30/5/2022

Margaret was not here in body due to Lifeline commitments, but she was certainly here in spirit with Lawrie producing a hand written list of duties that would keep us going for several days!
Lawrie duly took charge and I believe that the extensive list was completed - fertilising the cabbages, broad beans, broccoli / planting pak choi (photo 2) once we had composted and turned this bed to ensure we provide the best possible growing conditions  / always weeding / planting more peas out front / pick a pumpkin or two - and we still had time for a cuppa. Thank you Marguerite and Liz for keeping us fuelled.
A few days of actual sunshine has really helped the peas shoot even higher, so that additional support lines were installed to keep them high and proud; and also bulked up the broad beans that have thankfully been unaffected by the dreaded white moth; no such luck with the red cabbages that show signs of these nasty little pests.
Last week Pat pulled out a single sweet potato, well (photo one) shows what was dug up with a bit more probing under a thick layer of leaves, lots of sweet potatoes from a small bed and we have another larger bed out front under the palm tree, so we are very excited to dig here soon.
More oranges were picked and Maria spent happy minutes taking chillies from her favourite hot plants. The chillies and kiwi fruit are both deciduous and will be naked shortly until Mother Nature clothes them again in spring.
Pleased to say that our red onions are still alive, the beetroots are getting bigger and the mandarins continue to impress - hopefully they will remain on the tree until ripe as this will be our first good crop of mandarins.
Happy gardening