For the last few days every visit to the garden has been all about watering…….so when I visited today I noticed a few changes, a few jobs that needed doing and set-to in the tomato bed before moving on to harvest the chickpeas. It’s a chatty chickpea harvest where, amongst other things, I talk about what I would like to grow in my future garden.
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31 Comments
Great post 👍
I know as a new gardener in north Florida which was HOT as heck.I will concentrate more on fall gardening because I hear this ( oppressive heat)MAY be something we have to get use too.In spring i will only do HEAT loving plants.No sense in planting plants that bolt because of the heat that's a waste.Someone said check out how Australian gardeners do their gardening.
lovely video! take care in that crazy heat. 🥵😱
I can't wait to see your next chapter in your book. I know it's going to be a bit stressful getting there but it'll be so worth it! If I lived in London, I'd help you pack but I'm in scorched California. 🏜️🌞 Take care of yourself in this heat.
Hi Vivi. How about cooking your beans in a crock pot? This will not take that much electricity
Please take care in that horrible heat but enjoy just being amongst you beautiful veggies.
Enjoyed this vlog, thks Vivi. Sorry your knees make it so hard, plus the heat to deal with. We get too much humidity in tropical Australia during summer, so we only veg garden now during our winter. We usually water every day because it is the Dry season about 26 degrees. I'm concentrating on tomatoes, cucumber, baby spinach, rocket and herbs (we don't eat starchy foods, root veg or beans as hubby is diabetic). Down south they are starting their spring garden plans.
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That looks like an Australian summer garden. This is what I put up with every summer, hand watering, it's a challenge
Hi Vivi apparently when the tomatoes give slightly they are ripe! Saw that on a “gardening thing”. You are doing fantastically battling on especially in this weather.
Vivi, I just came across a new to me YouTube channel that immediately made me think of you. It’s Garden like a Viking. sorry, my tech abilities don’t stretch to providing a functional link, but I did try 🤯
Hello Vivi. About 5-6 years ago, I saw a video on tiny living and this young couple lives in New Mexico in a very dry and hot area. She convinced me to get an instant pot, because besides keeping her tiny home cool by not cooking beans on stovetop for hours they cook a lot faster.
I was always afraid of pressure cookers but now I use it all the time. My daughter now too uses the one I got her.
Look for one in a thrift store.
We have had a drought for months also and since May we finally broke the 100+ temps only in the high 90s. 🥵😒
Stay cool 😎 Vivi. 😉💗💗💗
My last three years we have had almost no rain in the months of fruit formation and rain in the months when ripening is happening. Im so sick of hand watering. Then the critters taking a bite our of all of the low hanging ripe Toms. So the other day I pulled all of the toms that looked like they were turning a shade of yellow green and letting them ripen on my porch. I cover them at nite. The sun feels different this year and the forecasts are almost never right. Something is not right. Gardeners know something is not right.,
Don’t forget to save space for your calendula and lavender 👍
Thanks for another lovely video Vivi. When you sat down to harvest your chickpeas and talked about podding them, I suddenly remembered that I had just had my first harvest of cutshort beans and they needed to be de-strung, so I grabbed the bag of them and got to work as I listened to the rest of your video.
This is my first time growing cutshorts and in this dry, hot summer they have done so much better than my Coco Sophie and Dwarf French beans. (I won’t even mention the disaster of my Scarlet Runners.) I had never heard of cutshorts but they are a Southern Appalachian heirloom type and were sent to me in a bonus pack when I had ordered another heirloom climbing bean. Apparently cutshorts are to be harvested when the beans have swelled in the pod, but they are meant to be eaten in their pods and are used as a stewing bean. They do need to be de-strung but that’s not such a bad thing to do when there’s a Vivi video to watch 😊. Anyway, they are said to have a richer flavor than French beans and they have more protein since the bean seeds have been allowed to develop. I am really curious to try them and now I’m looking forward to some cooler weather this week so I can get stewing some beans!
Hi Vivi. I would recommend a fig tree and a table grape vine. Both can be grown in a pot if necessary, are tough as anything and very abundant, and can be espaliered if desired. They would also love the heat.
