SPRING ARRIVES

Now, at last, the vegetable seedlings can spend the days out in the sunshine, covering tables and window sills in every vantage point on the south side of the house, as well as in the cold frame. Here are just some of them.	Ian's cherry tomatoes are very strong and are being given away to neighbours as they prove  that even mouldy seeds should be given a chance to grow.100% germination means there are hundreds of them!
The lawns are a profusion of colour as tiny violets, polyanthus, daffodils and other bulbs and several wildflowers burst into life. I feel like a buddhist as I tiptoe across the grass, trying not to step on anything in flower! Every day something new appears. The trees, such as this willow, below, have buds bursting forth as the days warm. The raspberries and hazelnuts so recently planted all have their first leaves and the cuttings we took when we pruned them are making more plants for planting later.
	At left is the first shrub to colour here. It is a forsythia and you see it everywhere, forming vibrant yellow hedges while other shrubs are still dormant. I can see how spring is such a time of joy in the garden, in these colder climates, as so much is deciduous and colourless over winter.

Asparagus....

We recently bought some asparagus crowns and have spent the past couple of days preparing our asparagus bed before planting the crowns.

The new vegetable plot is made up, largely, of heavy clay and I took the decision, early on in the preparations to prepare individual beds as needed.   For the asparagus we decided to remove the first couple of inches (50mm) right across the 1200mm wide bed.  Next we dug a trench, 600mm (2ft) wide,a long the middle of the bed about another 150mm (6") deep and then finally we dug the deepest part of the trench, again along the middle of the bed but this time going down about a further 300mm (1ft).

Once we had finished excavating, we filled the deepest part of the trench with well composted manure.

Using clumps of the hard clay, we then sat the asparagus crowns on individual islands about 100mm (4")above the manure and in-filled to the level of the crowns with a mixture of clay, sand and dry grass cuttings.

Next, we piled compost on the crowns to just below the finished level, again filling all around with a mixture of clay, sand and dry grass.

Finally we put a layer of leaf mould over the whole thing.

In the trench we planted 11 green asparagus (Verte Grande) and 11 white asparagus (Argenteuil).

It was nice to actually get a vegetable growing in the ground at last.  The  preparation of the land has only just begun as we are preparing the beds as required.   I have marked out all the new bed positions and, of course, had already planted a redcurrant bush in the berries bed.  But this was the first vegetable to go in.

Next I prepared two beds for potatoes.  Here I just mixed sand and dry grass cuttings into the clay to a depth of about 200mm (8").  I shall now leave these two beds exposed to our frosts for a few weeks until I am ready to plant the potatoes, when I shall loosen the soil once again.

In each corner of the whole vegetable plot, I have constructed a quadrant shaped bed.   Today, Kate and I prepared the first of these quadrant beds and planted a bay tree in it.    We also planted about 6 small evergreen trees in this bed which I want to hold for a year or so, until another part of the garden is ready for them.

The First Planting

I'm in the process of making a completely new vegetable plot for this year and was pleased on Sunday when the first plant got put in the ground.

The plot has several beds, all about the same size and I have worked out a planting schedule for this year.  One of the beds, on the west side, is dedicated to berries and it was in this bed that I planted the first new bush I had bought.    During a visit to a garden centre at the end of last week, I found some fruit bushes which had been reduced as a result of storm damage during the recent hurricane.  There were bare rooted fruit trees and some container grown bushes, all reduced.     I bought three fruit trees and a redcurrant bush.

On Sunday, I planted the redcurrant bush in the berries bed, a peach tree to the south of the plot and a pear and a plum in the same hole in another part of the garden where, eventually, I want a little shade. The garden centre actually told me that the plum tree would pollinate the pear tree, but I don't know if this is correct....   It could be that the man was mistaken... or it could be that I misunderstood what he was saying whilst translating from French to English!!!!!

I also bought some Asparagus crowns and spent Monday preparing a permanent bed for them.

Seed potatoes are chitting in the windowsill in my workshop and the rest of Monday was spent in preparing another bed for potatoes

In the new cold frame we have Ching Chiang Pai Tsai (a kind of Bok Choy), Joy's Cos Lettuce, Lollo Rosso Lettuce, Batavia Lettuce all coming along as well as some herbs.  I have not grown Bok Choy before so this is part of my response to the Growing Challenge

Overnight temperatures are still dropping down to around -3C or -4C(25 - 27F) and it's proving difficult to maintain the temperature inside the cold frame above 0C  (32F)...  But it is called a cold frame after all!!   I'm trying to line it each night with some insulation material left over from some recent work carried out on the property.

Last year I saved some seeds from a red cherry tomato that I grew and particularly liked.   I was rather disappointed to see that they had got damp over the winter and gone a bit mouldy but then dried again. I sowed them anyway and was delighted to see the first shoots appearing.

