26th & 27th December 2022
It's been a beautiful sunny weather, and since I'm on vacations I decided to go and work on the garden. This weather is so weird, in one way it's nice to be outside, in a jacket but nor freezing, but in another way I feel terrible because this is not a winter weather...
Anyway, I decided to liberate some parts of garden from weeds and grass and put the compost so the land can rest and be protected during the winter. On Montay 27th December I liberated a nice patch of land and covered it with nice compost. Bibou Chat and Mini Bibou arrived in the afternoon and we had nice time together, eating, talking and observing the garden.
On Tuesday 28th December I cleared another patch of land and I planted two rows of tulips. Since it's not too cold it's still not too late to plant them and we had some extra bulbs. I was very proud of my work. I covered the land with compost.
On both days I enjoyed the time for myself, doing some physical work, enjoying the nature and I even called some family members and talked while working. It was a real pleasure and I cannot wait for the end of winter so we can start planting vegetables. But no worries, there is still a lot of work to be done during the winter ;)
29th & 30th November 2022
We haven't been working in the garden for a long time. With all the changes that happened in our lives, we didn't manage to harvest the energy to work in the garden. That's OK, we do the best as we can, and we are always learning.
On Tuesday Bibou Chat went to the garden and removed all the summer crops – removed old tomatoes, red bell pepers, zucchinis, pumpkins, eggplants. She also harvested beetroots. Then she was weeding in that area. She opened the land and then covered it with some compost and leaves.
On Wednesday Bibou chat was weeding in the other area where we planted potatoes. We thought they failed. But as she was digging she found a loooot of patatoes. It took a lot of time to take them out and since we didn’t touch the land for a long time the weeds were massive.
Then she dig some lines to plant some tulip bulbs. Then she put the land back and put some compost leaves.
Working on this Bibou Chat felt present in the moment, it was hard physical work and it was good to be outside and to get some work done.
5th August 2022
We were on vacation for a little more than a week and nobody was watering the garden so I was afraid to discover in what condition will the garden be since is was super hot. I was happy to see that plants are still alive, tired but alive. And there was a lot of things to harvest. Cucumbers and eggplants don't look good though, cucumbers are tired and with some yellow leaves, and eggplants were super tired and down. I gave them a lot of water and I hope they will survive. Other plants were little yellow also, but they will be fine, and there is a LOT of harvest to pick. Luckily, parents of Bibou Chat were with us and they were helping harvesting while I was pumping water and Bibou Chat was watering. My friend came from the city with her son so I was giving them a tour and showing them gardening life.
Both green and yellow zucchinis had a lot of massive fruits to pick up. And the two new zucchinis we planted grew and are looking healthy! That made me very happy. :)
Tomatoes also look good! There was and still is bunch of cherry tomatoes to pick up, and we also picked two or three big tomatoes!
There was more harvest that I imagined. We harvested onions, échalote, beetroots, patatoes, tomatoes, zuchinnis (green, yellow and round). We filled a whole wooden box! We couldn't believe! :)
At the end of the day, F cooked beetroots and prepared a delicious salad. He cutted the beetroots to small boxes, add some Moutarde de Dijon, wine vinegar (homemade) and échalote from the garden. It was delicious!
17th July 2022
It's so got these days, and the plants are very thirsty. With all the responsibilities I don't have time to go to the garden every day and I can see how plants are little tired. But they grow good! We had some friends visiting on Sunday and we brought them to the garden. One friend never saw our garden and others were there couple of months ago. Everybody enjoyed. They mentioned how garden really grew since they were here last time. We picked up couple of yellow and green zucchinis, round zucchini, one beetroot, some onions and echalottes, and some cherry tomatoes. So good! We gave some vegetables to our friends.
Pumpkins are starting to grow and that makes us very happy. Pumpkin plants are expandine everywhere! I wish we planted them in the empty plot. It feels like the half of the garden is tightly planted and the second half is half empty. But that's ok. Couple of weeks ago we planted seeds of green beans and the plants came out! We are so happy. We are also looking forward for tomatoes to get red and ready to eat.
