Building a Wooden Gate for the Hut | Cozy Outdoor Cooking

And I just came back from the nursery. Look, this is beautiful. My god, this is the smell of summer. Genovese basil. So today is actually the day when I start transplanting all the summer crops. So basil, which is a must-have in the garden, followed by aubergines. This one is the variety which is round and purple. Then we have an ancient variety of tomato, which is the one where we gave the seeds to grow. This variety is called the bumblebee. And this one requires a little bit of work because some of the plants, there's more than one in there, so I need to cut it off because it's too late now to separate it. And then I got peppers, normal squiddy peppers, it's called the quadrato d'asti. And I decided to do two colors this year, so yellow and red, which I will mix it, even if they cross-pollinate, I don't really mind about it, just to have some different variety. And then I got a cucumber, which is one of our best sellers. And this is the typical variety, the long one, like no rough like on the skin, so it's quite nice. And yeah, today I start my hard work. So this year we're going crazy and there are a few things that I want to try, a few things which I tried already and I didn't succeed and we're repurposing these again. So let's start, let's talk more about working. So this year we're going to do the mysticansa. Mysticansa, it's known as a mixed lettuce, it's like mixed leaves. So inside there's pretty much everything from the endive to the little chard, I guess, and a few other greens. So it's a crop that you pick by leaves. You wash it in theory and then you pack it and you deliver straight away. And followed by, strange enough, it doesn't grow in our soil, I guess because in the past we had chickens, wild fennel, which is loved by people making pasta con le sarde, so sardine pasta, which is a traditional dish in Sicily. So I will spread around those seeds because I want it to grow in my land. Followed by Greek basil, also called dwarf basil or little basil, and something which we did in the first year and nobody knew here around, strange enough, and then they start asking me after the second year. Coriander. Coriander, yeah, I couldn't remember the name. So coriander, which personally I don't like, but coriander is like that. Or you like it or you don't. And the last is, which I really want, it's stevia. So I'm doing my research to where to plant it, if it has to be on half shade or fully sunny area, and that will be a few of the new things that we will plant this year, but definitely there will be much more following. Nino is gonna start working and planting as many things as he can, because last night was the coldest night and from tonight the temperatures are going up. It's not gonna be below 10 degrees, so we're gonna try to plant as much as we can this weekend and next week. So it's probably the most intense period before summer. And we are getting ready. You've seen how many things we are planting. And I have to say this year it's looking quite promising. And I just wanted to show you a little bit more around the garden, because even fruit trees are blossoming and there are so many blossoms this year. So fingers crossed. We are really hopeful for a good harvest this year from veggies and from fruit trees. So I just wanted to show you a little bit around and enjoy with you things that are blossoming and producing in our garden. First, we are starting with this side of the garden. And you probably have seen this tree quite a few times. It's our mandarin tree that actually just finished the fruits. And now it's starting to make blossoms. And so it's like really interesting to watch this little tree that finishes fruit and start blossoming again. So it's working all year round and I'm really fascinated about it. And it has, as always, oh there is a bee as well. There is a pollination. And I'm always like so intrigued by this tree that doesn't stop working. Like most of the trees in the winter, they rest a bit. But this tree never stops. It's evergreen and it's always working. And let's hope we're gonna have lots of beautiful mandarins next year again. As I mentioned, we are quite hopeful this year, because we see so many signs that potentially this summer can be really good for us. For example, this blood orange tree that we planted three years ago. And it's been stagnant. It's been stuck in this height. And now we can see new shoots, new leaves. And it's looking so good. And we are really hopeful that it's picking up. The roots are deep in the soil and it's gonna grow well. And there are quite a few flowers. So probably we will try a couple more blood oranges. The tree is still small, but these new leaves are a big hope for us. That things are getting better and that summer will be good for us. And that's another tree that has so many blossoms. This tree has these little pears. They are not normal size. They are like tiny pears. But they are so sweet. And in Sicilian, it's called pirida. Like little pear. And it has so, so many flowers. And obviously we are expecting for good harvest as well. And that's another tree in blossom, which is cherry tree. Usually cherries find difficulty to grow in Sicily, because they don't like hot temperatures. They are growing well in the north part of the hemisphere. Which is like in Lithuania, we have plenty of them. And we found this one that should blossom early and should produce earlier. So it's been two years. We bought it in Catania on the other side of island. Then we bought our vintage van. And we found this little nursery that we went to. We got a few trees and it was one of the trees that we got. And it's looking promising as well. This year everything is blossoming so well. But this one I'm especially hopeful. Because last year it was blossoming, but it didn't produce any cherries. So this year