Winter 2010

It is SO wet in the garden, and cold, very little is growing.  

The herb garden has parsley going wild, lemon grass dying and pretty much everything else is dormant.

Bed One: Unbelievably the capsicums and chillies have fruited all winter, although the fruit has got smaller as winter has gone on. The enormous plants in the front are beetroot, no idea what they are like under the soil, woody is my guess.

Bed Three: Current compost heap, a couple of self sown garlic plants, some silverbeet, beetroot and stunted celery.

Bed Four, previous compost heap, composting nicely, some overblown kale... pretty flowers though.

Bed Two: The one respectable bed in the garden, broccolli and brussel sprouts, lettuce, garlic, leek and onions.

The lemons were huge and dry, the apricot flowered before we pruned and sprayed it so I don't have high hopes for a good fruiting season.

April/May Garden Update

A couple of weeks ago I went and pulled out the last of the zucchini.
The pumpkins grew four really good sized pumpkins. I don't know the variety, but they are the ones with a high moisture content. Next year I'll try planting something like a butternut that has more solid flesh.  I've pulled the pumpkin plant out now, so we can actually mow around the garden.
Capsicums still producing, as are lettuces, silverbeet, beetroot and the bok choi? is nearly ready.

The celery got overwhelmed by the zucchini (note to self, next year put zucchini in it's own bed!)  But now it seems to be sprouting out the side

The melon is still fruiting, the large one in the picture was rotten inside because I left it too long, after picking the last one too early.   I think it's too cold now for the rest to mature.

Herbs:
The basil is going to seed, everything else is doing well. The mint is taking over the garden, I knew I should have listened to the little voice telling me to put it elsewhere!

Fruit trees:
Something ate the leaves off of the apricot.  The lemon is laden with fruit that is turning yellow.  I've fertilised both.

Seedlings:
Mia and I planted a bunch into punnets.  We left them too long and the slugs and portugese millipedes ate them.  So we dealt with those pests:

And replanted right into the garden:

I'm not so flash at planting seeds, I neeeeeeed a greenhouse or cloche.

So this is what the garden looks like right now:

Basil Harvest

We had heaps, mid April, I picked it and made lots of pesto to freeze. 

Oh dear. Picked too early

It had been munched by damn portugese millipedes a bit on the outside. But they didn't get past the skin. Perhaps that ought to have been a sign that it was not ready for picking.



Still a bit green but the orange bit was tasty. Post From Sandra's iPhone

Rockmelon?

It was hosting a massive number of portugese millipedes underneath, who I'm sure were eyeing it up for dinner.  Well I'm working right now on how to trap the little beasties, meantime I've lifted the melon up off the soil.

-- Post From Sandra's iPhone

Bean Harvest

I've been leaving them too long. They need to be picked before the beans can be seen in the pods, otherwise they are stringy and chewy, and everything that put me off beans as a child.
They are fruiting really well now, probably 10-15 beans a day.

6 March. Other growings.

Two this size!

One mystery fruit

Heaps of ripening peppers

Also...heaps of beans growing, beetroot still doing well. Bok Choy being eaten by caterpillars. Iceberg ok but being swamped by pumpkin. Celery coming along.
Herb garden growing well.



And this... Ok not garden but still pretty. Don't know why it's volcanoesque though.




- Post From Sandra's iPhone

6 March, today's haul

Tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, zucchinis and chillies. Could have picked beetroot but they seem to keep better in the garden.

And this zepplin, 60cm again!

Tucked right in underneath again so really hard to spot.

Post From Sandra's iPhone

4.7kg Zucchini

This us what happens when you have 3 plants too close together.... Sneaky marrows grow. I thought the previous one at 50cm was big, but this beastie eclipsed it.



60cm long
13cm diameter at the fat end and 4.7kgs.


-- Post From Sandra's iPhone

22 Feb various

Tomatoes; still being massacared. Have resorted to cutting away bad bits and using the rest.

Beans; fruiting! Well hidden though so I didn't realise until I saw them through the garage window. I think some have been left a bit past optimal picking.





Beetroot; still picking first batch. New batch coming along. Will plant one more lot on next few days.

Caulis; totally decimated by horrid caterpillars.

Lettuces. Most bolted. Iceberg still doing well.






-- Post From Sandra's iPhone