On the brink of the shortest day here in the Southern hemisphere and Sue & I spent an hour or so digging the last of our carrots for the season.

Normally our fresh garden carrots are finished by May but with the advent of our new raised garden beds we still had carrots growing. 80mm [3”] of rain this week convinced us it was time to salvage what we could before they rot in the ground. Our soil is very heavy clay based and once it gets saturated at this time of year it doesn’t dry out again until about October.

Probably enough in the fridge to last another 3 – 4 weeks before we have to buy any.

The garden is still productive and we still have the following growing;

Leeks, Turnip, Winter Lettuce, Kale, Collard, Chard, Broccoli, Parsnip, Upland Cress, Rocket, Celeriac, Kohlrabi.

Already planted and poking their little heads up ready for spring are Broad Beans, Snow peas and Sugar Snap peas. Any spare plots have been mulched and sown with a green manure crop ready to dig in when Spring arrives.

Hopefully the sunshine this afternoon is a harbinger of better weather tomorrow. I’d like to clean up my carrot bed and sow the green crop weather permitting. The last three weekends have produced horrid wet and windy weather and put a total halt to my weekend gardening efforts.