The big freeze

A full day in the dirt. Except for the small diversion of driving to town and buying a deep freezer for all the broad beans I had harvested. It was becoming like a small processing factory in the kitchen this week. Harvest the beans, sit in the shade shelling the blighters. (After a while I found it easier just to sit next to the compost bin and toss them in. It would have been more comfortable sitting under the shade of the peach trees nearby. But the peaches developed Peach Leaf Curl this year and the trees are bare and grim.) Then racing into the kitchen to blanch, peel the outer skin and freeze.

In between times I staggered up to the potting shed (great exercise on a hot day) to plant up more of the seedlings into the flower garden, pot up the tomatoes and even plant up the emerging beans. They germinated in no time in this heat.

After a few hours of this I felt as wilted as the verbena bonariensis seedlings I planted in the rocks in front of the shed. Time to go down to the pool and get some cleaning done. Not the best thing to do in the heat of the day, except for the refreshing plunge once the grubby pool had been transformed.

In the cool of the evening I pulled up almost all the onions and garlic. A lot of the garlic is still in the ground. I can’t reach things for weeds and just yanked mightily on the fragile stalks. Not A Good Idea as half of them snapped. But was too pressed to get down and dig them out properly. Had to duck down to Valence TGV (100km round trip) and then prepare dinner.

I am proud (nay, boastful) to say that everything on the menu tonight came from the garden. Barring the lemon and the pork chops.
Garlic
Onions
Potatoes
Peas
Baby carrots
Mint
Herbs for marinade
Even strawberries for dessert. Well, a grand total two.

I could picture us growing lemons in pots (they will have to overwinter in the potting shed) but draw the line at keeping pigs.