 

Many of you will remember that Kate is staying here with me at the moment and as you can see, she is helping a great deal with the layout and organisation of the new plot.  It was at her insistence that a seating area was included in the plan....

Those leeks and so on that Kate and I planted out together

Kate left a comment on yesterday's post asking about "those leeks and so on....."  I thought rather than just answer the comment, I'd write this separate post and put in a photo.

Kate and I planted out leeks, spring onions, fennel and broccoli whilst she was here at the end of September. In the photo, you can see the leeks and onions and some broccoli.  If you look carefully, you can just see one of the fennel plants, in front of the red cabbage.  The leeks, onions and fennel are all doing really well, but I always have trouble with my cabbage....   I just never seem to be able to get it to do what it should be doing...in this case it's being eaten by something again...  I'm spraying diligently with my recently purchased insecticide and since Kate's visit, I'm now making a new mix every time I use it... She suggested that, as they were living organisms, it would be better to mix if fresh rather than keep it for a couple of days....

I think the only answer is to be even more diligent about protecting the cabbage.  At the moment, I have them surrounded with coffee grounds, which seems to be deterring the snails and slugs, but I wonder whether a little sand pile would do a better job???

A quiet Villereal

Villereal market was extraordinarily quiet today with very few people around.  There were vacant tables in all the cafes and everywhere we went we were able to buy with the minimum of queuing.  I don't know why, maybe the storms that have come through in the past couple of days or maybe the sudden cold that descended yesterday (2C overnight(28F))which felt very cold indeed...

I must admit that we hurried around and finished our shopping as quickly as we could, although we did linger for a while over coffee and croissants.  Laurent, the vegetable man, did ask me why I had abandoned my new young  wife and gone back to my previous model....but I explained that the new one was only on loan for a few days.....(Kate from Hills and Plains Seedsavers accompanied me to the market last week and spoke impeccable French to Laurent, who immediately fell in love with her in the way only true French men can.)

Gardening with Kate

Sunday was to be a day in the garden with Kate....

In preparation we had bought leek and small white onion seedlings at Villereal market.

But Kate was staying here so first it was a breakfast of grilled tomato, with sautéed red kidney beans and mushrooms eaten with some of my homemade bread and a cup of good French café au lait.....or Flat White, as I gather it is called in Australia.

My vegetable plot is not large, so the first decision was where to plant about 100 leek and another 100 onion seedlings. The Chinese Cabbage leaves are still being eaten as fast as I can mix up and use my insecticide, the red Cabbages are now very nearly ready to be harvested, half a dozen frisée lettuce have been picked and picked and picked and now there are just a few leaves left growing and then there is the volunteer pumpkin which has grown to about 10metres long (35ft) and has only a couple of tiny fruits on it...

After a lot of discussion, a fair amount of poking and prodding and a good deal of giggling Kate decided to sacrifice the pumpkin and the lettuces...who am I to argue??? so we set about pulling out those plants that had lost the right to live.

After removing the plants and the weeds we set about breaking up the soil to prepare the bed before making trenches, laying the seedlings in and then simply pushing the earth back over the roots and firming.   The whole thing took us about 3 hours including the discussion on what to do!!!!  I think this is the most productive way of planting out seedlings I have ever come across!!  A big thanks Kate.

All this activity during the morning meant that Kate had worked up quite an appetite and as it was now something past 1 in the afternoon we stopped for lunch.   Kate had already decided to cook a risotto for dinner that evening so lunch was destined to be a light affair... fortunately, we had some chicken in the fridge so everything was ok.

After lunch, it was back out into the garden to plant out some broccoli and fennel seedlings which I had raised from seed...  Yes...from seed!!!!   I had sown the seed about a month ago and all 24 plants had been hardened off and were ready to be planted out.   All the spare space was filled wit the seedlings until there were just a few broccoli left.

Next we discussed the 25,000 other things I wanted to grow... and decided that we had better extend the bed.

My vegetable bed is slightly raised and is contained with some wooden border fences.    It was a relatively short job to define the new bed size by moving fences and once that had been done we soaked the grass that the bed was now going to cover for about an hour....Next we smothered the grass with newspaper using the thickness of about half a newspaper, and then soaked that for another hour.  While that was soaking we collected a trailerful of compost from the compost area at the bottom of the garden.

We then added about 150mm of compost and soaked it all again.  Finally we spread a bog of commercial compost across the top before leaving the new area of bed to settle.

At the end of a long day we decided to  relax in the new pool for a few minutes before I dispatched her to make supper....

I had a great day, wonderfully relaxing and topped off with the best risotto I have ever tasted..

