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Monday 1 February 2010

Violence pays off...

Well, just before throwing that Bl$+^@@?!!****d camera onto the rubbish heap I thought I'll give it the violent treat. You know, pair of pliers and just yanking the old lens out. This being sensitive electronic equipment, obviously it's the last saloon option. But guess what: it worked. Since then the camera (touch wood!) has been working again and taking beautiful pictures. So for the time being this is becoming a picture blog again.
The celebrate this event I thought I'll kick off with a "Spot-the-Odd-One-Out" competition. Which of the 3 in the foreground (or should it be a threeground???) is the odd one out? The winner wins a week on the farm shovelling manure!


Yes we were on Piero's farm again today shovelling manure. Mind you I wasn't the only one the donkeys took a shine to:


Anyway, now that I can take photos again I thought I'll show you how things are looking at the moment. First of all my pride and joy: my recently constructed cold/warm frame:

And here some pics of the current state of of some of our veg. White cabbage,


Cavolo Nero (Tuscan "Black Cabbage")


Broccoli,


This is the later sown terrace of broad beans (actually half terrace). They were sown in November. The October sown ones are further advanced, already being in flower, but they suffered more in the winter storms and I fear they are in flower too early. So having experimented with sowing times from October to January, remind me next autumn to sow in November.


fennel


celery


leeks


garlic

7 comments:

Stefaneener said...

They're awfully cute, and Susan is too. Your Cavolo Nero is to die for -- and the leeks. I wish I had leeks like that. I'm trying again, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

If you use some kind of computer calendar, you could put the reminder about broad beans in it and it would ping you.

chaiselongue said...

Lovely donkeys and very useful too, if they're providing your garden with manure. And your cold frame looks wonderful. Good news about your camera too.

Ayak said...

Oh maybe I should send you my camera for the violent treatment!

I love donkeys...we have a fair number of them in our village of course. My next door neighbour has conversations with her's..well she talks to her cows and goats too. But the donkey adores her and screeches in delight every time she comes out of the house.

I'm impressed with what you managed to do with those shower screens...brilliant job.

Mr. H. said...

You got your camera to work! I am very happy for you. What a great set of cold frames you have built, I hope they work well for you. Everything looks so nice. You make me wish we had fresh broccoli...but that will be many months from now for us.

The leeks look good, ours never do real well but we still like them. Your garlic seems to be off to a good start as well. Your going to have lots of beans. We were just talking about growing more broad beans this year and less of the others as they not only do well but have such a great flavor that makes them more versatile to cook with.

I'm curious, how do you water your gardens during the hot months?

Heiko said...

Mr. H,
There's a water tap on terrace number 5. During the summer months I attach a long and complicated hose combination on it and jump up and down the terraces watering everything every day. It's a 2 hour job, usually done in the slightly cooler evenings or early morning. The site is south east dacing, so more often than not we wait until the sun dips behind the mountains late afternoon. For 3 months it is so hot, that watering (and harvesting of course) is the only thing we manage to do.

Jan said...

The vegetables all look really good, and I love the cold frame. Mine needs to be larger as it's only about 2 feet square!

Ayak said...

There's an award for you over at my blog