We till have a lot of place in the garden and I have to make a research and think about what else to plant. I have a feeling that if I wait for Bibou Chat, things will not move a lot. We will see. We are going on a vacation at the end of the week and traveling for one week. After we come back maybe we can continue planting.
26th June 2022
WE DID IT! Operation Liberation is complete! Mission accomplished! The weeds are destroyed! Finally! There are still some pockets of grass or weed, but we will neutralize this as we plant. We are super proud! Garden looks so much better!
We worked all afternoon even if I was sick. Bibou Chat put some bamboo sticks on the remaining tomatoes and she collected two yellow zucchinis and one green zuchinni. I planted six cabagge plants and two zucchini plants. I covered them with dry grass, I saw it in the other gardens, it should help with weeds. I turned the land and Bibou chat planted ten new salads, some green beans, and we together planted leek, around 25 leeks.
Everything is growing nice and I had a spiritual session while gardening. How much is this garden mirroring my state of mind or state of my life? It shows. In one moment of time it felt like we are running everywhere, not having time, always late or behind. Then, the garden was overgrown. But now, we organized, slowed down, and give more time to the garden. It means that my life must change also...
22nd June 2022
We picked up Mini Bibou and went to the garden. Idea was to water the plants. I pumped the water to the cans and brought them to Bibou Chat. As she was watering the plants, I continued weeding. Operation Libreration is going great! Almost done! I was bringing cans of water and weeding for about an hour. Then I cleaned up some smaller weeds in the part which are planted. Then I brought some dry grass and put it around zucchinis to use it as a protection for weeds and to keep the land wet. Hope it will work.
Bibou chat had a great harvest! She picked up two yellow zucchinis, one green zucchini, one round zucchini, some mint and two salads, one for us and one for her colleague. It feels good to grow food!
19th June 2022
It's a Father's day and finally a Sunday without any plans. In the afternoon we went to the garden of course. I decided to attack the weeds. I asked Bibou Chat to take care of Mini Bibou. I took off my shirt, put on the gloves and attacked the weeds with my hands. It felt good! Sun was shining on my naked torso, and I roleplayed in my head that I'm some barbarian, removing the heads of my enemies. Anyway, I cleared more than half of the weeds. And damn, some have magnificent defence mechanisms, with torns and scary looks that made ma a little scared. BUt nothing can help them!
While I was weeding Bibou Chat was looking at our plants and putting sticks on some tomato plants that didn't have them before. She observed taht we have couple of new zucchinis and tomatoes on the way. Mini Bibou was playing on the blanket by the garden and it felt good to work together with Bibou Chat, each person on their project.
Mini Bibou got tired so we had to go before I finished the weeds, but on the next session it will be done. Then I plan to take some dry grass from the heap and put it on the land so it should prevent weeds from growing. I saw that other gardeners are doing that and they don't have problems with weeds like we do.
12th June 2022
I went quickly to water the plants and pick up two salads, one for us and one for Bibou Chat's colleague. Everything is growing good. Zucchini is fully grown and I picked it up!!! It looks delicious! I'm so proud! :) I saw that another plant is growing a yellow zucchini! So excited. More tomato plants are having green fruits on the plants, I'm so happy. :)
The weeds are bringing me some anxiety. They also make me meditate because I'm sure they represent my current state of life - feeling like I'm running all the time but not having time for anything... I'm observing the emotion and talked to Bibou Chat because we need to make a plan, I don't want to lose the garden because of the weeds...
8th June 2022
I went to the garden to put bamboo sticks by the tomato plants so they can grow up because last time I was in the garden I saw that the plants were big and falling own. I went to the garden before picking up Mini Bibou so I didn't have a lot of time. I put three or four bamboo sticks and didn't finish all the plants because I saw a neighboor and we talked about gardening. I asked him what else we can plant in June and he told me we can plant green beans :)
I was happy because I saw that the zucchini plant has a baby, the fruit is growing! Can't wait to eat it! I also saw that one tomato plant has a small green tomato! The land is so fertile, I love it!
