Carrots - endings and beginnings

This is for all you edible gardeners out there that actually dig up and eat your carrots. You're missing out on the seed-making magic!

The same flower head two weeks ago

Scenes from the dill forest

Summer update - what summer?

It's been a somewhat challenging season so far. While I did really well getting the seeds off and running early and then transplanted out relatively promptly, it's all fallen apart since then. Most of this has been due to factors outside my control. First I was away for 3 weeks from mid-November - just when I need to be vigilant as far as removing tomato laterals, weeding, playing my favourite game of eradicate-the-whitefly, and making sure everything is establishing itself properly. Then, since I returned in mid-December, the weather has been pretty wet.

Strawberries - too wet to get many of any decent quality. I did collect around 500 grams of unnibbled berries when I first arrived back, enough to make a batch of strawberry ice-cream, but since then I'm only getting the two or three I pop on my cereal each morning.

Tomatoes - I'm still waiting for any tomatoes to ripen up. I had to do some major pruning on the plants as they had become quite overgrown, and I don't think the bees had been able to get in to pollinate! The tomatoes on the plants seem much smaller, and fewer in number than in the past. I've now also done some serious removal of the lower leaves in an attempt to make sure any sun that does make an appearance can get in to the actual tomatoes.

The various chillies and capsicums are coming along - no sign of any fruit as yet though.

And a trip down the end of the garden in between the showers today revealed the scent of garlic in the air. I suspect these are ready to harvest, but in order to do that we need a good week of dry weather, and there's no sign of that any time soon. Hopefully they are not starting to rot underground.

Herb garden

(Have just found this October post lurking in my drafts and not posted- oops!)

After much hard working digging in bricks yesterday 23 October I now have an official herb garden. So far there's sage and rosemary in one panel, and chives and german chamomile in another...and subsequently basil, oregano, hyssop and mexican mint seedlings have been planted out and are all growing (well, except for one basil casualty). And now I have the brickwork done I can sow the seeds for the few herbs that are direct-sown.

23 October:

12 November: (watch that chamomile patch grow! The transplanted chives are also flowering)

 

I've also transplanted four Russian Red tomatoes, three Green Zebras and two Gardeners Delight, and subsequently three tomatillos, three ancho chillis and four capsicums.

Down the bottom of the garden I've also transplanted a Cape Gooseberry. I have a couple more of these to go in a neighbouring bed but that bed needs reweeding first. My wrists and knees weren't up to that after establishing the herb garden!

Last year I had grown some forget-me-nots in a pot sitting by the front door. These are now flowering again and I even have one plant that has crossed the concrete path and popped up in the main garden in the perfect spot by the edge of the path. Thanks Nana!

Sage in flower

A good proportion of the first two batches of seedlings have been transplanted from the seed trays into individual pots now, ready for planting out starting from next weekend when the tomatoes will be going in the ground. It's just the capsicums and chillies still in the seed trays now, germinated but not quite ready for the next step.

I've also marked out the herb garden with string. Next weekend I'll be bricking out the segments then planting out some of the seedlings. I'll also be transplanting the chives - yes, the chive seed that I sowed last summer that didn't do anything at the time has now popped up and I have four healthy plants to move.

Still on herbs, one of the sage plants has been busy over the last couple of weeks, progressing from this:

(that's my soon-to-be herb garden behind the sage)

to this:

The sea of waving purple is so pretty!

Seeds - batch 2

But first, a report on batch 1: Tomato (Russian Red) - wonderful peasant stock! All germinated, all hardy-looking, all coming along nicely Tomato (Green Zebra) - the number that I actually wanted have germinated and have their first true leaves now which is good news Tomato (Gardeners Delight) - as always, the cherry tomatoes are the weaklings of the bunch. They did mostly germinate, but were a bit spindly - still got a couple of more sturdy-looking ones so hopefully they will continue to thrive. Cape Gooseberry - today the first couple of seedlings have poked their heads through, hurrah! Parsley - the problem child of this a particular batch. Still plenty of time to resow though. Chamomile German - fertile wee bunch, and oh so tiny Peppermint - like the Cape Gooseberry, the first couple have just poked their heads through Oregano - we have germination, I am shocked! Now to keep them alive. Marigold (Mexican Mint) - three or four germinated here, will probably need to sow some more as I wanted a big group of these this year. Now on to batch 2: Sown today for the Mexican garden were Chilli (Carribean Blend, hoping for some Scotch Bonnets in here) Chilli (Ancho - as per last year) Tomatillo (as per last year) Epazote (hopefully they will germinate this year). And for the ordinary garden were Pepper (Topepo Rosso) Basil Bergamot Hyssop I have a space and a plan for a proper herb garden this year, just need to get some bricks or something to outline the segments.

Seeds - batch 1

Garlic report - the organic shop didn't have garlic that looked any sturdier than mine, so all eight cloves I planted out were from last year's harvest. All eight have germinated and are coming along nicely.

Seed report - today I sowed the following into seed trays:
Tomato (Russian Red)
Tomato (Green Zebra)
Tomato (Gardeners Delight)
Cape Gooseberry
Parsley
Chamomile German
Peppermint
Oregano
Marigold (Mexican Mint)

This year I've resisted the temptation to plant the more unusual varieties (the Purple Calabash from last year cured me of that, at least for this year!) so I've gone back to some faithful varieties, a red, a green, and a cherry. I'm planning on planting out five of each.

