The cacti are starting to flower this week becasue we finally have days well into the 20s (today 24 [75 F])
I don't have the name of this plant yet. It's a succulent, ground cover, grows vigorously without watering, stays green, and flowers in the spring.
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| To be named later |
The Fava / Broad Beans have been going well for a couple of weeks but the last few warm days have really made a difference.
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| They're here. This morning's crop. Net = 1.8 kilos when shelled. |
They have been blooming for a couple of weeks now (depends on the tree). The smell hits you when you step outside. You see, it’s not just one tree; we have a couple of hundred of them and the whole valley is chock full, and the next valley over, and the next, and the next…
First one in a year and a half or more.
This is one of the lock gates at Bath in North East Somerset, UK.
These are cactus, chumbo, prickly pears;
and these are their fruit. I had them for dessert. Click for the closeup picture. We call the fruit cactus-figs, or “tuna”.
You can also distill the juices.
We picked 45 kilos of grapes the other day [100 pounds]; off of the neglected trellis at the back of the sheds - on the north side, little sun, never watered it.
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| A Garlic Tree |
The fig harvest is running late this year. The suspicion lies with a wet winter that allowed the fig trees to produce more and bigger leaves than usual; which shaded the figs and slowed the ripening.
Fresh from the tree:
The second harvest (new figs are forming now while we harvest the first ones) will take place in the fall.
Several more.
It’s so hot that they start to wrinkle before they’re evenly ripe. We should do like the professional growers do and put shade-netting over the whole garden plot. Or, in the old days, they grew their grapes on wines that formed a roof over the veggies – like a living pergola – thus shading the tender plants below.
The 3rd tomato of the season; ate the first two without taking a picture. There’s loads more; still green.
A big one, 12cm [5 in] or thereabouts.
There was rain yesterday; and the day before; and a drizzle the day prior to that. Somewhat unheard of for June to 1) have rain; or 2) has 3 consecutive days of rain (might be 4 including today); or 3) have deluges that overflow that water troughs that catch the roof run-off. On the upside: the vegetable garden will be happy. On the downside, it rained so hard it knocked a bunch of limes off the tree.
