As is the case on a Sunday, we utilised our time to full potential.
We were expecting friends over for lunch, so we were both up early getting things ready.
Kim whipped up a delicious Chocolate Ricotta Tart.
She made the shortcrust pastry, and home made/grown ingredients were Ricotta that I made during the cheese workshop, and some chooky eggs from the girls.
It was wonderful, and tasted just like a baked cheese cake with a layer of soft chocolate on top. If you are interested you can find the recipe for this tart at Taste.com.au.
Kim then made an egg and bacon pie, with my weekly bacon ration. No pictures of my own, but you can find the recipe and a picture for the egg and bacon pie at Insidecuisine.com. The recipe was created by Annabel Langbein, better known as the Free Range Cook. It was delicious!
After our friends left, it was into the garden to plant a garden bed of sweet corn, and plant out a few more cucumber seedlings.
The sweet corn seedlings were about 30cm (1ft) tall, so they are safe from slug annihilation so it was time to pop them into their bed. The bed had rested for two weeks so it was ready to go.
Here is a picky of yours truly with his hands grounded in the soil feeling very content.
After the corn was planted and watered, I removed most of the spring onions that had gone to seed. I kept a few seed heads for next years crop, and then sprinkled with blood and bone and pelleted chicken manure. It will be ready for Tomatoes next weekend.
As I am running out of room, I had to begin to intersperse cucumber seedlings among the brown onions which are starting to swell. By the time I pick the onions in mid November, the cucumbers should be well established, with room for a zucchini or two.
Holly and Teddy were most helpful (not). I wish to come back in the next life as a dog, especially one that lives in this house!
With the corn and all other beds planted or prepped it was time to give the plants some seaweed solution to prevent transplant shock. This light watering really does help the seedlings get established well.
Once that was completed, I had to complete my income tax return. This was not too onerous, because Kim had gathered all the receipts and categorised them. She makes things easy for me!
This weekend I will harvest the garlic and hang it up to dry. Then, in go the various tomatoes, eggplant, capsicum (bell pepper) in that bed, and a few more pumpkins around the other side of the yard.
I also have to build a new herb garden as I have really gone crazy with basil, coriander (cilantro), and dill this year. So many punnets, but nowhere to plant them. So, I have a 44 gallon plastic barrel that I will convert into a butterfly bed. Plans and pictures will be posted once I figure it all out, I promise.
Somewhere over the weekend, I also have to finish painting the laundry, and a few other odds and ends to keep the darling wife happy. Shouldn’t take too long. Oh, and I need to put down another batch of Cerveza.
Busy or what? Don’t you find that a full Sunday just flies by?
Painting your laundry, lol.
Our Sunday was not nearly so productive – it was wrapped around a high energy Halloween party for our younger teen. And catching some loose chickens.
The chocolate pie looks delicious. I will have to check the recipe out.
I had no idea you could transplant corn – I thought it HAD to be seeded directly. Live and learn.
Hi Dawn. Sounds like a fun party. The corn is doing fine. It helped me get a head start before the bed was clear and prepped. I think you can start most veggies off as seedlings except for root crops like carrots and beets.
Gav x
There really is little as satisfying as getting stuck into the garden planting is there? Except maybe harvesting and eating the crops from those same plants in a few months time. 😀
I’m so envious of you being able to harvest crops now. We’re just at the seedlings/seeds for our first crops but we have to start somewhere I know. Looking forward to photos of your butterfly bed too. I am well intrigued.
Hi Jessie. I hope the butterfly bed does word out as well as it is an experiment for me as well!
Gav x
Hi Gavin
I too had a similar sunday because of the nice weather! I planted tomato and basil, went to my brothers vege patch in Melton and stole (with permission) some leek and jostaberry seedlings and got them all in the ground. Sprinkled some blood and bone on them and then mulched. I am slooooowly learning! When I get home tonight I need to get my zucchini seedlings in 🙂
Also the in-laws will be visiting from NZ soon and my partners Dad will help us finish our chook house so we will have eggs soon! Yay!
Great news about the soon-to-be new additions at your place. I will have to drop in for an omelette 😉
Hi Gavin, I have been lucky to have a week off and have been up at 5.30 most mornings out in the garden preparing the six new beds that my better half made up. Cardboard down, horse poo, compost and topsoiled the lot of them. Phew it took all week. On this Sunday we constructed 3 large compost bins and I managed to fill one and a half with the compost gatherings I have had lurking around waiting for the bins to be built. On Monday I planted Rhubarb, asparagus crowns (I know they are late!) Jerusalem artichokes transplanted from an old compost heap, corn, beans, two types of pumpkin, carrots, beetroot and horseradish. Am loving it and can’t wait for it all to grow! Would love chooks and am still thinking about it. I have a space in my garden in mind but will see. Always love reading your blog and love your e-books.
Sounds like you have the start of a great veggie patch there Jo! You gotta get some feathered ladies to feed your soil. The eggs are just a bonus.
Gav x
Lovely post Gavin and a lot accomplished.
It’s rewarding work! Gardening is difficult for me due to ruptured discs but the fun is in the dreaming and planning. I notice you use blood and bone and was wondering what is your thoughts on whether the pesticides, chemicals etc used in the production of beef, specially in feed lots where some use cotton seed waste, leech through to their bones.
Loved your Riccota workshop post too. Take care.
Hi Lydia. I know what you mean about painful backs. Had one for ages when I was just starting on this journey, but it repaired itself over time (mostly).
I have given thought to using the animal byproducts like blood and bone and pelletised chicken manure, both which come from dubious origins. I figure that because they are waste products from an industrial process, stopping use of them will probably not discourage the killing or abuse of these animals. As for the chemical residue, I don’t think that there is much left after product production for the simple fact that my earth worms love it. They would feel the effects first and quickly tell me if it was harmful. That said, I do prefer the manure of my own hens on the garden.
Gavin x
It’s nice to putter in the garden, isn’t it? I’ll mostly be living vicariously through your posts and pics for the next few months as we enter the gloom and short days of winter here in New York. One of my goals for next year is to plant the cold frame a lot earlier and figure out how to get lettuce to germinate in the August heat. I should be able to eat from the cold frame through most of the winter, but I haven’t nailed down the sowing timing yet. Love that you get so much from your space.
Hi Kathy. Hope Sandy didn’t cause too much damage in your neck of the woods. It was a big one.
How are all the climate deniers in your area? Was this the wake up call they needed?
Gav x