Carrots!

Well, not just yet. Can't quite remember when (the Monday before Christmas I think? so 21st December), but I did some direct sowing of beetroot, carrots (new!), parsnips (new!), peas, spring onions and red spring onions (new!), rocket, lettuce and mesclun. I've been having to hose the garden every other morning as it's been relatively dry, but there's germination now from everything with the stubborn exception of the Danyelle lettuce - this is the second sowing of this and absolutely nothing. The success of the Cos lettuce makes up for it though, these are lovely and crisp and look great in the ground as well on the plate.

I think next year I will ditch the mixed mesclun and just sow the few things we like within that mix - if only I can figure out what they are! Baby spinach is definitely one, and a buttercrunch-type. That, along with the cos and the rocket, should cover our lettuce needs.

I never got around to removing that first pea plant that died - and oddly enough, several days after my last post it suddenly decided to send up fresh new shoots from its base! I'm waiting until these new shoots are tall enough to reach my first "rung" of string before trimming off the old dead growth, and there's already a tiny pod in the new growth. There's also three new pea plants from the pre-Christmas sowing, so things are looking up on the pea front.

The potatoes taste awesome, by the way.

Delight or disappointment?

Feeling slightly neglectful of both the garden and the blog at the moment. In my defence, there's been a few disappoinments on the gardening front, so here's a roundup of delights vs disappointments for everything that's currently in the ground, in an entirely random order.

Strawberries - delight! The odd single strawberry last year has given way to a veritable bounty this year, I'm having a couple of strawberries each day on my cereal and there's plenty left for snacks and desserts. The garden bed where the one plant became dozens via the miracle of runners seems to be the right spot, and I'm getting better quantities and better sizes from the ones in the ground versus the ones in containers.

Leeks - delight! Well, sort of. The one in the ground has sprouted up and developed what must be a flower or seed head - the whole thing looks very elegant and swan-like but the leek itself has stopped fattening up. I think I'm just going to eat it. I also have four germinated leek seedlings.

Rosemary - disappointment. I think my enormous rosemary bush is on its last legs, it has dying spots all over the place

Tomatoes - delight! These seem to have gone from small seedlings to fully grown plants in no time and there's baby tomatoes on there now.

Cherry tomatoes - disappointment. I only have one successful seedling of the Mexican Midget cherry tomatoes, and one might-make-it-or-might-not seedling of the Henry's Dwarf tomatoes, and both have only been planted out today which is pretty late. Fingers crossed they'll perk up and give me a good late season crop though.

Potatoes - delight! The plant tops are horridly raggedy, with the plants in containers practically dying off. I thought this was a bad sign and there was something wrong with them, but perhaps not because there are actually potatoes under there! I've dug up half a dozen small and medium sized potatoes from under the mostly-all-dead plant and will be having them for dinner.

Catnip - delight! Assuming I needed commercial quantities of catnip, of course, which I don't. However I have successfully made a catnip toy for the cat which went down very well, and there's plenty more where that came from. It's trying to smother the lemon tree!

Capsicum - disappointment and delight. My Jingle Belles plant I'd had inside over winter didn't like the conditions outside and has died, I didn't have much luck germinating either more of these or any of the wonderful Burpees from two years ago, but I do have one Alma Paprika that's doing well and was planted out today.

Basil - disappointment. I only had three seedlings to plant out today, far from the border of nine around the tomatoes I had envisaged (although the tomatoes have grown so well there's no room for nine basil). There won't be much pesto for Tiny Tim next Christmas.

Garlic - disappointment. I think the overall quantity (8) is right but I'm afraid that it's not going to be good news under the ground when time comes to dig these up. One's died off (the black aphids swarmed the runt, even though it had been a wet couple of weeks and I though the aphids only showed up when the plant was stressed for water), and several of the others have two or three shoots rather than the one strong sturdy one they should have. I think next year I will buy fresh garlic to plant from, rather than using my own (this year's was 2nd generation).

