Country Life Experiment

Simple Country Living

In The Garden – August

August in the garden is all about getting ready for Spring. Of course, around here, we get frosts right up into November, so we can’t plant out much of our summer vegetables till then. We can plant the seeds out into seedling trays, and put the trays in our sun room to germinate and start sprouting, before they get put into the green house.

Country Boy has chosen twelve varieties of tomatoes, as well as several capsicum varieties, some eggplants, and basil, and has planted them all into trays. He uses wooden craft sticks to label what is in each row. All together, he has 38 tomato plants – so I expect we will have another bumper crop this year!

Our winter harvest is in full swing. The kale has been used in stir frys, frittata, and of course kale pesto. Last week we picked a huge bowl of sprouting broccoli to blanch and freeze. There are now twelve containers of broccoli in the freezer for later on in the year. I can’t tell you how much I love having our own vegetables in the freezer for those times when there isn’t much in the garden.
We have more cabbages than we can hope to eat, and some have started sprouting and going to seed. It’s hard to see them ‘going to waste’ but harder to eat a couple of cabbages a week. Fortunately the pigs love them, so we can just turn them into pork.
The carrots are coming out of the ground as we need them. Misshapen and smelling of fresh earth, they taste amazing, and so unlike the shop bought version. The kids pick them, and eat them straight from the ground.
Of course not everything has done well in the garden. These cauliflowers are looking a little sad, so I am not sure that we will be eating them any time soon.

Now that the days are getting longer and (slightly) warmer, we will be mulching and weeding (as usual). Country Boy will be digging over the empty beds, and adding in sheep manure, which we have in abundant supply under the shearing shed.

I am so excited that Spring is finally on the horizon. Already the trees are beginning to blossom, and the garden is enjoying the sunshine.

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