Neil's comment on another post about planning our meals around what is in the garden certainly rang true today. In fact, in order to delay starting spring cleaning one of the boy's bedrooms, I decided to do a bit of a clean up in the fridge. This then led to digging up a few potatoes, which then led to 'I might as well sort my grow bags'. The bedroom got sorted, but so did a lot of other things. 

The celery and broc from my mum's garden was past its best, but still usable. The broc went in a quiche  (in fact it was popped in the oven ready for lunch while we started the spring cleaning); and the celery was used for dinner. A few asparagus, baby carrots, silverbeet and a couple of new potatoes were added to the quiche.  At the same time I cut up more carrots and the celery and put it into the crockpot for a sweet and sour pork. My crockpot and a hot meal at the end of the day is my saviour on busy days.

The grow bags that I was sorting follow the principles of hugelkulture and layering of organic materials. In the bags, it does vary slightly, but the layering principles are similar. At the bottom was twigs,  lawn clippings, coffee grounds, manure (rabbits), and finally some compost and potting mix. As it is has broken down, and soil levels dropped, I've added more compost. Some of the buckets I've done the same with. Thd idea is that as it breaks foen, it keeps feeding the plants. I've also found thst it retains moisture better. To see how successful last year's trial was, I tipped some out today. It  actually had thick, rich soil. I was very impressed. Before planting, I do dig over the top part, just to ensure it isn't too compact and the roots can get down.

Part of the delay with sorting these was some uncertainty over what I wanted to grow. I had even toyed with planting them with flowers ir melons. In the end I decided not to put a heap of melons out...just one. In 4 bags I have two F1 squash varieties. Pumpkins were ridiculously priced this year up here,  and with mildew being our worst enemy up here, I've decided to see if these work better. There are also 5 buckets of potatoes. The bucket potatoes are a bit hit and miss, but this was a case of having lots of litle sprouting ones, and a few spare buckets. I will plant a full bed of potatoes once the popcorn is done. A few buckets are also filled with the leftover spring onions.  Along with the three remaining tomatoes that were squeezed in, in other gardens, I am officially done....for now. I'm sure I can squeeze a row of carrots in, or some basil or chives. 

Pic...our first gherkin picking, our first potatoes, and using up the fridge contents.