 

Thanks Kate.. Come again next year....

Villereal, Kate and a day in Perigord.

Kate, of Hills and Plains Seedsavers, is spending a couple of days  here as part of her Vegetable Vagabond world tour.

Yesterday, Saturday, we went to Villereal for the weekly market.   The market has quietened down a bit from the business of the height of the season and it was nice for Kate to meet and chat to some of the traders that I regularly visit.... I just had my usual weekly fruit and vegetable shop to complete but Kate had decided to cook dinner for us on Sunday evening and happily bought mussels, ginger, limes, lemons and other bits and pieces for her chosen recipe.

Before getting back to start some serious gardening, we paid a quick visit to my friend Bernard's vineyard where Kate was able to taste our local Monbazillac wine....   Kate doesn't drink that much wine but she certainly enjoyed the sweet dessert wine and tried two or three different vintages before deciding which year to purchase.

Later, we visited another friend with a large kitchen garden and Kate spent about an hour and half chatting happily about fruit and vegetables, taking in the way we do things here in the south west of France and passing on the differences and similarities to her own gardening experience in South Australia.

Our friends Michael and Mary met Kate on Friday evening and invited us all to go along on Saturday so that they could prepare a typical Perigordine dinner for us.  Kate's love of food meant that this opportunity could not be refused so we ended the day at their house enjoying a great meal.

When we arrived we spent about an hour looking around her potager and fruit trees before strolling over to the "chook" house.    In their household, Mary does the gardening and Michael looks after the chooks.  Before we had been their many minutes Kate was inside the fenced enclosure moving about trying to get photographs for her blog while the chickens, and in particular the large cock, rushed about trying to avoid her whilst herding his girls.

Dinner started with a cocktail and Michael produced his cocktail "menu" for Kate to choose from.... a selection of 101 cocktails!!!

After the cocktail, served with duck boudin, home grown cherry tomatoes, prunes and apricots wrapped in bacon we moved to the table for dinner.  

First a thick creamy garlic soup....  Then a plate of local cold meats including sliced dried breast of duck, Foie Gras, duck saucisson and various other local delicacies.... Next a "confit de canard" served with local potatoes sautéed in duck fat.... A cheese board with 5 different cheese from the south of France was then followed by Kate's apple pie and cream, made to her own special recipe.

It was a great traditional French evening with lots of good food, lots of good wine and most importantly, lots of good conversation and humour.

Kate, Sarah and Michael

Kate has arrived for her few days in the Perigord and yesterday we spent a busy day, getting to know each other, visiting a friend, Sarah's, "potager" and having dinner with our friends, Michael and Mary.

Sarah grows enough vegetables to be able to operate a small "Vegetable Box Scheme" in the the Charente, and it was fascinating to tour her garden with her and feel her passion for the things she grows.

We then drove back through the Bordeaux rush hour traffic for a dinner the dinner with Michael and Mary.   Conversation over dinner was wide ranging but at one point Michael reminded me of his latest "catch"... a young deer in an area just outside our garden.   He let me have these two photos which I am happy to pass on.

This morning, we're off to Villereal after a quick tour of my garden.

 

 

United

I was reading around the world in blogs this morning and I came across Kate's post in South Australia  A Country called Blog .  I read it and thought what a fantastic idea.  In the post she says:

Maybe we should all become a separate, virtual country with our own common sense laws which encourage the growing and cooking of food and the sharing of everything in the spirit of that beautiful song 'Imagine' by John Lennon. Maybe in this way we could instigate some overdue changes to show how a civilisation could be a place of collaboration and harmony, caring and sharing, all with an overarching theme of making the earth and the world a natural and life-enriching place to just be.....wouldn't that be wonderful!

Kate often says things that set my imagination rolling along, laughing and smiling or angry and sad, and this was definitely a laughing and smiling post .  There are so many problems throughout the world, yet here in the community of bloggland, a lot of us seem to be facing in the same direction regardless of national and international boundaries.  I reread the post and then went off in search of Patties piece which Kate had linked to.

Pattie is in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and her blog post   When All the Brokenhearted People Living in the World Agree  was on a similar theme, thinking about ways of that people around the world can connect.   Pattie had also linked to a truly wonderful video which really shows just what is possible if we each put our mind to doing something about it  Play the video on Patties post, I'm not linking to it here, because I want you to go off and read her piece.

Adelaide, South Australia,  Atlanta, Georgia, and here in Bergerac, France, right the way round the planet and we are all finding different ways of connecting with people, but the important thing is, that we are all connecting across the globe, that we are all facing in a similar direction, that we are all trying to find ways of treading lightly on this planet and leaving it a better place than it is right now.

I hope we are successful in spreading the word and that between us we make enough difference for our planet to start to recover.