Garden Update January 2015

Summer sea breeze bring a fresh change to the hot earth, shimmering its radiant energy upward into the cosmos. A sprinkling of rain has brought some relief to the gardens and the plants have responded with rich green growth making use of the atmospheric nitrogen which gets drawn into the soil. Mulberry trees keep giving with daily harvest keeping up with the ripening fruit, they are being used with our beetroot, goat curd, walnut, radish and buck wheat flower dish as well as our mulberry sorbet and served fresh with vanilla ice cream. Production of our famous mulberry jam will also be added to our range available in our shop.

Vine ripened tomatoes are allowed to mature on the plant for maximum sugars and flavour to be expressed. Capsicum and chilli have reached the stage where they begin to turn their various colours which takes a few weeks for ripening. Aubergine have begun their flowering and fruit set and commonly take 4-6 weeks until they are ready for harvest.

Multi-species planting of sunflowers, beans, zucchini and cucumber are producing beautiful fruit and flowers and attracting plenty of predatory lady bugs which are beneficial to the entire garden. Beetroot and radish beds were seeded thickly and then thinned out with young sprouts used in the restaurant and the rest left to grow full size.

It is a good time to apply horn manure, make compost, transplant seedlings, pruning, wine racking and harvesting for storage from the 9th-22nd of January. This is a descending or waning period and is influenced by the earth and water signs.  From the 1st-9th and the 23rd-31st it will be a good time to apply horn silica, plant seeds, graft and harvest for early consumption. This is an ascending or waxing period and is influenced by air or fire signs.

WE ARE CURRENTLY HARVESTING… Mulberry, strawberry, salt bush, asparagus, tomatoes, capsicum, beetroot, radish, chard, salad greens, herbs, edible flowers, horse radish. If anyone has any queries in regards to the garden, please feel welcome to ask…  Cheers, Jaimie