revival: part two
In all the excitement of the new life water has brought to the garden,
I’ve neglected to mention all the new growth on the upper hillside.
The citrus trees are really enjoying their new watering system,
with several, including our lime, now sprouting out new leaves;
and the tangerines on the tangerine tree are growing bigger and shapelier.
And the hazelnut tree has new leaves and has pushed out its catkins!
The nine blueberries all have new growth: new leaves sprouted on all
and whole new branches have emerged on a few that were suffering before.
And back downhill, the three cranberries really enjoy their new home,
and are sprouting new leaves and buds.
(Flower buds, perhaps?)
The most recently planted golden raspberry plants have grown incredibly
and have now ripened their first tasty berries.
Behind the house, the maracuja is still flowering and forming fruits,
with at least a dozen maracujas growing large and healthy on the vines!
And in Horta Nova, the first five hokkaido squash are growing nicely.
And the strawberry popcorn has sprouted its silks!
Cool, huh?
And we have more watermelons forming on the last one that we planted
(which is good because we picked & ate our first two yummy watermelons:
the first small watermelon I picked because it had split from a nick in its rind).
In the garden, I harvested the organic cilantro seeds during Leaf time,
and pulled and replanted some more homegrown arugula seeds near the newest pond.
Funnily, the last cauliflower (from last fall’s planting) has finally begun to take off.
The tomatoes are all busy making blossoms and ripening tomatoes, that we pick daily;
the two orange pepper plants have little peppers where their flowers once were;
and the miniature Mexican cucumbers are in full cucumber-making mode,
with four mini cucs ready for harvest and tons of little ones on the way.
And the Calabacita squash has a little squash, behind an adorable flower bud;
and we picked the first blue ballet winter squash,
with another ripening, and another on the way.
As we flip over into Fruit time (& transplanting time),
the last thirteen corn got moved into their new home,
completing Horta Nova’s summer planting (along with a few Violetta beans to keep them company).
And the four green tomato seedlings, and an eggplant,
and a tomatillo, have all found new sites in the garden boxes.
And the prickly pear (from our teacher’s garden) now lives on the hillside.
Since this Fruit time is also the Leo moon seed time,
I have been harvesting a lot of sunflower seeds from our best edible sunflowers;
and tried planting some sesame seeds and more quinoa in the garden,
where the carrots and garlic were harvested in the last few weeks.
(The quinoa from the Spring planting suffered a bit from the heat
& being overcrowded & shaded by other overeager veggies,
so this time I think I’ve chosen a better spot.)
I’ve been researching and brainstorming different planting combinations,
not only for companion plantings (though that’s been my focus),
but also rotational- figuring out what should be planted in sequence:
like today’s planting of Violetta climbing beans at the bases of the old sunflowers,
so that the beans can climb up the stalks and nurture the soil for next Spring’s crops;
and more commonly, planting different plant families for several consecutive years;
and, borrowing an idea from Biodynamic farming,
rotating through the different plant types:
following Leaf crops with Root crops,
following Root crops with Fruit crops, and so on,
the premise being that the the Leaf plants were using the upward, leafy energy
and weren’t using the downward energy that the following Root crop will need.
So the arugula patch will become our fall’s carrot and beet patch,
and this morning, the previous carrot and beet patch
became our new tomatillo and quinoa spot.
I’ll be doing a lot more research, and planting trials,
over the next few years, decades, whenever.
Oh, before we flip out of Fruit time tonight,
I planted another dozen chickpeas in between the tomatoes,
planted a few Madeira banana seeds into a flowerpot,
and transplanted the nespera sapling and a small gooseberry plant
(a sucker that I accidentally uprooted while weeding the gooseberry this Spring).
And I made mini blackberry-apple pies,
with apples from our teacher’s trees and blackberries from the Sebastians’ yard.
Yum!