Watermelon - disappointment, couldn't get any germination. I'll get some fresh seeds next year. I do have a seedling of rockmelon though, which I planted out today.

Pea - disappointment. It was growing, even had a few pods on it, but has suddenly died.

Lettuce - disappointment (Danyelle - no germination at all) and delight (Cos - looking really good although not quite ready to sample yet)

Rhubarb - delight - growing strongly. I also have a second seedling in a pot that looks really good but I can't justify more than one plant with the space we have available.

Eggplant - disappointment. All my egpplant luck was obviously used up on the germination front this year, I had the seedlings ready and planted out much earlier than last year but one's died, another's on its way and the last one is still hanging in there but has a definite failure to thrive.

Germination woes

I have given up on the last batch of seeds. Able to be transplanted into individual pots were 2 x basil (only two, sob!), a Mexican Midget tomato, a Henry's Bush dwarf tomato which frankly doesn't look likely to take off, and two Alma Paprika peppers, one of which is an extremely long shot.

Last night's new sowings were:
1 x Souters watermelon
1 x Collective Farm Women rockmelon
and 4 each of Henry's Bush tomato, basil, coriander, leek (hmmmm), oregano, parsley, marsh mallow and forget-me-not.

Fingers crossed! It's really pretty late to be sowing anything but my harvest is going to look pretty small at this rate if I don't.

This weekend in the garden

Yesterday - transplanted tomatoes - 2 x Tigerella, 2 x Green Zebra, 2 x Watermouth, 2 x Dali. Also transplanted a rhubarb.

Today - transplanted 3 x eggplant, sowed a row of mesclun, row of cos lettuce, row of Danyelle lettuce. Also sowed the poppy seeds.

The germination isn't going that well. It doesn't look like we'll end up with any cherry tomatoes this year, none of the two sowings of Mexican Midgets have taken although a single Dwarf Cherry has emerged this week - a bit late, but hopefully I can keep it going and get it in the ground. There's also two basil, well down on the dozen or so I planted out last year! I've even left space around the tomatoes for a full border of basil.......

Also germinated this week is an Alma paprika pepper that I really hope survives, although it doesn't look like any of the other peppers are interested - might try germinating them directly outside where it's warmer than indoors.

Still to do today - melon and watermelon.

Nibblers

The snails are still going at full strength, seems like I spend all my gardening time removing them from the strawberry planters. In more exciting news, yesterday we ate our first strawberry (mmmmm) and had to cover up several more ripening ones before the birds spot them. Only the berries in the planters are ripening up so far, but there's definitely plenty of berries on the numerous plants in the main bed.

My two courgettes have been outside the greenhouse hardening up for a couple of weeks. Note to self - completely unnecessary, next year just stick them in the ground straight off! One was completely nibbled by snails a few days ago though, so the other one has been declared the winner and is now planted out in the garden. The tomatoes will follow over the next couple of days.

Did a load of weeding today too in preparation for direct sowing carrot, mesclun and other things including a stretch of red poppies.

Potato go nuts

The potatoes are growing fast! The ones planted in the ground have been earthed up a couple of times and I've now filled in the trench they were planted in. The ones in tubs also need covering up and I'll get around to doing that tomorrow.

The seedlings have been outside in the mini greenhouse for a week and are doing well. The courgettes need planting out already, but we haven't had much good weather on weekends lately to be able to do that. Regardless of the weather, this weekend I'll be able to do the second spring sowing - this will be of capsicums and herbs since I didn't have any much germination luck on the first round of sowing, plus whatever else I had put aside till it was slightly warmer.

The great race

And the winner is....... indoor courgette! It hasn't quite poked its head above the soil yet but a big mound of disturbed soil has appeared on the surface. Outdoor courgette - in the greenhouse - had dried out (mental note, must remember to check daily), so I imagine the soaking of water it just got will help it germinate.

Also on stage accepting their germination medals are: dali tomato, watermouth tomato, green zebra tomato, tigerella tomato, rhubarb and basil.