But the weeds man... I'm losing the battle. Weeds are everywhere and at the moment when I water everything I have to leave and not having time to remove them... I need to find solution quickly!
22nd May 2022
Amazing day at the garden! There was a huge picnic organized by the gardening organization. There were around thirty of us. There was barbecue, salads, cheese, wine and desserts. Everybody loved talking with Mini Bibou and I get to know better some people.
After nice lunch and fun times we got to work. While Mini Bibou was sleeping, Bibou Chat planted six plants of peppers. She also planted Marigold flowers between the tomato plants because these flowers are good for protection. She also planted Dahlias on the corners of the garden. I planted two cucumber plants and three different varieties of tomato pineapple. After that I watered all the plants in the garden. Didn’t have time to weed a lot. Bibou Chat picked one salad and cut the spinach because all the plants were getting big and started creating seeds. We took some spinach for ourselves and we gave a lot to our nanny. We also give her another salad.
It feels nice to create food, eating it, and sharing it! :)
12th May 2022
We went to the garden to plant four plants of squashes. Again, I had to clear up a lot of weeds, but no problem, slowly reclaiming the land. After we planted squashes, we took the two Agapanthe plants, took them out from the big pot, and planted them next to strawberries. Before, they were in the pot on our balcony, but they didn’t grow and we believe that the pot was just too small for them. We hope they will grow in the garden.
Before heading home I took all the weeds to the compost pile.
And for the end, Bibou Chat picked up one salad and bunch of spinach leaves for the dinner. She served them with eggs and it was delicious :)
8th May 2022
Big day in the garden! After more than a week, Bibou Chat, Mini Bibou and I came back to the garden and found it filled with weeds! Like, one quarter of the garden was completely covered. So I started digging and weeding. Sun was shining, and I was sweating. Even took off my shirt in one moment but I put it back when one lady came to the gardens. We had a lot of things to plant and I needed to make some space.
Not only weeds are growing. All our plants are looking good! Salads, spinach, it looks healthy and tasty. Soon we will start picking up stuff. Onions and echalottes were looking little tired so we gave them some water. Cauliflower survived also! It’s still small, but it’s green and looking nice :)
Bibou Chat planted 10 new salads, Feulle de Chene Rouge variety. She also planted around ten new echalottes and ten beetroots. For protection, she installed Vladi the Seagull to guard the salads.
I cleaned a lot of weeds and planted two plants of zucchinis and nine plants of tomatoes. Names of varieties are: Sungold, Supersweet and Ceur de boeuf rouge. Three of each.
At the end I planted two plants of eggplant, between salads and beetroots.
We watered everything and I will try to come soon again because it’s very hot and plants need water.
27th April 2022
Bibou Chat, Mini Bibou and I went to the garden to plant patatoes. When we arrived we saw that there was a looot of weed. It took me some time to clear the land. Then I started digging. It took some time and I had time to dig two rows. I planted patatoes, seven per row. I watered everything. We hope patatoes will grow :)
20th April 2022
I went with Mini Bibou to the garden to plant cauliflower. Out of 6 plants that I bought, only one survived so I planted it with the salads. I also watered all the other plants.
18th April 2022
Went at 8pm to water the plants, everything grows good. It’s really a pleasure to watch echalotte growing, it has a pretty color.
11th April 2022
Went with Mini Bibou to water the plants, and echalotte started growing, I’m super happy!
27th March 2022
Went with Bibou Chat and Mini Bibou to to garden and we had magnificent time! I planted echalotte next to the spinach. Ognions started to grow! :) Mini Bibou had a nice picnic while I worked.
20th March 2022
I went with F to the garden to plant strawberries and cover the land around with the plastic. It was satisfying work. I also planted the framboise.
6th March 2022
Bibou Chat, Mini Bibou and I went to the garden to start planting! Bibou Chat was doing most of the work since I was holding Mini Bibou. She planted onions.