it's looking better. And fingers crossed that we get to try a few. Look what I just noticed. First red strawberries. I think slugs been enjoying more than we did. My husband planted a few just for me. He said this is for my wife, nobody else can touch it. While fruit trees are looking really good and really promising, the rest of the garden is in a stage of a change. So as you see, Nino is working down there. He's planting things because it's a period where winter-spring season is finishing. And we are starting summer season. So it's a bit empty season where it's mostly planting and looking after things while they grow. And we're finishing a few leftover plants that are still producing. We still have a couple of plants that are producing, but leaving their last bit before the temperature is going up and they start blooming. So we have one of the Chicory family plants. And then we have a few of the Swiss chards. Probably we're gonna last two more weeks. The red ones and yellow ones. We have a few of our beautiful lettuces. This one is winter lettuce that actually grows better during cold months. And now it's kind of becoming harder and not so good. And we're starting to plant a summer lettuce, which is called Canasta. Here you go. So yeah, most of the things on this side are leftovers from winter. And there are a few lettuces that are in transition from winter lettuce to summer lettuce. Probably we won't grow them during the summer because it becomes too hot even for them. And they don't last well. And we have some of Oregano already. We have one, two, three beds. And we hope we're gonna have a good harvest. Because a couple of years ago we had a good harvest. And last year we planted on the soil and it wasn't growing that well. So we decided to put them back in the braised beds and see how it grows this year. And this bed, Nino was working already. And you can see he removed some of the swiss chard leftovers. And he planted some of the cucumbers. So lots of work, lots of things to do. And little by little the garden is transforming. And here he's preparing another area for crops. Putting a support for everything on this side. And this side. And he's looking tired already. I didn't even start. Yeah, so he's been working so so hard these days. This year we are planting so much onion. Onion is literally everywhere. It doesn't require too much of the water. It can last well during a hotter beginning of the summer. So everywhere you look are onions. We have four different types of onions. And you can see onion there, onion there. Onions everywhere. This side of the garden is in transition as well. So some things like a lettuce, I'll show you. It's not looking good at all. You see they didn't grow because temperatures jumped for a few days up. And they didn't grow well. They are like a bit distorted. There are lots of ants attacking it already. So yeah, this bed is literally wasted. We're not gonna pick any lettuces. Maybe a couple for us for dinner. But that's all. And as I said, we're planting more of the onions. There are a few beds of the onions. And we're trying to survive through this dry period by planting a few more things that maybe can last. So this is another plant of chicory. But the temperatures are going up. So they're not gonna last. But as long as we have four beds and as long as we can last for a couple more weeks to sell a few more things to our clients so they can be still happy and enjoy a few greens, we will be happy as well. And we planted a few spinach. But probably it's not much. We just did one bed and we just wanted to see how they grow. And I think we're just gonna eat it ourselves as well. Little birds are fighting. And fights are like that every day. Sometimes it happens on the rooftop of our house because they make lots of nests on our rooftop. And they fight almost every morning. The other day I went outside. It was probably 10 or 12 little birds. And they were like, I don't know, they were all fighting and they didn't even care looking at me. So every morning is an adventure. You wake up with all these noises of birds fighting, looking for wives, I suppose. So this side of the garden, we tried to plant a few radishes. They are coming out. They look quite good. We planted on the other side, but they didn't grow that well. And looks like radishes are so easy to grow. But we never really had a success. And here another bed that we were hoping will produce. But we don't know what exactly. But there's something wrong with this raised bed. I don't remember what we had before. But it didn't grow well. I think we had Swiss chard here. And you can see this side of a raised bed. Spinach is looking quite good. But here they didn't grow at all. Roots didn't develop. So we probably need to look into what's causing it or just replace the soil inside it. And hopefully it will grow. And we have my favorite, mint. I like to put this mint everywhere. Mint is something amazing. And it's like the first thing in the spring that starts producing. And I just put it everywhere. On the potatoes, on the fish, on the meat, in the salads. Everywhere. I love mint. And that is my biggest spring joy. A white mulberry tree. And this year looks good. Everything looks good. I'm so happy. You can't imagine. Look at this branch. It's like so many berries, of course. It's still not ripe. And some strong winds are coming. So sometimes half of a tree falls. Half of the berries from the tree fall down. But this year it's just full. Everything is full. All the trees are looking good and looking so full. So fingers crossed. And obviously we are most excited about these trees. Olive trees. And this year, what can I say? I'm just going to repeat myself. They are looking good as well. We have so many flower buds. It's probably, it looks like it's going to be a really good year even for them. We're still waiting for blossoming