I'm hoping the others haven't withdrawn from competition altogether. It has only been a week though....

In other news, I have planted the remaining few seed potatoes in tubs - the old recycle bins now have a new use!

Seed + seed raising mix + water

Today was a big day! Sown into individual cell compartments of seed raising trays are:

4 x tomato - Tigerella
4 x tomato - Green Zebra
4 x tomato - Mexican Midget
4 x tomato - Henry's Dwarf Bush
4 x tomato - Dali
4 x tomato - Watermouth
4 x rhubarb - Glaskins Perpetual
6 x eggplant - Long Purple
3 x capsicum - Burpee
3 x capsicum - Alma Paprika
3 x borage
3 x marsh mallow
3 x chives
3 x oregano
3 x basil
3 x coriander
and 2 x courgette (Black Beauty) direct into pots

Now to collate my information on each vegetable/herb so I know where I am!

Potato

Solanum tuberosum, variety "Heather" from Burnets, purchased at Kings Plant Barn.

Store the seed potatoes in the dark until you need them, then place in the light to chit. Varieties can be categorised as early (plant in early spring, ready for eating by Christmas!), second-early, and main (plant by early summer) - apparently in Auckland they will grow year-round though unless you happen to get frost at your house. Once the seed potatoes are well sprouted - ie have taken on an alien-like appearance, which takes up to a month - plant 5-10cm deep, 30-40 cm apart with 60cm between the rows. Recently composted or manured soil will give the best results.

Every couple of weeks as they grow you need to keep covering up the lower leaves and shoots with soil - it's these shoots that produce potatoes and the potatoes themselves can't be exposed to the light. Water regularly, particularly as the plants flower. After flowering the plants will die back, and the potatoes are then ready to be dug up. If dug up while still flowering the potatoes should be eaten immediately, but for optimal storage you should wait until the plant has completely died down. The early varieties will take around 12 weeks, and the main varieties 16 to 20 weeks. Let freshly-dug potatoes dry on the ground for a few hours before storing in the dark.

Today I planted a row along the back fence, tucked behind the orange tree where only the cat goes. Turns out there wasn't much space there at all - only 7 seed potatoes. Others will be going in our now-superceded recycling bins - recycling the recycling bins! These might be easier as I can half-fill the containers, plant the potatoes, then add more garden mix to earth them up as they grow - hopefully they'll be flowering before I run out of height! I need to trot down to the garden centre to get some garden mix though.

Progess

A photographic update - first is the sage. I discovered today while weeding that my three sage plants, previously looking very bedraggled and sorry for themselves, have sprung to life, all lush and bushy.

Next up is a chitting potato - I wish I had a macro lens!

And lastly, my single solitary leek is now as thick as my finger - a little too soon to hope that one day I'll be able to eat my nemesis, but noticeable progress over the last couple of weeks.

Snails

It's a full moon tonight which means I shouldn't sow the seed trays this weekend. Next Wednesday is an excellent time to sow root crops though, so I will wait until Wednesday evening to plant out the potatoes, and get the seeds underway then as well.

That leaves this weekend free to do some more weeding and tidying up in preparation. My gardening by the moon calendar tells me that the spring full moon is the prime time for snails - this explains why I keep finding so many in the strawberry planters! Daily checks, and possibly some beer baits, are called for to keep them under control. I wonder if that's what's been nibbling on the two pea seedlings? (now down to one, thanks to the nibbling)

Sneaky Spring

It's definitely an early spring here. This weekend I hope to start the first batch of seed trays for the season - around three weeks earlier than originally planned but given how warm it is there's no time like the present.

Another thing I'll need to do this weekend is plant out the potatoes. They've been chitting for a month, and aren't as impressive as I'd hoped but I'm sure they'll do fine. On Saturday I'll need to weed the patch of garden that half of them are going into, and go and buy some garden mix for the pots for the other half. Apparently potting mix is too "loose" for potatoes and a stodgy mix is required for the best results.

