Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Busy in June!

Well it's all systems go in garden this month with everything seeming to ripen all at once!



The strawberries have been out for a few weeks now and have needed constant picking...we can't keep up with them this year and have given as much as we have potted and frozen!

The onions and garlic have been lifted and are drying nicely in the outhouse....the peas are ready to be pulled and in the next few days the morello cherries will be demanding attention...

The soya beans have finally started to come through, but its early days to report on any success.

The weeding too has taken up lots of time.We have had some great thunderstorms over the last few weeks, great for the veggies and the weeds too!


My garden slumbers in the winter, peaceful, quiet, weedfree.
It's tranquil in this setting, no weeds to be seen.
But comes the spring with its warmth and flowers delight
then the weeds poke out their ugly head, what a nightmarish site.
I pull, I scream, they reappear.
My husband says "Didn't we just do this last year, dear? "
My endless battle, it seems, I'm doomed not to win.
Is shooting your weeds considered a sin?

My Garden Slumbers
by Christine Blanksvard


I find at this time of year no sooner am I pulling them up than they are back and with a vengeance! Though remember not all weeds are bad, some are indeed a valuable natural asset to the garden. Again we are faced with the dilemma of whether to treat them naturally or attack them with chemicals.
But maybe it’s time we started looking at them in a different light.......How about eating them instead?

Dandelions for instance which are still grown commercially in France as a salad vegetable, are rich in minerals and young fresh leaves blend wonderfully into any salad. Apparently the roots when boiled make a caffeine free ‘coffee’, though I must admit I have not tried this one yet.

Fat Hen is high in iron protein, calcium and vitamin B, great for the vegetarians amongst us. It makes an excellent spinach substitute.

Nettles, everyone’s nightmare in the garden but this one is truly amazing. This plant has properties too numerous to mention them all but here’s a few; good for bladder infections, cleanses the kidneys, relieves mucous, helps in arthritis and rheumatic pain and a great antioxidant. You can use the tender tops as you would spinach, our neighbours make a very tasty soup out of them. My favourite is nettle tea with a spot of honey served hot or cold over ice. It’s a taste that takes a while to get accustomed to but the benefits are huge!


So next time I am out there losing my temper with the weeds, I shall stop and think 'If you can’t Beat ’em…Eat ’em!',some of these are useful and more importantly they are completely free!

As A. A. Milne said in Winnie the Pooh -

‘Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them’!

...though not all as beautiful as the Roses and Jasmin this year......



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