Summer update

Came summer, came joy

Everything struggled to get started in this very first year of the garden. The peach tree didn’t blossom, the plants stayed small and the tomatoes got funghi. Filled with worries and doubts I observed my garden. And came summer, came joy again. When I now enter my garden I find myself in a little haven of abundance!

A little throwback

When I think back at how the garden looked when we first arrived, it’s hard to imagine it’s just been one year. Now it has flowers growing in every corner and vegetables to feed the whole village (which is just the three of us).

We started redesigning in Autumn and in Spring I finally started to see some fruits of my labour. Not everything is working out as I had hoped, but every flower that’s blooming, every vegetable that’s fruiting and every herb that’s flavouring my dish is one that did not exist last year so that’s a win!

Growing conversations

Besides vegetables, I’m also growing conversations. Although I love the quietness of the place I live, it’s a sad thing to see how rural life is slowly dying. When people can have a talk, they’ll have a laugh and blowing new life into an empty home and a forgotten garden has been a wonderful medicine for this sadness.

One day, when I was transplanting a tree in the communal area of the village, two day-hikers stopped to observe the garden. “Oh look, an urban garden!“. “In a rather rural setting,” I replied. We started talking, and they also wondered if it was funded by the municipality. Well, that would be lovely, wouldn’t it? But, giving it a second thought, I prefer not to receive anything this way I don’t owe anything as well.

The other day when I was walking the dog I stopped to say hi to a lady I hadn’t seen before. “We live just uphill, moved in last year.” “Oh, she replied, you must be the girl from the organic garden. Are you an artisan?”. “Well, I don’t see myself as an artisan but I do love to create beauty“. Because, you know, beauty soothes our souls.

Of all things growing in the garden, the sunflowers are the most talked about. They grew enormously and are of the variety that grows lots of flowerheads instead of one big head. I got the seeds during a seed swap and will hand out seeds of these flowers to everyone that wants some. I already envision the neighbouring villages with loads of flowers next year!

Old friends

It’s easier to maintain a garden than it is to create one from scratch. So, when I left my former home I wanted to leave the garden in the best possible way. Hoping the new owner would get as much joy from the garden as I did. But, it meant leaving plants behind as I didn’t want to uproot the garden. Luckily I had saved seeds and have been able to propagate some of the perennials. Seeing the same plants again is like seeing of old friends.

One of my favourite flowers in the garden is the crocosmia. I first saw them in Chile and it was such a joy to see them again when I moved to Asturias. The easiest way to propagate them is by using the corms. Since I didn’t want to uproot my former garden I had set my hopes on the seeds, not sure whether they would germinate. What a joy it was then to discover loads and loads of corms on a riverbank this spring. Last summer I had only seen one crocosmia plant here, so I wasn’t 100% sure but decided to plant some in the garden anyways.

When I look at these beautiful red flowers I am reminded not to doubt too much.

Another of my old friends I was so happy to see was my tomatoes. I had found them in the overgrown lawn in one of my former homes. Very surprised to see little tomato plants hidden in the grass I decided to transplant them into the vegetable bed. They turned out the be giant cherry tomatoes. Not knowing the variety I call them Cherry XXL.

Their taste is very herbal. Not sour nor sweet. It’s that distinctive tomato smell when you touch the leaves translated in a juicy bite. Fast growing with an abundant harvest, delicious in salads and perfect to sundry due to their intermediate size.

As mentioned earlier, the tomatoes struggled with funghi. The normal spring showers from April were delayed to May. The moist warm weather provoked a flush of late blight, only this year I’ll call it ‘early blight‘. I had to sacrifice some plants and used some healthy side shoots for propagation as a backup plan. It’s a big relief to see my tomatoes growing well again. Due to the lack of a garden last year, my seeds are from two years ago, so I really want to save the seeds this year.

Preserving the produce

Summer is all good and great for celebrating life, swimming, making music and walking around at a slow pace, but … summer will end someday and I better preserve some of all this summer abundance.

The garlic and onions are hanging happily to cure, the potatoes are patiently waiting to be consumed and little by little my freezer and cupboards are filling. I’ve been dehydrating green beans, beetroots, parsley and celery. They will all become part of our winter diet in the form of soups, stews and rice dishes. I’ve also been pickling green beans and the stems of the beetroots, which are great as a side dish or to be enjoyed with some cheese in the evening. I’ve fermented the beetroot leaves into a kimchi-inspired mix, but it won’t make it till winter as we’ve eaten almost all already.

There’s still a lot of produce waiting to be pickled and canned and when I’m not too busy enjoying the good life I’ll sure write some of my favourite recipes.

Till then, happy summer to ya’all!