I say this because it's been a hot summer so far, and with us away in January, it was anyone's guess at whether our RV dwelling hippie chic house sitter was capable of looking after a garden. Turns out she wasn't joking when she said she was a horticulturalist and would definitely NOT let us down - nothing had died apart from our dear chicken Motherclucker, and she was seven years old and about to die anyway. Oh, and a native plant by the air conditioner but that was looking rather sickly anyway.
First of all, have to say I was stoked to find three massive sunflowers grinning away at me. Is there anything more spectacular? I didn't think they'd survive the slater bugs. The bees adore them - hey, who doesn't love a sunflower?
Everything else was a little unruly, truth be told. She was a funny girl, that housesitter - she praised how great the garden was and what a good job we'd done from a permaculture perspective, and on the other hand said she would have tied up the tomatoes but didn't want to tread on toes? I mean, dammit, girl, that would have bee great?
It was great though as all that wildness was keeping moisture in the soil. I did get to work pulling out some plants though, and fennel flowers went straight in salads (some for the bees, some for me). So by 10 am (we arrived home at 8 am off the ferry) the garden was in much better order.
I harvested a good lot of beetroot, including this beetroot monster. Delicious. Beetroot soup recipe incoming...
Also, we had a very special visitor to the garden - well, a pair! They're white morph grey goshawks which are endemic to the area, but rare enough for us to be excited. They've been picking off rabbits and mice, and a few smaller birds which is a little sad but nature does what it does. We have been hearing their squeal as they catch things and often they've been really close. I worried they have chased off the birds but Mum says she hasn't had a lot of birds in her garden either so it must be the heat. Where do they go in this weather, I wonder?
I can't stop thinking about the guy I was chatting to that was on a carnivore diet. If I did that, my whole reason for being on this property would change. And I love my garden vegetables so much - especially at this time of year, when you have to get creative with the ridiculous amounts of zucchini and cucumber you get from the garden. Our latest yummy lunch is pickled beetroot blended with fetta and a bit of lemon juice and olive oil, smeared on seedy bread and topped with fried zucchini.
Jamie has promised he's going to help me more with the garden this year, although I'm not sure that's going to happen. He's usually my brute labourer when I desperately need some heavy lifting or major digging or pruning. Wait til tomorrow's post so that you can see what ambitious project he helped me with after only two days being back from Tassie.
With Love,
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