Grapes

In just over two weeks the grape vines have gone from being dormant, to being awash with masses of green leaves and bursting with the most minute bunches of baby grapes.

Growing your own gives you such a sense of satisfaction.

Last year we had just two tiny bunches. This year there's hope. Perhaps we should get ready to squish and stomp and make our own wine.

The photo is not the best, but you get the idea. 

Jaundiced Citrus

We have had the wettest September in over 40 years. Our citrus are planted along the fence line. The soil here is rich and loamy, but with the rain it has become a swamp. We have removed all of the pea straw mulch from around them, hoping the soil will dry up. I'm assuming it is because of this water logging that the leaves have started to turn yellow. The trees look very sad.  I have treated them all with Iron Chelate which hopefully should remedy their iron levels. Time will tell......

Decadent Artichokes

What a truly magnificent plant the Artichoke is. I had read that they grew to around 75cm in height. I think ours may have tapped into the nearby leech drains as they stand proudly at 1.5 Mtrs. They have been in for just 12 months and each of the plants has about 8 Artichokes on them. 

I picked the two largest, drizzled them in lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted them for an hour. Yum, yum, yum