Monday 20 April 2015

Everything is GROWING!

It's a game of catch-up at the moment and I feel like we're in second place, although not by a huge distance.

The warm weather and occasional splash of rain has meant that everything green has gone into overdrive over the last couple of weeks - the terraces that I strimmed just over two weeks ago now look like they've never been cut, and all around the previously beautifully clear lower terraces, little sprouting bramble bushes and bracken fronds are starting to reappear - not only that, but it's all starting to clamber up and onto the electric fence, threatening to render it useless by shorting it out. Helen spent an hour or so yesterday afternoon going around the edges of the fenced-off area, cutting down the immediate offenders, but today the day has come for me to get reacquainted with the backpack strimmer for a full day's strimming.

It was a late start today though, as we both had something of a rough night. Helen had needed headache relief at some point during the night and she also had to attend to a 5am call from Reggie who had needed an urgent toilet visit.

So while Helen skipped the 'gym' and instead went straight to work, I slept an hour longer and then had breakfast before heading outside with the strimmer. I spent the morning with the strimmer on my back, firstly clearing the parking area, then working my way down onto the lower terraces until I ran out of fuel at noon. At that point, we decided an early lunch was in order to help our already flagging energy levels so we sat down on the patio with bread, anchovies, grilled vegetables and cheese and enjoyed a crystal clear day under a cloudless sky with a gentle breeze.

After lunch it was back to our posts, and while Helen brought some of her editing out onto the patio, I went back to finish the strimming for the day, deciding that one more tank of fuel would be enough for me for one day, before turning my attention to the veg plants.

The fuel ran out around 3pm, so I headed down to the lower terraces to inspect the progress of growth - the difference here being that the growth is of the best kind, and a kind that won't need strimming, just eating.

The peas and broad beans are making great strides, so much so that I decided it was time to plant them out. That kept me busy for an hour as I needed to collect my pre-prepared pea sticks (courtesy of my mother and father-in-law when they visited last month) and work out exactly how to install them. It didn't turn out to be difficult though, and they went in and look rather splendid! I can almost visualise them dripping with fat pea pods and can't wait to taste the first batch.

With the peas in, I planted a row of broad beans behind them before watering them all in and turning my attention to thinning out the radish and beetroots, both of which are tiny but prolific. It was while thinning the radish that I noticed the carrots have just started to appear behind them. How exciting these little green seedlings are! I can't help but view them all with a mixture of excitement and disbelief - are we really actually growing our food!? It would appear so, and as long as the local wildlife doesn't have its way with it all (I'm including Reggie in that category), then we should be eating well this summer.

As well as the above, we think we have the beginnings of runner beans and chick peas and definitely sunflowers, Brussels sprouts, marigolds and nasturtiums all growing too.

After watering everything and closing the cold frames we sat on the patio with a beer and a bowl of toasted, salted squash seeds and enjoyed an evening so warm that, had we been in England, we would definitely have been smelling the familiar fragrance of sausages charring on a BBQ.

After retrieving the washing from the line and heading indoors we made a start on dinner: a quinoa salad - eating salads as an evening meal seems like a true sign that we're heading into summer, already winter is starting to feel like a long time ago.

Radishes.

Radishes and peas.

Peas and broad beans.

Rocket.

Brussels sprouts (I think).

Sprouts again.

Beetroots!

It's a beetroot.

Maybe a chick pea.

Maybe a tiny asparagus spear.

Onions.

Loads of onions.

Carrots.

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