Garden Journal – March

This month we finally had some rain to break the drought, but not nearly enough. The days are still warm, but the early mornings are cooler. Our tomatoes and beans are finished and have been pulled out, leaving the garden looking a little bare. I’ve planted some more spring onions, as well as some broccolli, cauliflower and cabbages. I’ve surrounded them with crushed eggshells to deter the snails, and covered them with mesh frames to protect them from birds, so hopefully they’ll have a chance to grow before being eaten.

We have a lot of birds in our garden as I encourage them by tossing a couple of handfuls of wild bird seed onto the back lawn every morning, as well as stale bread when we have it. The sparrows sit and wait on the trellis outside the kitchen every morning, as soon as they see movement through the window. I love a garden full of birds.

We have a new addition to our garden. I rescued a bird bath from my aunt’s house when she moved. It is very old and rustic, but it looks very much at home in our garden, replacing our old one that fell over and broke when a cat jumped on it. The birds love the new bird bath, so I’m sure it will get plenty of use!

We have been picking blueberries throughout the month, and this month’s recipe is a Blueberry and Peach Cobbler with Vanilla Custard, using berries from our garden and Golden Queen peaches from the local market garden.

Blueberry and Peach Cobbler

80g butter or dairy-free spread
½ cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
5 ripe peaches, sliced
¾ cup blueberries

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla essence. Sift in dry ingredients and mix.
Place peach slices in a baking dish. Sprinkle over blueberries. Spread batter on top.
Bake at 180ºC for 30 minutes.

Vanilla Custard

2 cups milk (or soy milk or oat milk)
2 tablespoons custard powder
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Pour 1¾ cups of the milk into a saucepan. Mix sugar and custard powder into the remaining ¼ cup milk. Add this to the rest of the milk in the saucepan. Add the vanilla essence. Heat, stirring constantly until boiling, then simmer for 2-3 minutes or until thickened.