Today is the last of the A - Z challenge blogs. I have had a lot of fun (considering how nervous I was to start with) and have met some lovely people along the way.   I'd like to thank all who visited and especially those who commented and are now following.  I will be blogging regularly about the grove, in fact I will try to blog at least twice a week so stay tuned to the work in progress.  Thanks Deb




Z IS FOR ZEALOT

I am a bit of a zealot when in comes to organic practices in my garden.

The only thing I am guilty of using that isn’t in the organic bible is weed killer.

I don’t use it on the food beds but I get so frustrated at the buggers everywhere else on the property that I resort to using glyphosate (whose commercial name by the way is zero).
 This is why I say I’m a bit of a zealot. It’s like when you write your car off and you tell everyone you had a bit of an accident. Or you haven’t slept for 18 hours and you are a bit tired. Can you be a bit of a zealot? 

The word is defined in the dictionary thus:

A person showing zeal

An excessively zealous person,  fanatic, devoted, diligent.

Hmmmm.  I can hardly claim fanatism or diligence if I'm poisoning weeds can I! Perhaps I should say that I feel strongly about using organic principals but I am going to poison the crap out of any weeds that dare set root in my yard? I could sit there for hours and pull them all out but to be honest I am not a spring chicken anymore and I work full time, so poison it is.  I'm a compromised zealot. A comzeal!

I went around the garden today digging up all the soft weeds without seeds and put them in my bucket for the starter for a compost tea. We have quite a lot of grasses seeding at the moment. I guess they are getting ready for winter, they should die back naturally soon but they have to have their last fling. I sprayed them nice and thick with weed killer (zero here, zero there, zero, zero, everywhere) so that they wont get time to set their seeds and in a couple of weeks I will cover them over with a really thick eucalypt mulch to stop germination of any seeds that I might have missed.

Has anyone noticed that weeds grow twice as fast as any normal plant? They have deep roots and if you try to pull them up the plant breaks off at ground level? They bolt to seed quicker than a cat can pounce on a mouse and they are so prolific they make rabbits look like they are on contraception. Why??? I swear that I weeded the gardens only 2 weeks ago and they already look like a carpet of weeds. Where do they come from and why are they in such large numbers? And who was it that said 1 weeks seeds = 1 years weeds?

I also harvested what I think may be my last batch of basil for the year. I have been lucky this year as my basil plants have gone off their heads and we have been inundated with the stuff. I have been making bruschetta and freezing and drying basil leaves galore and this afternoon I made up a batch of pesto for dinner.

Pesto

6 cups basil leaves

1 cup toasted pine nuts

4 cloves garlic

½ - ¾ cup olive oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Put everything in a blender and blend until well combined.

Serve mixed through hot pasta.

Will keep refrigerated for 14 days.