Garden Share Collective August

This year is whizzing by and already it is time for the August update for the Garden Share Collective.

Just when things seemed to be drying up we got another 20 mm of rain and everything turned to mush again.  The goats were marooned for a day and ducks reappeared in the 'pond' in the paddock.  We had been having lovely days, frosts in the morning and sun, and even a couple of Nor'wester winds to dry things up.   Some days have felt almost spring like and I had to shed a layer of clothing.  It certainly is hard to know what to put on in the morning!

I have had a go at making some apple cider, using apples from a tree on the roadside outside our gate.  It is a simple recipe so fingers and toes are crossed it is successful. 






I froze 1.5kg of apples for a couple of days.  Semi thawed them, chopped them in food processor, and put into 10L bucket with 5.7 litres of cooled, boiled water.  Leave for a week, stirring morning and night.  After a week, add juice and zest of 3 lemons and 1kg of sugar and bottle.

We have been having lots of apple crumbles too, and the windfall apples have been getting fed to the sheep, much to their delight!

 

 

I have been busy pruning the fruit trees and sorting out the berry garden, and purchased a Hybridberry and Boysenberry on sale to add to the collection.  The Hybridberry is a Boysenberry cross so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

 

 

Things are fairly quiet in the vege garden so I have been taking the time to prune my roses.  18 done yesterday was a good start and it's sunny again today so I should get stuck in and do some more. 

 

The jonquils, crocuses and snow drops are flowering, the days are lengthening and the mud is drying.  I'll enjoy it before the forecasted wintery blast on Thursday!