Marigolds and Marmalade for Breakfast

On Saturday morning I woke up with the Bokmakierie singing with a very mature voice. I opened the curtains and watched him sitting in the first rays of the sun fluffing himself between songs. He is beautiful with his mature markings. He was enjoying the sun after a cold wet evening, alternating between preening and singing.

The Bokmakierie all grown up.

We had a heavy downpour on Monday that flattened the tall annual flowers in the herbaceous border and I had to take them out. In doing so I picked a big bunch of Marigolds for the house before Shawn put the rest into the compost bins.

A Bucket full of Marigolds

To make space for the new plant material in the compost bins we had to empty the bins first.The quality of the compost was amazing with each bin brimming with earthworms. It was a pleasure to put the healthy earthworm rich compost into the newly turned vegetable beds.

The compost harvest

Earthworm rich compost

The activity in the garden is changing from harvesting to cleaning and preparing beds for the winter crops. We sowed purple broccoli, Romanesque and Sicilian Violet cauliflowers. And the next couple of weekends will involve a lot of sowing as the beds are prepared with homemade compost and kraal manure. The new season beets and carrots are almost ready for harvesting.

With the yellow and orange Marigolds echoing the marmalade on my toast, breakfasts felt like a luxury enjoying the gifts from our garden. With the taste of oranges, the smell of Marigolds and the sound of  Boccherini's guitar quintets flowing through the house I realise what it feels like to be blessed.

The Ginger lily in full bloom in the herb garden