A garden update

Since we’ve been at Phil and Ginnee’s farm for over 2 months now, I thought you might like to see how the garden under the green house is going. It’s certainly come a long way from its brown beginnings in July.....

 

 

In the foreground of the picture, our herb spiral is becoming more fragrant with an abundance of lemon basil accompanied by purple basil, chives, mint and parsley. I’m also delighted that some lavender germinated after the seeds spent a month in our refrigerator and the culantro (similar to coriander) that was growing wild in our garden seems to like its new situation. This week’s landmark event was that we ate our first root vegetable from the garden... a rather powerful, white radish proudly stretching an entire 20cm! You can just about see the radish tops (which are tasty salad greens too) behind the seed tray table. Now we are avidly waiting on the tomatoes and the tomatillos, which are now displaying tantalizing green lanterns. Other plants that are doing well are okra, sweet peppers (which are wearing tetra pack collars to protect them from nibbling mice), eggplants, carrots and an array of different leafy greens. The kale did survive aphid attacks with the assistance of garlic, chilli and onion spray and the broccoli is recuperating after being accosted by the leaf cutter ants.

 

Dowsing the ant nest with blended citrus peel for about a week, seems to have held the ants at bay for the time being. It certainly didn’t kill them off, but they at least got frustrated at having to excavate their thoroughfare each day and have opted for a different nest opening, the other side of the garden.

We are also praising the virtues of compost tea, which I’m sure has given the plants a significant nutritional boost and helped to deter pests as well as bacterial and fungal infections. For anyone who hasn’t made compost tea (and I hadn’t before I came here!), you submerge a net sack of fresh compost in a weak solution of molasses and water. You then aerate it all in a large bin, using a fish tank pump, for 24-48 hours. This creates an exponential growth of friendly bacteria as well as releasing soluble nutrients, which you apply to the leaves and roots of the plants using the good old fashion watering can method. For anyone interesting in making compost tea, check out an interesting article by a Faye Ingram or this YouTube video by the ‘Dirt Doctor’. I'd love to hear if anyone else tries it out... it could be a great way of keeping UK lawns nice and green as well as boosting greenhouse crops.