Merry Xmas

Merry Christmas to everybody.

Its Christmas Eve and in keeping with tradition our Southern hemisphere summer has come to the party with constant rain. It saves me getting out in the garden with a watering can but also stops me doing anything else. The tomatoes are appreciating it though and so are the cucumbers, both of which are swelling nicely. I have heaps of green stawberries on the plants but none ready for dessert tomorrow. I got enough lettuce for twelve people to have for tea last night. That wasn't all we had but I'm sure everybody thought it was the best bit! I have had some peas ready this week but they can't seem to make it to the pot, I just have to munch them straight off the bush, out of the pod and into my mouth. YUM! I planted some Borlotti beans two weeks ago and now have the beginnings of a bean hedge but just 10cm high. I dug a small new bed for them about 1.30m long and about 30cm wide (that's four foot by one foot in old money). It's a bit shaded so I don't expect the growth will be that rapid but they look very healthy so far.



With the wet and warm conditions lately I have been in constant battle with the slugs and snails. The coffee and pine needles seem to have stopped being efficient so I am back to beer traps and nightly patrols with the torch. Some of the little buggers still get through though. I'm still holding off on the derris dust but I must admit that the bottle left over from last year (before I gardened organically) is starting to look tempting. Surprisingly, since the slugs destroyed my seedling courgette the ones I have grown from seed have escaped the carnage so far.



My kettle full of baby carrots is just about ready so I think I will harvest in the morning to use raw with dips at the family xmas lunch. Just trim wash and crunch. The beetroot that I allowed to seed is huge and has heaps of green seen on it but I need to wait until it has dried out a bit. Fat chance with this rain. Ditto the lettuce. My capsicum and chilli are still minute but a friend has told me that they will take off all at once. Hope so.
Once again Happy holidays to you and yours. Paul

Its been a while...

...since I wrote in the blog. Things are going well. This morning I have harvested the first pot of baby carrots. They are sweet and crunchy.YUM! The broccoli is starting to head up, at least the ones I haven't sprayed with Nature's Curator have, the sprayed ones look OK but no sign of any budding yet. The tomatoes have little marble sized fruit on them and the strawberries are fruiting in plenty again but nothing red at the moment. Still going strong with the same lettuce plants but I have allowed two to go to seed rather than cutting their leaves. Hopefully I will get good crops from these as well.I have also let one beetroot go to seed. Potatoes are high but the tubers are small at the moment so I'll let them go further. Spinach is up and getting ready to be harvested but the silver beet is still looking pretty sorry for itself. I don't understand how "the easiest plant to grow" as so many people tell me, just won't take off. Cucumbers have tiny fruit on them - I wish I could remember which ones were the long ones and which for pickling. I'll have to wait I suppose. The courgette in the barbecue is thriving and beginning to flower as is the coriander there. The wicker basket has plenty of spring onions but everything else looks pretty small. It's a constant battle with the Chinese cabbage to stop it going off in a long stem, I pinch it out almost every day.

In the garden again

Every thing looks pretty good this week. I harvested one lot of radish which had grown too fast and split and one lot which were marble size and delicious. I think the trick with the next lot will be to try and harvest somewhere in the middle. I had a pea plant which gave up the ghost immediatley after I picked the pods - within hours it looked dead so into the compost heap it went. Tomatoes are all flowering and the ones in deeper soil are much healthier looking. Planted out some capsicum seedlings which were looking very small but have doubled with a bit more room. Courgettes are coming on and the cucumber plants are in flower and racing up the strings. I gave up on the square foot carrots, recomposted and planted chinese cabbage in that square. The chilli plants are still a bit small but look healthy, and the potatoes are in rampant bloom. Not so much sun this week so I only have green strawberries at the moment.
I seem to have finally got the hang of the compost heap and the last lot that I took out was looking almost perfect. I'm still amazed at how hot it gets inside a heap, especially when I throw the grass cuttings in. While turning over the compost heap I came across a rubber plant that my wife hated and threw out last year when in went straggly. It has developed a very large root ball and had two green leaves, it was at the back of the heap so was not completely covered but still it was pretty much in constant shade. Incredible that it was still alive. I'm going to put it back into a pot and see if I can sneak it into the house. Such determination needs recognising.