The garden - 2024 October

In a nutshell

• Fruit trees have yielded apple and quince

• Daily harvesting continues, albeit mostly from the greenhouse now

• Continued early mulching with subtidal seaweed from the beach

In a discussion with a friend recently, she told me she was enjoying the articles here, but (why is there always a “but”?) there seemed to be lots of articles now about gardening. Fair point and there are a couple of reasons for that perception. Firstly, I have not written as much for the past couple of months due to family and other commitments taking up my time, so a new monthly gardening spot is more obvious.

Secondly, a regular gardening article is a departure from the past. I’ve started the monthly gardening article to record progress with what I consider to be a project that is at the heart of our healthier lifestyle. Without boring the life out of you, my wife and I changed the way we eat after I received a poor health diagnosis from my doctor. If you scan this website you’ll see that we switched from the recommended western diet that contained things like sugar, starch, grains, and seed oils to a low-carbohydrate, real food diet.

However, with time, I realised that even that significant change in lifestyle wasn’t delivering all of the benefit we were seeking. Sadly, much of the real food available for purchase today, even organic produce, is depleted in vitamins and minerals (micronutrients) compared to levels we likely experienced growing up in the 60s and 70s. Knowing this, we decided to grow as much of our own food as we could.

Our garden is a work in progress and we can see that the soil quality is limited. We’re trying to by garden regeneratively by growing different things, keeping the soil covered with growing things as much as possible, practising no-dig principles, and heavily mulching. Presently, we’re not testing our vegetables for nutrient levels. We’re simply relying on observations of crop density and quality. This blog, then, is my way of tracking our progress over time.

Now you know…!

A pile of seaweed emptied onto the garden

Non-harvest Activities undertaken

Mulching activities have continued and this month we added subtidal seaweed that was washed up on our beach by the early autumn storms. We go for subtidal because it breaks down quickly out of seawater. Intertidal, plants can survive for years on the surface of the garden…!

The cover photograph for this article shows subtidal seaweed from nearby reefs washed up on the beach.

Seaweed from the pile spread out across the surface of the soil

Harvest

Garden

• Apples

• Beans

• Herbs

  • Cilantro

  • Dill

  • Fennel

  • Mint

  • Parsley

  • Sage

  • Tarragon

• Kale

• Lettuce

• Quince

• Snap peas

• Summer squash

• Turnip

Greenhouse

• Basil

• Cucumber – green

• Tomatoes

Ongoing Challenges and Signs of Progress

Ongoing Challenges

Nothing new to report. Soil quality is hampering yield and the health of some things like beans, peas, and summer squash.

We’re losing some yield on things like cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli (brassicas) and root vegetables like turnip to caterpillars, slugs and snails. This is a fact of life in this type of garden. Hopefully with time we’ll reduce the losses.

Signs of Progress

Same as it ever was…! Taste is great.

We’re also beginning to experience more variety as the fruit trees start to deliver for the first time this year.

Lessons Learned

In the ongoing hedgehog absence, we’re enjoying the taste of things like squash and turnip harvested when young. Their taste and texture is sweet and smooth compared to the less tasty, fibrous and watery qualities associated with older plants.

---