The beginning of another gardening year

The winter solstice snuck up on me a couple of weeks ago, which means another gardening year is here! Time to plant out some garlic. Last year I didn't plant very many so we ended up with the right amount for consumption - however this year that means I only have a few spare cloves to plant out, so I need to visit the organic shop down the road to pick up some more. I also have to decide where I should plant them this year - and, of course, in order to do that, I need to have some idea of what else I'll be planting and where it will all need to go - aaarrgggh!

Summer of 2010 update

Busy with harvest time at the moment.

Tomatoes - loving the cherry tomatoes, and the green zebras (as always). Not so much in love with the Purple Calabash (these don't make good 'eating' tomatoes, and seemed extra attractive to snails and the like so suffered a fair bit of damage) or the yellow plum (which turned out to be cherry-sized, and are good cooked or in sauces but not so tasty to eat fresh), so I probably won't bother with those ones again. I must confess that although I started the season dutifully removing the laterals my routine slipped at some point in December and the tomato patch quickly became an overgrown forest that collapsed in upon itself in places. This was obviously Not A Good Thing, and I had powdery mildew on the branches for the first time. On the plus side, we did grab a couple of triple-stake triangular frames and these gave those couple of plants much more support, so I'll definitely be picking up more and doing all my tomatoes like that next year.

Tomatillos - went in a bit late but are now doing beautifully. A very photogenic plant! Looking forward to them ripening, so we can see what they taste like.


Also in the Mexican garden went some chilli seedlings, but they haven't really grown that much. Now that I have a decent mini-greenhouse I'll be sure to get these started earlier next year. I also planted jamaica flowers - these are used to make a drink. I think these went in a little late as they are only just starting to show the first signs of buds, and again I'll try harder next year to sow these earlier.


Cape Gooseberry - similar lanterns to the tomatillos but much smaller. The first few of these are ripening up now, and we love them - so tasty! A definite to keep in the garden.


Courgettes - the year of the marrowing. This year's variety seemed particularly sneaky and quick!

Herbs - coriander went to seed quite quickly so I've managed to save a lot of seed for next year. Dill and chives were direct-sown in late December, took a long time to germinate and are only now starting to be recognisable. The parsley is doing well (not as over-the-top as last year, thank goodness). The existing plot of sage is continuing to be thick and lush, and one branch of my rosemary has been successfully bent over to grow its own roots so we can now get rid of the giant woody mass that is the old bush. This frees up the corner that I want to be my entire herb garden, not just my rosemary garden.

Carrots - fresh from the soil this morning was this funky fellow. He was a decent size, almost 200grams. Now he's carrot cake :)


I'll also share with you one of my neighbour's sunflowers, which we could see back in December waving at us across the fences.

Roundup

Finally got around to the final sowings today.

Direct-sown into the salad garden was three varieties of lettuce, along with corn salad and spinach. Into the herb garden went chives and dill (I also transplanted in a parley yesterday). And into the Mexican garden went jamaica, a variety of hibiscus that makes a tasty drink. I also sowed another row of peas, and transplanted the watermelon.

Into seed trays went: ancho chilli, Marconi red pepper, tomatillo and epazote (all for the Mexican garden), plus basil, bergamot and passionfruit. I'm hoping it's not too late for these Mexican additions, I should really have had these underway a month ago.

A quick trim of the citrus trees to remove some of those lower small branches attracting the whitefly, and done for the day!

Courgette

The two courgette plants have been in the ground for a couple of weeks now. Although they are both Cocozelle, one has variegated leaves while one doesn't!

Into the garden this week

Over the weekend most of the seedlings were planted out in the garden - the cape gooseberry, 11 tomato seedlings, and four Mexican marigolds. I really need to get a wriggle on sowing the remaining late spring/early summer seeds though....Also up from the direct-sown seeds are the peas, beetroot and carrot.

While I wasn't looking whitefly has arrived on the citrus, so the round of spraying with Neem Oil has commenced today. Begone!

First strawberry of the season - already!

You know you want one.

Parsnip

(It doesn't look quite as big in the photo as it does in my head - but still, a triumph compared to the carrots!)

Parsnip!

Thumbs up - the two courgette plants were planted out today, and the direct-sown coriander has emerged.

Thumbs down - No sign of the cumin as yet - at least, I'm pretty sure the things that are popping up are more likely to be weeds than cumin......The tomatoes still aren't quite big enough to be planted out but are coming along nicely in the new "greenhouse" and will probably go in next weekend. No sign of the watermelons - I planted three, two pots are inside and one is outside in the greenhouse as a bit of an experiment to see if the additional heat would help things along, but there's nothing to report as yet (at least a week in).

Harvested today - one big beautiful perfectly formed parsnip. Also three carrots that the perfectly formed parsnip is probably pointing at and laughing. I'll try and grab a photo of the parsnip tomorrow evening.

And I have a guilty conscience over everything else that still hasn't been sown. Must remember to get a tray sorted out tomorrow!