cleared and covered with black polythene sheeting without delay, if we are to extend the vegetable garden for the coming season. Garden beds need to be cleared, and compost made with whatever we clear out. Then the beds need to be prepared for planting. It is certainly encouraging to see how good the drainage is in our vegetable beds compared to the rest of the house paddock. We are glad for all the work we have done over the past year to improve the soil structure. . . but more time and hard work will be necessary to build the soil up to the levels of our expectations.

It is exciting to have some new kinds of seeds to try, as well as favourites from last year. One such favourite is the New Zealand heirloom “Tree Lettuce.” It proved very bolt resistant last summer, and was also remarkably pest free. We have a new lettuce to try, as well: another heirloom called “Asian Red.” It’s also meant to be a good summer lettuce — resistant to bolting and pests. I’ve planted the first lettuces already, in little pots by the window, so we’ll see how they go.

Some of the vegetable varieties that we liked and are growing again this year include:
Green Feast Peas (a shelling pea, prolific, sweet, and every bit as tasty as the name suggests)
Red Orach (a beautiful and delicious salad green)
Tampala Amaranth (also very ornamental, and a welcome addition to salads and stir-fry dishes)
Bull’s Blood Beet (beautiful, burgundy-coloured foliage on top of sweet beetroots)

Some new varieties that we are trying this year include:
Purple-Flowered Snow Peas
Marrowfat Peas
Corn Salad, Dutch Large Seeded

I guess we will be writing more about the different veges in the garden as the season progresses.

Harvest-wise, our garden is not very abundant at the moment, so we are pleased still to be eating last season’s potatoes, and tomatoes in the form of bottled tomato puree. We are also picking all the greens we can eat (garden cress, collards, squire kale, mustard lettuce, swiss chard, and some broccoli), as well as green onions, leeks, turnips, beets, cilantro and pot celery. We certainly can’t complain, with this selection of vegetables on our table! We are also enjoying the fruit of the meyer lemon tree that grows in the house paddock between the vegetable beds, as well as the scent of its blossoms.

And the garden already promises more treats to come: The broad beans are flowering, little rosettes of corn salad are emerging, “red drumhead” cabbages are starting to form heads, and the garlic (planted about a month ago now) is really taking off!

4 Responses to “August Garden”

  1. Manda says:

    Hi there, been reading and enjoying your site for a little while. Just wondering what size area you have for your vegetable garden this season.

  2. Eve says:

    Hi there,

    I love reading your blog. One day I would like to do what you are doing and get away from 9-5 jobs. In the meantime I read your blog. The only thing that always worries me is how do you get enough money in to pay the bills?

    Cheers Eve Nelson NZ

  3. Meliors says:

    Hi,
    I’ve been enjoying your blog for a while, very inspiring to see you doing what so many of us dream of. And in Northland too.
    I don’t know if you like magnolias but if you do you might be interested in nominating your favourite for the Magnolia of the Year Awards I’m running on my blog, Bibliophilia- an entirely informal and arbitrary celebration of this most glorious mid-winter gift. All the more appreciated this winter seeing them burst out full of luminous beauty in the endless grey rain.
    Cheers
    Meliors

  4. Rebecca says:

    Hi All, and thanks for the comments. We really appreciate your interest in the blog, and in what we are doing here.

    @Manda: Actually, I was sitting inside in the rain this morning wondering the same thing — mostly in connection with the size of the area we’ll be planting in corn. How many seeds do we need for that area? I’ll have to get out there with my measuring tape in the very near future, and will be sure to include some details in the next garden post I write.

    @Eve: Good question! Hmm. . . sometimes we wonder how we will get enough money in to pay the bills, too! Our strategy when we moved here was to save enough money to buy our property outright. Without any debt, and with a simple lifestyle, we figured we could keep our expenses to a minimum. As we settle in here, we are always working on further reducing our cost of living. Still, we do need some money to get by (rates, petrol etc.)! Basically, we are living off money generated by donations to Kevin’s current events/ economics/ politics website “Cryptogon.com” (plus a few donations that we get for Farmlet). Kevin spends considerable time each day maintaining Cryptogon, and it has quite a large pool of readers who appreciate the resource. If Cryptogon stops bringing in enough money for us to get by on, he will have to give up or scale back the site and we’ll spend the time on some other revenue-generating activity. As it is, we feel very lucky to be able to make a living working at home.

    @Meliors: Your comment makes me wish that we had a magnolia tree on the place. I’ll have to put it on my wish list! It also makes me wish my grandparents were still living on their farm over near Kaikohe. In that farmhouse garden, there was a huge old magnolia tree (50 years old? maybe 100?). We would climb the tree, and play on the swing hanging from a big branch. At the right time of year, if you looked up while you were swinging, it seemed you were falling into a skyfull of massive pink magnolia blossoms. Maybe I’ve never thought a tree was more beautiful than that.

    Best wishes to you all,
    Rebecca