September is the busiest month, to paraphrase T.S Eliot – for people in my game anyway. This means that I have to work most weekends until late October, just as the weather is warming up and the garden is singing to me. I have spent every day this week looking out of my office window at perfect Spring days, watching the irises in full bloom and hearing the rosellas fighting for supremacy on my roof with the currawongs (crazy birds). Spring is the absolute best season, in my view, and watching the first week of it go by from my desk was painful.
But, I also really enjoy having money to pay for food and my mortgage, so…
I decided that no matter the crippling deadlines, I would block out some time over this weekend to spend in the garden. 7am-12pm in fact. I woke up stupidly early for a Saturday, helped out of bed by my husband’s excellent coffee, waited for the grocery delivery to arrive (bang on time, thanks Coles!), then bolted out the door to visit the Big Green Shed.
The plan today was to prepare the soil for later Spring planting (think, tomatoes, chillies, beans, eggplant). The garden is still pretty full of greens, peas, some broccoli and cabbages, and loads of onions, so it was more a case of picking then feeding after. So I went to Bunnos to load up on Dynamic Lifter, seed raising mix, seaweed extract, and fish emulsion to feed the soil and the existing plants. I also bought some potting mix to refresh the balcony pots. We couldn’t resist buying a few chillies for the balcony to get started early, but I tried hard to avoid buying any plants this time around. It’s just a bit early yet.
Today I was very excited to discover the asparagus was ready to start picking. Asparagus is a plant for very patient gardeners.
You can’t pick it for two seasons after planting the crowns, no matter how tempted you are. To ensure healthy crops for up to twenty years after, you need to let the first two crops grow to fern and die down, to allow the crowns underground to build up energy. Year three is when that patience pays off: and I am finally in the third year now. I spotted the very first tip last week, and look how quickly four big spears grew in just a few days!
I also picked a big bowl of fresh garden veggies: cabbage, cauli, peas, onion, the first of the carrots planted in autumn, lettuce, parsley, and romanceso broccoli. Along with the asparagus, the onions, broccoli and herbs went straight into a delicious omelette for lunch when we were done (eggs from our chooks).
But before that fun, I had to do some necessary work: turning the compost, weeding, lightly trimming the lime tree, spreading Dynamic Lifter across the newly cleared soil, raking, giving the other plants a liquid feed, watering, and generally tidying up. I could have spent all day out there, but at midday I turned into a pumpkin pulled off the gum boots, came inside and cleaned up, made a bloody good veggie-filled omelette, and sat down at my desk.
Man, that garden looks good out there. Until next weekend, lovely plants.
