Pesky solutions

Because of the building chaos I started planting my seedlings late this season.

Before I did that though, I came across these fellows - left-overs from last year.  And what whoppers they were too.

Hidden treasure - and what a treasure :)
Ginamormous carrots and parsnips.

The carrot measured 21 cms long by 8 cms wide.  Who cared if they were a tad nibbled - I'm willing to share our harvest - to a point LOL

Who says you have to keep left-overs in the fridge?  Mother nature provides the best storage solution of all, I reckon.

But, speaking of nibbled.

I discovered that we have a family of hares who have taken up residence in our garden at night.  And, topping their list of midnight snacks was... 

Whose been eating my porridge corn?

  ... my mealies.  Hmmm, again sharing is caring, but c'mon guys, let the corn grow a little first - please!

Hare prevention proceeds.
I didn't get as many corn plants in the ground
as I'd hoped, but, hey - there's always next year :)

So, this called for a solution.  I had read somewhere that to create a stake of poles round a (small) mealie patch allowed one to provide support for them in windy areas.  So - poles went in at each corner and at mid-point between the corners of the small corn patch.  With cross poles too.

The poles and cross members go in

Round and over the poles...

Protected corn bed behind, and my beautiful
potatoes in tyres in front - they appear to
love their special beds, and it makes
harvesting them sooooo much easier, especially
as our soil hardens to a consistency of cement 
in the heat of summer.

...I draped bird netting - nice, perfect bird netting just waiting to entangle a paw or two - which never happened.  Clever hares :)

Grow little mealies - grow...

It worked!  :)

A bit of TLC, and look - my mealies had a
chance to grow and they're saying thank you

When the corn was high enough I simply removed the netting and allowed the corn to grow skywards.  And then had to drape the bird netting over the strawberries, as the birds have taken a fancy to a meal of them.

But, I have left the poles in situ - for when the plants are taller and might need some wind support.

Sunflowers, corn, beans and squash
happily sharing the same bed.  Thank
goodness for the porous pipe - in the
heat we're experiencing, it's taking
care of all the watering that's
needed :)

This is my first year of growing sunflowers, corn in any quantity (I didn't plant enough, but I've learnt my lesson for next year) and members of the squash family.  In our town house, with it's sandy beach soil garden, squash didn't perform - no matter how much compost I put into the ground. 

The soil on the farm - well now, that is a different matter.  Everything, thankfully, seems to love it.  Or is it because I prepared the beds with plenty of compost and combined growing corn, squash, beans and sunflowers in the same bed?  Whatever.  I'm thrilled :)

I love my sunflowers - their burst of yellow brightens up every day.  Even if they are a little confused and aren't facing the sun.  Guess the hectic winds we have blowing may have something to do with that?  Speaking of wind - or was it the hares...?

Broken and deformed  but
determined to make something
of it's life this sunflower
beat the odds

Whatever it was, something broke this sunflower stem - I thought the plant was a gonner.  But I left it in place, and it rewarded me by growing none the less.  So it's shorter, and it's deformed.  But I love it :)

Good morning day :)

Who could be grumpy when viewing this first thing in the morning?

So, what have I harvested from my garden which I planted late ?

Firstly, the ever faithful swiss chard :)  Bowls and bowls of yummy creamed spinach (or should I say creamed swiss chard?)  But you know what I mean.

Swiss chard - bolting a little
due to the heat

I've picked armfuls of the stuff and there's still more and more growing in the shadecloth greenhouse.

Yum - I can taste the creamed spinach swiss chard

DD, WGuy and MKid arrived late on Saturday.  MKid and DD came to inspect what was growing and then joined me in harvesting ... ta da! - my first ever marrows.  And gem squash.  And, as you can see from the pic below, we also harvested...

Broad beans, gem squash and no-so-baby marrows LOL

... broad beans!?!?!  In December?  Delicious they were too.  Added to a salad their cold, pre-cooked crunchiness added a special something extra.  I had left the base of the plants in the ground at what I thought was the end of their season in order to allow them to share their nitrogen with the next crop.  But, they obviously had decided that they wanted to produce more than nitrogen LOL

Does anyone have any recipes for preserving (baby or not so baby LOL) marrows - they're growing voraciously!