Garden Update July 2015

What is happening in the garden…

Crisp mornings and clear sky help the pruners as they work their way through the vines. Cover crops are knee height and pea flowers and shoots are being used in the restaurant. Citrus and almond trees are in blossom with our hard working bees buzzing all over them doing their pollination work.

In the vegetable garden oak leaf, cos, rocket, mizuna, mustard and magenta lettuce are being harvested with land and water cress adding a bit of pepper flavour. Our capsicums are still producing fruit and will be pruned back to see if we can get a third year from them. Fennel bulbs have plumped up and are sweet and juicy. More beds to be cleaned out and composted for new plantings of beetroot and radish as the days grow longer and warmer.

Our nursery shade house is complete and cuttings of our mulberry, desert lime and fig trees are being taken with pencil thick shoots 30cm long being potted up in a well draining soil blend. Daisy, native hibiscus and salt bush are also being propagated from cuttings to add colour and more native culinary delights.

It is a good time to apply horn manure, make compost, transplant seedlings, pruning, wine racking and harvesting for storage from the 3rd-18th of July. This is a descending or waning period and is influenced by the earth and water signs.  From the 17th-31st of July 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… capsicum, kohl rabi, kale, rocket, swiss chard, salad greens, radish, spring onion, herbs, edible flowers.

If anyone has any queries in regards to the garden, please feel welcome to ask…  Cheers, Jaimie