Six on Saturday 10/11/18
Best to start with the not-so-good things in the garden first.
- My 6 foot 2 inch son sat down with a bang on our tired garden bench last weekend and snapped the support bar.
The chair also needed a clean.
Husband pulled it apart this week, cleaned it, mended it with extra support timber and oiled it. It looks wonderful. In fact I’m wondering if I should include Husband in my Six as he has done wonders round the garden this week, mending said bench, setting up drippers in the berry house for tomatoes and berry fruit, rejigging the whole automatic watering system, taking charge of me and my efforts in the veggie garden.
Anyway, onwards…
2. After two weeks away from this garden, it needed cutting back and weeding post-spring. This is the first wheelbarrow load. We ended up filling the back of the ute with fallen timber and cuttings for the green waste at the tip. Yes, we should have composted most of it, but this was not the weekend to get the shredder out.
3. Much time spent in the veggie garden, taming it. Spreading composted soil, weeding, dragging out vermin potato seedlings, and planting other stuff like snap peas, sunflowers, carrots and beetroot. Climbing peas and beans will go in next week. After this shot was taken, I pulled out the broadbeans and began shelling them.
I boiled them for a minute, then hearted them and froze the hearts ready for this wonderful fennel and broadbean tart!
Now to the pretties:
4. I love the way the foxglove is growing through Bertie Blowfish and the whole is backdropped by C.Montana. This is Bertie’s first year with us and I shall continue to provide him with many engaging and eyecatching friends.
5. I absolutely love the exuberance of this clematis flower – variety unknown. It struggles in full sun on the fence, but I’ve shielded and shadowed its roots with terracotta tubs filled with petunias and lobelia.
6. And isn’t the way the water pools and pearls in the nasturtium leaf a thing of beauty? This is another reason why that aggressive plant has a purpose in my garden.
And that’s it for me for this week as I look out into the garden and think that it’s actually beginning to look as if we care at last. Water is now reaching the dry bits, there are annuals planted for flashes of cooling white when the garden is dry and hot and I think we might have veg and berries in abundance. Which reminds me, I must order the second River Cottage veggie book – Much More Veg by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, to pair up with Veg, book One. Lots of delicious garden-driven recipes in both.
Have a look on The Propagator for many other wonderful Six on Saturdays around the globe. It’s a wonderful way to spend a weekend. I’m off to read the eighty or so comments!
You have made great progress! Your husband is to be commended for fixing that bench. You could rent him out. Just sayin…
It gives one such a good feeling to catch up, Mala. Even though the growth will pass us again. As for my OH, Haha! Rent-a-hubbie!!! He is a fabulous handyman and given that he’s had a couple of awful years (cancer and then a horrible farm accident in May) I think he’s amazing the way he’s zooming round the place doing all the things that have been in a holding pattern since May.
That tart looks lovely. I also love nasturtiums but they are quite invasive. There is a whole bank of them near our bus stop and it has grown so much it has almost taken over the pavement!
I’m mAking the tart tomorrow, Barbara, and looking forward to it. As for the nasturtiums, they are HUGELY invasive! They are triffid-like and spread overnight when I’m asleep. I fully expect not to be able to see out the window near the willow one day as they march onward. It’s as well I have the niftiest little secateurs that fit neatly in my pocket!
This tart looks tasty …. The recipe would interest me because I love broadbeans… ?
Otherwise, it’s very nice to see pictures of flowers, vegetables of those who enjoy the spring!
Happy to provide the recipe, Fred. It’s very easy.
Make or buy your tart case first… any recipe for a shortcrust base will do.
Fennel and Broadbean Tart.
2 tablespoons of olive oil
large fennel bulb
100 grams of broadbeans
3 free range eggs and one yolk
250 grams creme fraiche or sour cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan
Heat oil in pan, saute finely sliced fennel till soft, with salt and ground black pepper
Spread over base of tart. Scatter broadbean hearts over the fennel.
Mix eggs and yolk with creme fraiche/sour cream.
Add parmesan and pour over fennel.
Bake tart at 180 degrees (fan-forced) until the tart is golden and set. About 25 minutes.
Hope you like it!
I envy you your fresh beans and that tart looks delicious!
Thanks Allison. Recipe is below Fred’s comment.
Garden looking great. Well done Prue and well done to hubby xx
He’s doing well, isn’t he? Even with breathing issues. I’m very proud of his determination. I think we’ve turned a big corner.
Also thanks for the ideas for my Christmas wish list, I have been told off as not much on it (these two books increased it to 7 things…6 of them books) 🙂 nothing much I need ot wwant at the moment
The River Cottage books? I’m asking for number two as well. There’s also a spectacular literary map book I’ve Sent a letter to Father Christmas for and I do know that he has a new release embroidery book stashed away as well. Nothing like books and beautiful fragrances for Chrissy!!!!
Yes Prue, I quite fancy them after you saying about the first one 🙂
Your tart looks delicious and I miss my foxglove and clematis…so I’ll just keep looking for yours :).
Judy, the winds and early heat have blown out our clematis but the foxgloves are trying to hang on. Soon, the only colour (for that read white in my garden. Or black. Or green) will be from petunias, lobelia and impatiens. The perennials appear to be grinding to an Aussie summer-induced halt.
We had the tart last evening and it was tasty. But I think I would add chives and mint to the recipe – it’s a touch bland and needs a spike.
Bertie’s quite an interesting guy. At first, I thought you were talking about some sort of plant I didn’t know but couldn’t find it online (yes, not so bright, me), so I enlarged the page & saw the fish. Couldn’t really catch all the detail, so am not sure how the foxglove goes through him, but it surely looks lovely, the white w/the rusty fish. As we bed down here in the northern hemisphere, it’s so wonderful to see what’s happen down south. Do you not get temps low enough to kill off the nasturtium?
Hi Lora. The foxglove just grew up and through the fish frame – all on its own with no help from me 🙂 – for which I’m very grateful.
We do get 0’s and -1’s in winter with the occasional white frost, and the nasturtiums slide back to lie mushily on the soil. But come the first warmer days of August and they’re off and running again. Hardy little blighters!