My previous gardening post was an unexpected success ( both in payout and comments ). So much so, in fact, that I decided to give up on writing books altogether, to become a full time gardener and garden blogger.
Just kidding but it sure motivates me to share more gardening updates.
So what has happened in the last 7 days, on the green front?
Since starting my veggie garden, a week ago, I have made a couple of additions. And, today, I planted even more seeds.
After quite some rainy days, of which yesterday was the most extreme, the sun started shining again, this morning.
Yesterday I had felt under the weather but today I felt quite energized and I wanted to be in the weather and under the sky.
In other words: I really felt like spending time in my garden and making some upgrades and changes, improv style ( or should I say vinprov? ), because that is how I role.
Even though I am an avid learner and someone who can - at times - devour books and podcasts by the dozen, I also like to do the exact opposite: just doing things my way, breaking the rules ( sometimes without learning them first ) and finding out what that will lead to, later on.
Without doing real crazy stuff, of course
Here's what I have done in my garden and on my terrace, today and in the last week or so:
This is not my garden but a picture that I took, days ago, on my way from the village to my home. I liked to see this cat chilling near an olive tree, staring at a field full of flowering rapeseed. The cat is in fact sitting on that old-fashioned machine that almost looks like it has been assembled, piece by piece, by a poor Portugese farmer.
Now back to my garden(ing):
The above shows some space at the left of my rosemary plant ( I only showed the right side in my last update ). Right there, I decided to plant two herbs for future tea harvesting, namely: camomila ( no need to translate that one ) and cidreira or melissa ( lemon balm )
The folowing close up shows a tiny camomile plant, next to the red arrow. The lemon balm plant isn't even visible, as of yet. The seeds of both plants have spent some weeks in my bedroom and I moved them to my garden last week. Let's hope that they will grow into beautiful plants, as I can't wait to actually start drinking more ( of my own ) tea and less coffee. Growing my own tea plants would be a major upgrade from drinking store bought tea.
And before I forget, in case you wondered about the colors of the earth in my picture, I added espresso grounds ( the residu from my percolator coffee making ) and ashes from my woodburner.
Also, at the bottom right, the purple stuff is leaves from some beetroots that I planted there too.
And then, two days ago, I planted some more beetroot and - I believe - lettuce too - at the right side of my rosemary bush. The baby plants with black spots ( earth ) surrounding them are the newly planted ones. You can also see my boots, it was rainy and fresh and I didn't go bare foot this day.
And here's a close up showing the mulch ( saw dust ) that I sprinkled over and around my baby veggies making it all look more professional ;<)
And then it rained some ashes from my hands for extra fertility, resulting in the look depicted above.
How do you like my view?
The following shows a hollow tree trunk that I used to try and grow strawberries in. I probably waited way to long with planting those ( months ago ) as there's only a single flower to be seen. So the day before yesterday, I decided to plant some more baby veggies there to break through the monoculture.
By the way, the blue and pink tiles show the roofs of two playhouses ( one of them an old dog house, the other built of pallets recently ) for whenever there's kids visiting me. I helped a little bit with the roof building by carrying the tiles from my storage and handing them to the kids sitting on the roof.
And here's a close up to show the leek and lettuce among the strawberry plants.
The aforementioned is just another example of how I vimprov/ freestyle in my gardening. Pros would probably disagree with this or never do it this way, but how do you think camembert was invented?
By freestyling of course and trying something out of the ordinary ;<)
or perhaps by forgetting about the cheese that they were about to eat
I also added some mulch or saw dust, once again.
And in the following picture you see two pots with a single lettuce plant and a pot that formerly contained only strawberry plants and now also a baby lettuce and a leek plant haha.
not gardening advice but who knows, it might work ;<)
I think I am gonna cut it short here, for today, even though I have some more plants and herbs to show for. I don't want to make this too long a post and I need a break.
I actually created another tiny veggie patch, today, where I planted favas ( garden beans ), abóbora ( pumpkin seeds ) and what I like to call magic beans. The pumpkin seeds were merely a dozen or so dried seeds from a pumpkin that I ate recently so no idea if it will lead anywhere. I bought the magic bean seeds last November on a market and didn't get around to planting them as of yet.
All in all exciting stuff
and I love to experiment as well as spend time outdoor, working with my hands in another way than just typing away on a keyboard or phone.
I might - no I definitely will - share some pictures of that other veggie patch in my follow up post.
Oh and I did tell you that I am making my own yoghurt ( working on that right now or at least my yoghurt maker is ) and that I baked an oatmeal-banana-walnut bread with some cinnamon, as well as a bananaless oatmeal-hazelnut bread with some added cacao? ( inspired by @fotostef 's glutenfree bread recipe.
Here's a picture of the first try, the banana oatmeal walnut bread. I ate part of it like this, part of it with peanutbutter and another chunk with honey.
I was probably overdoing it a little with the peanutbutter and the honey, haha, but we need to treat ourselves every now and then, don't we?
Right now it's raining hard outside, both on some clothes that I handwashed this afternoon, as well as on my freshly planted veggies and herbs.
Nature sure is doing its utmost best to let things grow. We've got rain and sun aplenty these days, after a serious dry Winter.
I am excited to witness the future growth of my plant friends, as well as to update you on the process and hopefully progress ;<)
Sending you a somewhat more green fingered hug, all the way from Central Portugal,
Vincent
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