The School Garden

Nicole came to help and what a joy it was to share the endless tasks of watering, pruning, staking up, pest inspection. It cut my time in half so I was able to get a swim in later in the day 😀 Seems the neighbours grape vines have spilled over the wall! And they're almost ready.

The rewards of all the hard work are worth it. The flowers are doing well, the bees are around along with some butterflies 😀 I've got a lot of jars of oven dried tomatoes and the padron peppers are a bit spicier than they should be, perhaps because of the lack of water. I've given some chillies to the local kebab shop and they've asked for more 😀 We'll dig the potatoes possibly in the first session with the students in about a month. The beans are loving their teepee. Cucumbers climbing well although many don't get very far and die quickly. A habanero pepper!

Oh dear, something was a bit hungry! Luckily it was only a few tomatoes and there are plenty to go around.  However, the spider mites are more of a problem so I armed myself with garlic spray:  2 crushed cloves of garlic soaked overnight and strained I sprayed all the infected plants a couple of times. I think it's helped a bit but I've possibly left it too late 😞 Apparently lots of bugs come out when it's very dry and hot as the plants are weakened, perfect for an attack of something. Just hoping there will be enough survivors by the time the students arrive. I put water out for the cat and now it seems comfortable enough to watch over me while I water, prune, harvest and generally commune with the garden.  

  I finally got enough cherry tomatoes to make sun-dried tomatoes. I dried them in the oven and then put them in oil with some rosemary and thyme from the garden 😀😀 Slightly read the recipe wrong and 200F is not the same in centigrade so a few got a bit burnt. Jim enjoyed them as a tasty snack.

The baking heat and lack of water brings visitors to the Garden of Ideas. I left a bowl of water for the visitors and yesterday found a white cat drinking from a bowl I'd just filled. It got scared away when I tried to get a photo but I'm delighted it has something to drink.  The other visitors I'm not sure sure about... Numerous beetles and little bugs.    And this worm I found with it's bottom sticking out of a tomato! There were a few others but they'd either exploded from eating so much or had perished another way. I flung the caterpillar and tomato far way. I've heard that you can spot caterpillars with a black light as they glow in the dark. Soon I'll be night hunting!  Yesterday I was picking the red tomatoes and found one covered in tiny black insects. I turned over a leaf to find a gaggle of bugs under one leaf. They were transported to the furthest side of the garden. I hope they don't make their way back again.  And these little caterpillars w...