Friday, February 01, 2013

Veggies Galore!

It's hot, humid, still and cloudy!
Still no rain, but we're suppose to get some maybe today?!
It does feel that heavy way it does before rain, so here's hoping.
I mowed the grass yesterday and a lot of it was dust!

However, with irrigation, the veggie garden is thriving. We've been eating sweetcorn, potatoes, courgettes and tomatoes until they're pretty much coming out of our ears! It's bliss to go into the garden and pick our dinner each night.


 You can see how full the beds are! Except the one on the left - this was our potato bed. It's all but finished so yesterday I put it to sleep. I weeded it all, put horse poop down, then covered it with hay. I did this last year with the asparagus bed, once I'd cut the ferns down, and it worked brilliantly.
I still haven't decided what or how much I'm going to plant over winter. I may just concentrate on the greenhouse...


And speaking of greenhouse! It is amazing. I can't believe how much I love having it. It's hot to weed but if you just do a wee bit every day the weeds don't come to anything. All the various chilli plants are positively groaning under the weight of chillies! None have gone red yet, but we should have a really long growing season so I'm not bothered about that.
The tomatoes have gone like triffids and are laden. I ended up pinching the tops out of the 2 sun cherry plants as they have got literally thousands of tomatoes on them and were taking over. I may have to do the same with the money makers as they've reached the roof! And the basil! Wow!
So yes, it's definitely been a huge success and well worth getting.


Yesterday I took my camera over when I went to see the horses. Richard has another one here just now, visiting. He's a Kaimanawa who came from one of the musters and he's gorgeous! His lovely owner is expecting a baby soon and needed someone to ride him for a wee while so Richard was allowed to take him here for a few months.

Here he is - snuggling with Cactus. He's made great friends with him already.


and in this one I think he's telling Lloyd he'd like his teeth cleaned. I was laughing a lot when taking these photos - they're both such characters!


15 comments:

  1. The garden looks so lovely Laura! The horses are gorgeous too. We've had a fair bit of rain over the last week with Oswald - just enough to get the garden ticking again. It was looking like a dustbowl before.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you had some rain. I read in the paper that if we get no - or little rain - over the next week they will officially announce a drought.
      and the rain we were forecast for this lunch time hasnt arrived! Maybe it'll come for tea?

      Delete
  2. I am very impressed with your garden, and just maybe a bit envious as well haha. We just ordered our seeds so just have to wait a couple months for the weather to warm up enough to get planting.

    Love the photos of the horses. So cute!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah but remember when you've got yours all going and getting lovely veggies, I'll be in the depths of winter - I'm hoping the greenhouse will supply us with some stuff though! :)

      Delete
  3. Your greenhouse is thriving Laura! well done.
    It's lovely to see some horses, even if they are not on your farm. I haven't heard of Kaimanawa before, so it was interesting to read of their history. cheers Wendy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Wendy, the horses are on our farm :) They live here. There's these 2 and 2 others. They just don't belong to us! Absolute joy to have around the place. They small amazing.

      Delete
  4. WOW what a lovely lot of Pesto to be made !!!!
    I can tell you are just loving your Greenhouse :)
    The veggie garden looks fantastic & the horses are so beautiful,it is really interesting reading about the Kaimanawa horses. Hope you get some rain soon. xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know! I love pesto - I can't eat pine nuts, so have to make it with perhaps cashews or macadamias - yummy!

      Delete
  5. Basil Pesto!! Your garden is amazing, and I love the horse pics. But where are your Bee photos??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I took them later in the day, after I'd written this!!! felt a bit of a perv! But have never seen them do that in my whole life so felt I had to take pics!!

      Delete
  6. Love your garden pics. Looks fantastic. I busted the pump so we can't water at the moment and the rain today is not amounting to much! But I'm harvesting tomatoes and potatoes, silver beet and courgettes so it's not all a disaster.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bet you're not so worried about your pump now!! I want the rain to stop!

      Delete
  7. runningwhio3:44 pm

    I was feeling a bit grumpy reading the news, so thought I'd come check out how the farm is doing! So nice to see how big and bushy the basil is getting, I'm so going to invest in a greenhouse once I move and have some good yard! Love the horses, too, so cute them nuzzling each other.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The basil has to be the biggest I've ever seen. It's too heavy now and I needed to string it up!
      A lot of pesto will have to be made very soon!!

      Delete
  8. It's so weird reading your blog from the Northwest up here in the US! We are chilly, cloudy and rainy - in the throes of a true Northwest Winter!
    I have always wanted a greenhouse exactly that size. Perfect for backyard gardening with just enough room for peppers, basil and other hot house lovelies. And the walkway inside is perfect!
    Hope it rains soon for you...:-)

    ReplyDelete

I love it when you leave me comments, it lets me know there are folk out there reading my ramblings! Thank you, I appreciate them loads and loads
Laura x