HOUS - Herbs Of Unusual Size

Parsley - around three foot tall and just starting to go to seed. The Auckland winters evidently suit it.


Ever wanted to know what a four-and-a-half foot tall out-of-control rosemary bush in full flower looked like? Now you do.

Spring strawberries

It's spring (well, pretty much, winter and spring came early this year). The strawberry plants from last year are already flowering, a month earlier - probably a mix of the warmer temperatures and already being well-established.

There are four Camarosa in the square planter - two are the originals and two are runner babies. There are four surviving Pajaro in the long planter, all originals so very thick and sturdy. Over in the main garden, there's one original plant (don't ask me which type) and at least a dozen of her runner babies that are all established and thriving well.

Today I removed a snail colony from the Pajaros, along with the odd snail from the Camarosas, and gave the two planter boxes a feed using liquid tomato fertiliser. The only strawberry food I've seen for sale clearly isn't organic so I didn't want to feed them that. Apparently tomato fertilizer is a good substitute, and I already have an organic one!

Pea free

No sign of any germination as yet on the pea front. Given the size of the peas planted, I imagine any sprouting should be fairly sturdy and easy to spot! I did note that the beatifully even soil now looks suspiciously cat-raked though.

Pea

Pisum sativum, Wando Select from Kings Seeds (an English heirloom pea suitable for fresh use or freezing)

Peas are a cool season crop, so in Auckland should be sown from autumn to spring (late spring is probably too late). Direct sow generously at around 4cm deep, and thin out later to around 12 cm apart. You can presoak the seeds for 4 hours before sowing. Peas take 7 to 10 days to germinate (but sometimes as long as 4 weeks), and need watering at sowing, flowering and as the pods swell. Sow successively and pick pods regularly to encourage more growth.

Peas are a climbing crop and can grow up to 2m high (although mine apparently only get to 45cm or so) so they need support - a frame out of bamboo stakes is a good idea. I'm sowing mine in a small bed (prob 50 cm by 30cm) in the back corner of our garden. It's too small for stakes as it's fenced on two sides so I'm planning to tie several layers of string across the diagonal to give the plants something extra to cling to.

I've sown some this morning, and if they don't germinate another batch can be sown in a month's time when it'll be a bit warmer.

Potato chitting

Rumour has it that you can just chuck a potato in the ground, forget about it, then accidentally discover lots more potatoes several months later when you're digging around for some other reason. I've never grown potatoes, and while it seems that it's not quite that easy, it also can't be too hard.....

Yesterday I purchased some seed potatoes from the garden centre (Heather, a second-early good allrounder apparently - not much choice as I left it too late, next year I will get organised and order some interesting varieties from Koanga instead). The ever-reliable Royal Horticultural Society's Vegetables in a Small Garden tells me I should be storing them indoors, exposed to light, with the eyes face up, so that they can sprout, or "chit", before planting them out.

In Auckland you can apparently grow potatoes all year round so I'm not that fussed about when they make it into the ground or when they come out! I've added a reminder to my new Google Calendar widget (you can see that in the right-hand bar of the blog) to check on them for planting out in a month's time.

Rosemary cuttings

Today I took some cuttings in the hope I can grow some fresh rosemary plants to replace the current bush. I'm not sure exactly how big the cuttings should be, and if you do anything other than cut a bit off, stick it in water and wait, but time will tell if this approach works.

The current rosemary bush is approx 3 feet high and 6 feet across so takes up just a bit more of the garden than is strictly necessary. It's quite woody if you try and trim it back and seems to be dying off in a few sections, hence the need to grow some replacements.

Signs of life

The garlic emerged in the last couple of days - so far I can see seven of the eight bulbs have sprouted (a small furry someone has been a-digging near the row and buried the last bulb under a small mound so that one's taking its time). These took a month to pop up, so a bit longer than last year.

Since there's not much happening on the edible front, here's a photo from the non-edible - a bud from the star magnolia's first flowers of the winter season.

