GARDEN UPDATE JUNE 2013

What is happening in the garden….

We have cutback the Asparagus bed and fed with well composted cow manure and mulched, ready for spring. This took place at the start of June along with another moon opposite Saturn sowing of Green feast peas between the rows of Semillon vines near the Cullen vegetable garden.

It’s definitely winter now and the cold, cold nights and days are perfect for planting garlic. We have planted two crops this month. The first was to border our new path through the orchard between the sunflowers and mulberry and citrus trees and the second crop of 451 cloves went in at the Homestead patch on winter solstice, the 21st June and will be harvested on the summer solstice in December. This was Friday and two days later saw a “super moon” pull them out of the ground and toward the light stronger than previous plantings. Around the roses at the restaurant, giant Russian garlic was planted also to help ward off aphids.

We have introduced a new path in the orchard for all to interact in in the garden when visiting Cullen wines and is especially encouraged for children to explore. Come late spring and early summer when the poppies and sunflowers are in full bloom it will be hard to resist. The mulberries will follow after that and I have to stop dreaming of eating them as that is still some time away. Has the winter blues set in yet already?

No it’s not true as we can’t get enough of kale, tatsoi, beetroot, turnip, snow peas, spinach, carrots and all those tasty winter crops that thrive in the cooler months. When combined with some soup, a fire and a glass of red the winter blues disappear at either end of the rainbow. We sure have been seeing some real beauties here recently too. In particular the rainbow that seems to grow from the bed of rainbow chard and arches over the winery and restaurant.

The chefs are cooking tasty daily delights from our freshly picked vegetables. Some of these ingredients are swiss rainbow chard, tatsoi, turnips, cabbage, broccoli, kale , snow peas, beetroot, carrots, kohlrabi and radishes.

What is not roasted or made into soup is served fresh as a salad along with our micro herbs from the hothouse. These could be sunflower shoots, radish, cress, mizuna, or beetroot.

WE ARE CURRENTLY HARVESTING…

Swiss chard, snow peas, herbs galore, fennel, beetroot, carrots, turnip, kale, cabbage, lettuce, tatsoi, mizuna, radish, kohlrabi, chervil, rocket ,micro herbs and edible flowers.

If anyone has any queries in regards to the garden please feel welcome to contact me.

Stu