Sporadic Notes From the Garden 08/10/22

Has been raining regularly over the last week or so, everything is looking much greener now

Dug a flood irrigation channel and sowed green manure in the channel and the bed. Vetch is coming up, not sure about the oats, think they may have all been stolen by the ants.

We chopped down the two cypress trees which were blocking the sun on the solar panels

Sowed lettuce, chickpeas, onions, broccoli, red cabbage, rocket, corriander etc.

Planted out some small red cabbage plants but have mostly all been eaten by slugs. Am growing more plants on in pots so they are hopefully a little bigger by the time I plant them outcomes

For growing on in pots, I am testing the difference between plain potting soil (store bought) and a mix of homemade manure + potting soil. Have potted up escarola and red cabbage into these pots to see which mix does best.

Tried making grape juice, totally ruined it. Tried to press the grapes in the press without stamping them first - impossible. By the time I got round to stamping them, I’d left them too long and they were covered in flies and they weren’t that appetising any more. Attempting to dye some yarn with the grapes instead.

Pomegranite tree near the water deposit is giving amazing fruits. Picked most of the pomegranites yesterday and made juice. I could probably make enough juice for the whole year (1l per week?) from the trees we have, if I had enough jars! Really easy to do - just take out the gains and blend for a couple of seconds in the blender, seive, and that’s it.

Planted a full bed of broad beans

Having trouble germinating and planting runner beans, have sown in the ground and in modules and poor germination, those that do germinate seem to just die off (‘damp off’?) quickly.

Still waiting for 2nd round of corn to fully dry in the field. Beds with corn + courgette are pretty much ready to come out, if it wasn’t for the corn. Courgettes barely producing now

Aubergines seem to be doing better, now. A couple of plants which I planted out in September seem to be flowering, one plant which has been in the ground all summer and was struggling has just started producing a new fruit.

Getting about 5 eggs a day now from out 9 hens

Started trying to spread manure around all our fruit trees in the dry field. Have only done 1 so far - it’s a lot of work! Thinking about how we could maybe get water over there. Right now I am taking watering cans.

Need to order more manure so it can compost over the winter

Pruned the pomegranite near the deposit and a couple of citrus trees in the huerta