time. And there are strong winds and sometimes lots of flowers fall down. But fingers crossed. And this is a small tree. You can see how full it is. I will show you in probably a week or two when they start blossoming. But so far it looks so promising. And we hope we're going to have lots of olive oil this year. So I mean, we are bursting with joy this spring. Because everything, everything looks good. Obviously winter rain helped a lot. And this is our citrus orchid that we started last year. I mean, trees are not looking too healthy. But like I said about the blood orange, it didn't look good for a couple of years. And now third year is starting to look good. So hopefully the same is going to happen to these trees. And there are lots of blossoms as well. So I'm not going to let to produce anything. Because we need to establish roots first. Probably they're not going to survive anyway. But I mean, they are alive. So that's a good start. And we have quite a few. There are like mandarins, should be the same like on the other side. And some vanilla and Washington oranges. And I think one of them is blood orange. I'm not sure if it's this one. By the way, in this area where citrus trees are, should be a chicken coop. It should be up there. So hopefully they will get fertilized. And then they will produce delicious fruits. And that's one of the grape vines that we planted this year. Well, a month ago probably. It's looking good. Quite a few of them, that's white ones, are coming out. And it's so nice to see them like that. They are already trying to climb. And that's a plum tree. It has really nice yellow plums. And it's full. What can I say? Look how many blossoms. And there are lots of bees. Looks like bees are waking up this morning. It was quiet a minute ago. But now they are here as well. And we have the other tree of plum as well. The quite typical purple looking one. We don't know the name of it. It's a purple looking one, quite big. But it always gets attacked by insects. And it's usually full of worms. So we don't really get to try them. But it's getting pollinated as well. The bees are here. This one comes out a bit later. But it's in blossom. So it's good. And I came to the other side of the land to check on the trees that we planted a month ago. And they all look pretty good. So this one... Sometimes I get mixed up with the names. Italian, Lithuanian, English. So this one is Apricot. And it looks good. Looks promising. The Karubo tree is looking nice as well. Probably it's there. Probably will take some time to grow like the other one next to our house. But it looks good. Fingers crossed. And what do we have here? Sometimes I forget. So we still leave labels. Later on we will take it off. That's another Apricot as well. This one is getting there. It's not as fast as the other one. And it's looking good as well. So did we plant only three things on this side? Looks like. And this side of the land is still a bit wild. Lots of grass. We are waiting for rain to stop and the soil to get dry. So we can't call a guy who comes and cut grass everywhere. But I have to say one thing about our land. That since Nino's dad was tractoring it every year. So tilling the soil. And since we came five years ago we stopped doing that practice. And we just cut the grass and leave it like a mulch. I have to say the variety of grass is improving. And we're getting many different plants. Many different things growing. And this one. It's a really nice one. It's called Sula. And apparently horses love these plants. And we have quite a few. We have a patch in here which is all this pink reddish color. And it's so nice. I mean we have like I don't know the names of all these weeds. But we got this one as well. We got this ones. So the soil is slowly improving. So hopefully our future forest garden will be happy here. And the soil that we are trying to protect from sun. And that we are slowly trying to improve. And hopefully chickens next will do a good job as well. But so far we are happy. We are so hopeful. Obviously the next couple of months will be a bit more quiet for us. Because it won't be much of a harvest. They will be planting for the next two weeks probably. And then we will be looking after the plants. And waiting for them to grow. And waiting for them to produce. Which is probably will be June. Beginning of June if we are lucky. Middle of June. But we are thinking that this year it will be a better summer. Because we were watching many news. Many documentaries about different forecast. About Niño Niña coming towards the Europe. And the way they explain it might be a milder summer. So we hope it will be easier on us. And we are hopeful this summer. That it will be a nice summer. And yeah. I managed to find the rest of the trees. I totally forgot about these two. And this is the one. And there is the second. These two are pomegranates. They still have leaves. And this one is a bit too red for my liking. But hopefully they will survive too. In 20 minutes that I've been showing you our garden. My husband managed to fill up this area with peppers. Sweet peppers. The big one. Typical. The alternated red and yellow ones. So garden is slowly taking a summer shape. We hope you enjoyed the little tour of our spring garden. And you are as excited as we are about spring. And all these things that happening in our garden. And the abundance that hopefully this year is coming to us. And please don't forget that you are always welcome here. If you are interested in coming to our farm. I'll leave you an email below. And I can send you an information about visiting our farm. We would love to have you here. Because we received so much support from you guys. And you can have a real life experience of our little heaven that we are creating. And as always thank you for your support. Thank you for being with us. And thank you that you are.