Lovely vid Vivi.. We were lucky here on the border of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire although still very localised we had that torrential downpour. The nearest small town to us was flooded..the drains just couldn’t take it. All my water butts that were empty are now overflowing…that goodness. I feel for you it’s been awful trying to keep up with the watering in this heat. I love the sound of the chickpeas hitting the trug, very satisfying. We will be up to 27 degrees they say come Thursday…blimey it’s been to much for me. Lovely to see you Vivi.😻❤️🙏
Thank you Vivi. What a lovely vlog! Yes autumn is coming! I’m hoping for a warm long autumn and I’ve started some cabbage seeds. My PS broccoli plants have bolted so I’m sowing more seed and I’m just going to “ bung them in!”
My beans are failure to thrive but they will stay in ground until the frost takes them. I’m convinced our seasons are changing. Last year I pulled my tomato plants in November!
Great advice as always. For the first time ever I got seeds in the ground for autumn harvesting ie turnips, carrots, salad leaves, beetroot and coriander.
Today I made stew ( we eat meat… sorry. Though we have actively decreased our meat consumption) but I used all my own grown carrots, garlic, onion and celery! I mentioned that to my husband and daughter several times as we ate supper! A lot of that is due to you so a big thank you x
I've grown 'Black Tula' tomatoes this year and I didn't know how to tell if they were ripe or not, so I tasted one…OH My Daysssss😋😋 delicious.
Lovely catch up Vivi.. Take good care lovely ❤️
A haybox type cooker might work for cooking beans or a crockpot. Or if you will have freezer space, cook up a big pot of dried beans and portion it into your containers to freeze and then defrost and use as needed. I do this with some of my garden produce — stewed tomatoes with eggplant (aubergine) or green tomato curry. Then I just heat it and serve with rice. Yes, rice can be portioned and frozen too. You might be able to buy instant beans, I know they have dehydrated refried beans in the stores where I am… but I haven't seen other varieties.
Vivi can you do a video on how you preserve/use your nasturtiums?
I have an instant pot (electric pressure cooker) and pre-soaked beans will cook in 6 minutes. Very efficient.
Oh my gosh those chickpeas! I've never seen them growing before. I've always bought them canned and never stopped to think about how they grow or what the plant looks like. Your mentioning a citrusy fragrance has me absolutely fascinated. I think it's time to Google chickpeas and get a bit of an education, lol!
Wow how fab your allotment is . I have potatoes grown in a bag and tomatoes which r still green and some chili n pepper as my back garden is not very big . Must be a lot of work
So sorry you are going through this drought! We lived in So Cal for 15 yrs. It was a drought the whole time. We gardened but not really in the summer. We had fall, winter & spring gardens. No growing in the summer. I also decided to watch/study the skies as my grandfather did to predict the weather. Oddly enough it seems as if our California drought is engineered. Do your own research….
I know you will make a success of wherever you end up Vivi. And as a retired senior nurse myself I think it's in us to not be defeated by anything and be innovative and problem solve. Good luck lovely x
Hi Vivi, can I ask did you start planting your chickpeas from ones you get in the shop. I tend to buy dry from the shops, but now have an allotment so would give it a try.
Awww, so hot! It is just a memory now, though. Whew! But, I do love your ideas for your future garden! They sound lovely. And the idea of wheelchair accessible… my mom did that, and I love her garden. So easy to walk in and work in. And the idea of permanent beds! I have seen folks use old tin roofing too. We are going to do that in the mound garden out back. Not as pretty as brick tho, and brick has the advantage that one can sit on the edge. And you had me pondering which would be my five fave veg to plant. 😂😂 then my 5 herbs and 5 flowers 🤪😂
if you do get dry beans you can do a day of making them and canning them and freezing them. You will have time because you won't be processing your own as much.
I had to retire from my active job five years ago (seems a lifetime). I got a tiny home in a tiny hamlet…. close enough to family siblings….. it had a double yard and I could pay it in full. Totally worth it to live in a tiny town!! visit the city when I want (not as often as you would think lol). Gave me a new lease on life despite health and bad back. I am so happy to hear how excited you are about your future move!!