March has been a big month in the garden. After a super hot, dry summer, we have been getting some slightly cooler weather, and best of all, rain. Suddenly everything is green again and farmers are starting to feel a little hopeful for a better season.
At the start of the month Country Boy entered some of his vegetables in the local agricultural show, and won quite a few awards including best tomatoes, which he was quietly pleased about. Later in the month we had the annual village harvest festival so we donated a whole car boot load of vegetables to be sold (and came back with half a boot load of home made cakes, pies, and biscuits in return!). In between, Country Boy has been selling his vegetables to locals via email, and working hard to keep up with the garden.
Harvesting
March is always our biggest month of the year for harvesting. We have more tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchinis, than we can possibly eat. We have made more tomato relish, dill pickled cucumbers, and this zucchini soup to use them up. The the pigs are well fed on all the left overs (recycling zucchinis into bacon).
We are also picking lots of silver beet, strawberries, artichokes, corn, rocket, basil, rhubarb, nugget pumpkins, purple beans as well as basil, parsley, dill and chives.
Planting
March is our big harvest month, but we did start planting some carrots, beetroot, celery, cabbage, and broccoli. April will see us doing a lot more.
To do in April
Our to do list this month really depends on when the frost comes. Usually we get the first frost in the middle of April. Once the frost comes a lot of the plants will die, then we will harvest the pumpkins and start pulling out all the summer plantings.
We need to plant leeks, onions, and garlic, as well as brassicas and maybe broad beans. Hopefully we will start to harvest kale and broccoli. We have a whole lot of beans growing to be dried, shelled and stored for making home made baked beans over the cooler months. Yum!
And if that isn’t enough to do, we will probably also need to harvest the potatoes. Fingers crossed for a big haul. Out kids don’t like shop bought potatoes any more after eating our home grown ones.
What is happening in your garden at the moment?
Linking up with Strayed From The Table for the April edition of The Garden Share Collective. You can head over there, and see what lots of other bloggers are doing in their gardens too.
Whoa, what a haul both your month of harvest and that half boot load of cakes and bikkies – um, yum! I like that your kids will only eat your spuds now, mine won't touch a spud from either the shop or the garden (unless of course it's been deep fried!) Your blog looks lovely, by the way, think I'll go and check out your archive.
Your garden is producing some amazingly colourful food. I too am going to enter in my local town show this year my veg. Not sure how I will go, but glad that Country Boy won some prizes. Your harvest of veg looks so good.
You are picking artichokes now! How lucky. You have beautiful product, I am glad County Boy did so well with the vegetable judging. Are your purple beans suitable for a salad, do they stay crisp? Beautiful photographs Jo, you seem to be thriving on country living 🙂
Cool harvest, I picked a basketful today. Do you save runner bean seeds for drying? We had fresh dug spuds today for dinner, and they were wonderful, you can't beat your own home grown. You can reply to my question on the FB page if you like 😀
Look at that harvest! Well done to you!
What beautiful bounty! How do you deal with so much corn all at once (apart from scoffing it down)? I can taste it from here!
Wow Jo, those tomatoes look stunning as does your corn! No wonder your hubby won 🙂 What a fabulous harvest you have been getting. Have a great month.