Koanga Institute catalogue

Phase two of the planning for spring is now underway - the new seed catalogue from Koanga Institute came out today. After phase two comes phase three - solving the "garden/wishlist=not enough space" equation.

Kings Seeds catalogue

The 2009 catalogue from Kings Seeds is out, and arrived in my mailbox today. Let the planning for spring commence!

Winter Solstice and the garlic's in

It's the winter solstice today and I have planted the garlic. This year I was able to use the best bulbs from last year's harvest, so this is third-generation organic garlic.

Quantity-wise it seemed like the twenty I planted last year was in fact way too many. Will the eight I am planting this year be too few?

I have planted 3 in a row in the long patch leading up to the lemon tree outside the kitchen window, and the other 5 in a row where the two courgettes were last year. I learned last year that apparently I don't go out our front door enough to plant anything out there that needs daily inspection, so garlic should do nicely. The bulbs went in around 5cm deep, pointy-end up, and last year they took 2 to 3 weeks to sprout.

I did get black aphids on the garlic about three months in to the growing cycle last year, so I need to watch out for this and spray with Neem Oil - hopefully I'll do better at stopping the bugs establishing themselves.

Lemon meringue pie season

Lemons at the beginning of this month:


View out my kitchen window this morning:


Mmmmmm....you know what I'm thinking!

Pasta sauce

Note to self for next year - it is worth taking the time to remove the skins from the tomatoes before making pasta sauce :(

I'm also thinking there should only be one courgette plant next summer. It ended up in everything I made, and I'm quite over courgettes now. Next summer I'll restrict it to one plant, and eat them all fresh.

The definition of optimism

It's June in the Southern Hemisphere - that's winter, my optimistic capsicum friend. Why are you trying to ripen your itty bitty teeny weeny harvest?

Cover crop

Last Sunday I sowed phacelia in the two main patches where the veges grow come spring. No germination as yet, so it will be a while before we see this sight again.

I see from reviewing my earlier posts (loving blog labels, very easy to locate notes to self!) that I had thought about sowing phacelia in the shaded strip leading up the front door. I had borage in there over summer, which was lovely but a bit big, so I must remember to order some more phacelia seed to sow along there in spring.

The discouraging leek

"If your leeks are ready..." says the the latest email newsletter from Lynda at NZ Gardener. Really? Out there, someone's leeks are ready? My single leek is still pencil-like. A sturdy pencil, but still......

In other news, the lemons are half green half yellow now. There appears to be one less-than-healthy branch on one of the trees where the lemons are all small and oddly shaped, rather like they've already been shrunken and preserved, but the rest are coming along nicely.

Now, if it would just stop raining for a day so I could hoe away the weeds and sow the cover crop for winter before it's too late!

Catnip

The catnip is now officially enormous. I must find some human uses for it! It does get plenty of use as a place for Bugsy to sleep, judging from the giant cat-shaped indentation in the middle of it, and I will definitely start harvesting and drying it to do some custom-made cat toys.

Leek

After two years of trying to get leeks to germinate, and then thrive, I finally have one single solitary leek that was today transplanted into the garden. Hurrah! Hopefully it will continue to thrive.

In other surprising developments, my Jingle Belles capsicum seedling (that germinated late and was therefore going to winter indoors before being planted out in late spring), has decided to attempt to grow some capsicums. They're about 5mm across.

No sign yet of any lettuce and mesclun seedlings - I'm pretty sure everything green in that patch of the garden is a weed but I'm leaving them there just to be on the safe side.

Last batch of pesto

Finally got around to making the last two batches of pesto today.

Total pesto for the year was 7 x small (150ml-ish) jars, at a rate of 1 full-grown basil plant per jar.

Lettuce

After a special request from the management I've sprinkled more mesclun seed this evening, along with Paris White Cos Lettuce and Danyelle Lettuce (both organic seeds from Kings Seeds).

I'm sure the urge for lettuce will have passed long before they're ready, and that's assuming they don't end up drowned in a wet autumn!

