Saturday 18 January 2020

Seasons End

.I found this post in my 'draft' box.  Forgotten.  So here is an autumn post in mid winter

The clover in the garden is a  verdent green, the nasturtiums are rampaging.  The lettuces have been rained on a few times and are growing like mad as is the rocket (arugula) .  I love this time of the year.  The clover will soon be trying to throttle the lettuces if I'm not out there a few times a week weeding but it's still controllable at the moment.  This year I'm trying to outwit the clover (oxalis/sorrel, whatever it is) by planting rocket and some of the lettuces in pots which can be kept away from that green strangler.  It's not oxalis because it doesn't have those litte pink bulbs.  This stuff has very long tap roots and has to be dug out completely.  I cover one of the beds with newspapers but it still appears around the edges and encroaches inch by inch.  No problem.  Lettuces and cabbages are very cheap.  My garden is not a serious project.  I'm more into knitting and jam making.

Our neighbour's pomegranites are red and ripe and have started falling.  They are away now but will back soon for the olive harvest and hopefully they'll give me a bag or two.  I still have the quinces they gave me a month ago.  I look at them and sigh.  If they weren't so hard to peel and core I would have made quince paste and I suppose I will if they don't rot first.  Just hope there are no more quinces given to us along with the pomegranites.  Pomegranites are hard to 'clean' too but it's worth the effort.  We eat them in salads, by the spoonful or juice the seeds.

Grapes have been made into wine and is maturing in the barrels.  We are waiting for Vaso's son to drain off a few litres but it probably won't be till Christmas.  We have been given a bottle of this year's raki.  Powerful alcohol made from the skins and seeds of the grape harvest.


We have run out of lemons and have been begging from friends and neighbours.  Our two trees have lemons on them but they are still small and green and don't have much juice.  It has been a bad year for citrus fruit, except the grapefruit which no-one wants to eat.  The orange trees don't seem to have much fruit and neither does the bitter orange which is not good for anything but marmelade.


                                       

Wild cyclamen are carpeting the sides of the road


These strange plants  are growing alongside the cyclemen.
Apparently they are called squill.  They have a huge bulb at the base




13 comments:

  1. Better late than never, or so they say 😉

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    1. Not much has changed. The cylcamen have disappeared and its a lot colder. The clover has taken over.
      Definitely winter though, not autumn any more

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  2. It's still interesting reading Linda. Every gardener is faced with pernicious weeds or wild flowers in the wrong place and of course the ever changing seasons and Joy's and failures.

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    1. Hi Dave. The clover is a damn nuisance if you want to grow vegetables but the pots have helped. The rocket is clover free. The lettuces are getting choked but still big enough to cut and eat. Good thing about clover is that its green and I love that winter green. And it just disappears all by itself when summer arrives, shrivels away.

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  3. Ahhhh, those vicious plants, with long, long roots! Which are so hard, to get rid of. Here, we have Binder Vine.

    I tried for years, to get rid of it!!!!! It comes in under our back fence, and we can not plant any nice seeded flowers down there, because of it.

    The brown wood fence, would make a perfect background for pretty flowers!!!!!!

    But no!!!! The Evil Binder Vine will not allow it. Grrrrrrrr......

    Memories of Autumn...

    ♫♪•*¨*•.¸🔥💛🔥¸.•*¨*•♪♫

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    1. I noticed we had a bit of binder weed last summer, or I thought it was that, but it seems to have been choked by the clover as well. That is terrible stuff, literally grabs a plant and strangles it.
      What a pity you can't get rid of ir

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  4. Oxalis and clover grow here too, they self seed everywhere and are a pain to have to pull up. But here sadly as it is so hot and dry barely anything is growing.

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    1. I like the clover because it's green. Summers here too just turn everything to dust

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  5. The lemon situation is the same here. I have just picked the last one so will buy at the market next week. Grapefruit drop on the ground everywhere.

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    1. How is it that grapefruit grows so darn well. The orange tree right next to ours has half a dozen little oranges every year

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  6. I long for autumn. It’s my favourite time of year.
    Bringing in the harvest, although we haven’t planted much. The heat just cooks everything on the plant
    Looking forward to shorter days. I’m exhausted from being active all day and forgetting to rest
    Thanks for the reminder of slower, cooler days

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    1. A couple of months to go. The extremes of seasons don't really last that long thank goodness

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  7. I've seen those 'squill' plants growing in Formentera. The last time I was there I dug up a bulb (huge) and brought it back here. It didn't survive the frost!

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