The first crop of beans is almost done, two crops of carrots are in, one just above ground, the other picking nicely, eggplants are sluggish, zucchinis going ok but not in glut proportions, potatoes pretty much excavated. Lettuce and silverbeet everywhere.
I’m getting a bit toey: keen to find an expanse for next summer’s broadbeans and looking only at crowded and still productive beds. There may have to be a sacrifice. There’s a designated space for April’s garlic, but the broadbeans, what to do about the broadbeans. I suspect that row of silverbeet over there next to the second-crop beans may have to go for a mega spanakopita bakeup. Freezes well.
Space is the perpetual enemy for the compact vege grower. Ambition demands territory. Story old as time I guess.
Things aren’t working out too well in the broccoli/brussels sprout department. The broccoli seedlings were a bit rangey and thin ... not enough light in my little seed raising tent I’m guessing. Anyway they’ve pretty much vanished once planted out, while the brussels sprouts are looking gnarled and grumpy, close the ground and nibbled. I’ve spread a little snail bait, but maybe I’ve not been consistent enough.
Might start again from seed perhaps, but am worried that I’m running out of time on the brussels front. Maybe a nursery punnet or two ...
The big news in recent months has been the arrival of bees. Yes, we now have livestock.
Our now-bustling hive started from a five-frame nucleus colony in early-January and is powering along with a flow super attached that is slowly filling, cell by cell, with honey.
We have no idea what we are doing, but the life of the hive is a pretty endless fascination. We have a local mentor, an obliging commercial apiarist, and last month, gulp, I went to my first bee group meeting in the church hall. This was an unexpected life turning, but there you are. There was tea, and a rather nice drizzle cake.
The bees stop me in my tracks as I pass the hive. It’s a quiet and fascinating joy to stand and watch the comings and goings, the busy intent of these tiny creatures, filling every moment of a closely measured life with hectic activity, all for the common good. Is it possible to find an insect admirable? I think so.
Other people’s garden diaries encourage my own endeavours. In my veggie strip, silverbeet can never be sacrificed for anything, not even broad beans. It’s too versatile and gives endlessly. Last season I found that a late sowing of broadies filled the sparse early Summer gap with a ready supply of just enough to supplement servings of late Spring asparagus. So there’s that.
You might it an interesting time to revisit Virgil’s Georgics - the best part is the bee keeping