Monday, June 18, 2012

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So, the winds arrived on Sunday .. well, they were really a continuation from the past few days.  They really dry out the soil so I had my little garden sprinkler on in several places, in particular in the garlic patch.

Still gathering some garlic scapes.  Funny, some of them are so small, they are easy to miss.  I’ve read that only hardneck has scapes, but I’m also finding them on the soft neck also.

I’d purchased 4 types of garlic from Richter’s a few years ago… had started off with a lovely sign for each type, or so I’d thought.  Quite cute, I thought, writing the name of the garlic on a large shell, using permanent black felt marker.   Until the weathering from the rain and the winters caused the letters to fade.  I was then left with quite a quantity of garlic and used to guess which bulbs they were.

Well, the Kazakhstan, Music and a few others were just mixed in together.  Now I realized that I am not the world’s best organizer in the world of plants and that just suits me fine.  Gotta live with what’s there, right?  I’ll leave it to other gardeners to neatly label, sort and plant nice orderly gardens.  That just doesn’t work with me.

And this just adds to the zany colourful and magical world of gardening.

I’d also purchased a few Elephant garlic cloves from a market stall and planted these alongside the fence at the side of the yard.  Last year I was rewarded with several baseball sized single cloves.  These were just delicious . .mild and flavourful.

What I would love is a large field so I could plant more garlic .. am I obsessed?  That’s ok if I am .. not a bad obsession, I think.  Our next place will definitely have more space for gardening.  I’m using this year to show my sweetie that I really can be tidier and organized (in my own way, though!) and am getting to be more successful in growing fruits and veggies.

This success, though, is mainly due to that most wonderful EM .. with the addition of seaweed.  And also some spent hops which I collect from time to time.  Adding to the lovely garden beds.  And the best compost of my life .. now that I’m more aware of the correct procedures of composting.  Information learned in the OMG course, Gaia College.  Changed my life forever in the way that I garden.

So, anyway, yesterday .. I’d been hit, out of the blue, by some kind of bug that must have been picked up when we went out for supper a few nights ago.  So I fought it as best I could.  Taking a spoonful of concentrated EM … feeling the improvement.  Lots of water with lemon.   Tried to work outside, but no energy .. oh, I dislike being ill, yes I do.

Still, I dressed up for gardening, not keeping a good woman out of her garden!  Topped up the bird feeders … they were empty, whether due to the winds shaking the contents about or perhaps a heavy influx of birds, who knows!

Wandered back to the latest gardening area.   Planning to fill in some areas with spoiled hay, seaweed gathered last week.  Mix in some soil.  Plant some squash and some basil.  Lovely.

And I have this great little herb seed gift pack from years ago to plant up.  The kit contains some great little labels, printed on think copper sign posts.  They will look great.

Played with my new lawnmower .. so happy to have a push mower again!  Two-fold activity .. burn a few calories and cut the grass without pollution and noise .. hmm .. that’s three-fold!

Gathered a few more roses for drying.  Abundant blooms this year.  Can you say “EM”?

Wandered around the garlic plants .. those scapes keep growing, even when picked.  And today, I’ll make up another batch of garlic scape pesto, adding lots of garlic gathered from last years crop.  This is green-gold!!

Another great day.  And today .. energized, time to go outside and play some more.

🙂