Garden Share Collective: May

It might be the Year of the Horse in the rest of the world, but it's Year of the Snail in my garden. And my neighbours' gardens too. There are zillions. Well, there were zillions. Now, not so many. A couple of weeks ago they weren't just decimating the tender plants I put in last month for the winter salad bowl. They were covering the shed windows, they were out in broad daylight, they'd had so many babies it was astounding. They had to go, but getting rid of them wasn't without its issues. Snails were coming at me from all directions, not just the garden.

I'd be lying on the yoga mat at the end of class, and during the closing reading appeared a line about the miracle of a snail's tentacle, feeling tentatively into the cool morning air. Yes, those tentacles are miraculous things. I watched an amazing TED talk about electron-microscopic filming, and one of the loveliest images was inside a snail's mouth. Ahimsa is a yogic principle that translates into "non-harming" and is behind the vegetarian side of a yogic lifestyle, as well as the principle of not killing things... And here's me, Dr Death, out with my torch and blunt instrument, bludgeoning hundreds of snails, night after night. I also broke down and put a load of Quash around the cracks and crevices. The box said it doesn't harm birds, pets or children, so...

Anyway, the death of a thousand snails has been added to my karma account. On the other side of the cosmic spreadsheet, I've planted just as many seeds this month as I've killed snails, so hopefully that makes things karma-neutral. I hope so.

And now the confession is out of the way, here's my May post for the Garden Share Collective -- a wonderful online community sharing the garden love. 

MAY HARVEST

I've already mentioned the snails. We're not eating much produce from the garden at the moment -- only herbs (cilantro, parsley, rosemary, oregano, fennel, mint... all the usual suspects). There's still a load of sorrel out there, and that reminds me that it's time for a batch of sorrel pesto. If you've got sorrel and love pesto, give this a go. It's gorgeous.

What's a photo of a whirligig got do do with anything? I have these in the gardens to scare the birds away when I plant out a fresh patch of dirt. I found ten (yes 10) snails inside this whirligig this morning. This windmill has been whizzing around like mad all week... the snails must have been so horribly motion sick. Well, it's over now. They have been 'harvested'.

MAY PLANTING
I don't usually spend much time thinking about new growth and germination as winter closes in, but this year it's been top of mind. In less than 10 days from planting, I've got zillions of seedlings.

Chioggia beets, striped like peppermint candy canes, and gorgeous thinly sliced in salads. I've had good luck growing these in pots in ordinary potting mix, and that's where these ones will end up when they get a bit bigger. I've read that beets don't like to be transplanted, but I've never had any problems with them.

Salad greens and reds. By the look of things I was a bit heavy-handed with the seed sprinkling in these pots. But never mind. These are the tomato and basil pots. I pulled up the spent plants, took out a bit of the old soil and mixed in some fresh potting mix, then put a couple of inches of seed raising mix on top. Just sprinkle seeds, press into the soil, cover with a thin layer of soil, and give them a good watering. If you want a proper tutorial on planting salad from seeds, check out Salad 101 for basic instructions.

Chicory is a wonderfully bitter addition to any salad, and it adores wet cool conditions, so I always grow it over the winter. It's good to know you've got a load growing when you see it for sale for $24 a kilo in the shops.

Green onions. These are Ishikura onions, which I love for their name and their deeply pungent flavour. Green onions 101 is all about growing these lovely veges. Today I've been admiring how beautiful they look as they emerge from the ground, with their heads still in the sand.

They bow so elegantly to each other, but some forget to take their hats off for the occasion!

Basil. I know, basil is a summer herb, and it probably won't thrive at this time of the year. But I just wanted to have a go. The basil seeds that I covered with plastic bag mini greenhouses germinated within 10 days. Uncovered they took an extra week. But they have germinated! I'll molly-coddle them in the shed and see how big I can get them. I'd be happy with a warm clovey smelling sprig to rub between my fingers every now and then over the cold dark months.

I spotted some sweet pea varieties that I haven't grown before, so splashed out on a few packets. We can expect spring to be announced with clouds of pale blue and deep purple flowers filling the courtyard with awesome smells. Can't wait.

I'm no permaculture expert, but I do like to encourage self-seeding, so I've squished quite a few rotten tomatoes into the pots, and have left the last cucumber of the season to rot into the ground, and maybe we'll get some early seedlings out of them. They will need shelter to get through the winter cold, and for that I'll use my nifty mini glasshouses. If you want a very cheap portable glasshouse system, check them out.

MAY CHORES
I read up about pruning, and will continue to snip away at the various fruit trees and shrubs as I get confident. I cut back (rather radically) the lavendar and daphne bushes that were obstructing the front path. I think they will come back with a vengence in spring.

I've put the currant pruning on hold. The books say to prune after the leaf fall and before spring budding. Everything is happening at once out there. The leaves are still on the bushes and they are already covered in buds. Besides, the currant bushes are holding up the passionfruit vine. It was all a bit hard, so I put the clippers away and decided to let nature do its thing.

I have a lovely bag of daffodil bulbs to plant. I'm just deciding whether to put them artfully in among the irises and violas out the front, or stuff them all into one pot and have a one-shot wonder daffodil explosion instead. I think I'll go for the explosion.

AND I will continue killing snails. I certainly don't want any more of this kind of thing happening in my winter vege plots.

If you've got any questions, leave a comment and I'll get back to you.

Thanks for reading, and happy gardening everyone!