Beetroot

Yesterday I harvested half a dozen beetroot. These had been sitting there for quite a while because I forget about them, but everything worked out fine - they were a good size but not too big for my stock pot, and they were tasty once cooked up.

I've only done two batches of pesto so far, but hope to do another two today.

Whitefly - autumn round

The whitefly is back. The sweet new leaves attracting them this time are my purple broccoli seedlings and the new growth on the citrus. I sprayed on Wednesday, again on Sunday, and will keep that up for a few more rounds.

All my capsicum are red-ripe now. Shame the largest one is only 4cm across!

Trimming the strawberries

There's been plenty of rain around this week keeping the garden well moistened, so I can only assume from the droopiness that the strawberry plants feel that it's time for a well-earned rest. That said, it's just the ones in the planters that are drooping:

I've started trimming off all the old leaves and just leaving the new growth. Here's the square planter, the two plants in the foreground are the old trimmed ones, the two in the back are untrimmed runners.

However I can't quite bring myself to sort out the strawberry plant and her runner babies in the garden - I don't really know where to start! The single original plant is the small darker patch, the rest are runners.

I also spotted the first flower on one of the eggplants today - too late in the season to produce any actual eggplants, but pretty nonetheless.

Garden roundup

Courgette & scallopini - now removed

Broccoli - now removed

Tomatoes - now removed apart from the last Green Zebra plant which is still going

Onions - appear to have removed themselves :)

Strawberries - still fruiting!

Spring onions - still going strong (shouldn't have planted so many)

Eggplant - the plants are growing on upwards now, but it's far too late in the season so no eggplants again this year :(

Done their dash

The tomato plants have done their duty this summer, and are now progressively being removed. However one of the Green Zebras is still going strong, it's draped itself over the lemon tree and is still getting new growth on it, so I'll leave that one in to see how long it lasts.

I'm also planning to take out one of the courgette plants (the runt), and the purple sprouting broccoli today - I don't think I'm going to get any more shoots off the latter and it's getting a bit stinky! The watermelon vine is another one that can come out now.

Sauce

1kg of tomatoes equals 250ml of tomato sauce (give or take). Now we have Roma sauce, San Marzano sauce, Green Zebra sauce, and a mixed sauce (the last two are in the photo).

100% humidity

The battle against powdery mildew has been lost - in my defence, Auckland hit 100% humidity overnight so there's not a lot I can do. Oh well, I had a pretty good run this year!

The tomatoes are also struggling in the hot, showery and excessively humid conditions. This evening I have pulled out one of the Watermouth plants after harvesting all the tomatoes on it. Once I had cleared away a lot of the dead branches and damp droopy leaves in the tomato patch it was clear that the remaining Watermouth plant was much much bigger, healthier, and producing bigger fruit than the now-deceased one.

Watermelon

Ta-da! 6.6kgs and very juicy. This one will be the total of the harvest this season, I didn't get any more flowers once this one had gotten going, and both vines I planted have now faded away in the heat.

World famous in NZ

A photo of my hand holding a freshly harvested beetroot (from the second batch of beetroot if I remember correctly) has sold through a stock photography website. No idea who to, or what for......

Weekend roundup

The heat is getting just a tad monotonous, is it not? I hosed the garden down again this morning (quite a mission as the hose is at the other end of the house), and noticed the following:

* The spring onions and the onions (which are particularly weak looking) are still suffering from the purple aphids, it doesn't seem to matter how much I water them

* Whitefly is back, this time on the underside of the tender new purple broccoli seedlings and on some of the citrus. I will try to remember to spray with Neem tonight.

* I seem to have planted the basil a bit late (although it will still get there - mmm pesto) and the eggplant very late - must try harder next year!

Here's my poor exhausted tomato plants mid way through the harvest:

Red Russian in the foreground, Green Zebra in the middle and Watermouth at the back. The San Marzanos are below:


And lastly, my courgette. I've been trying to get a photo of this for a while, but had to wait until all the leaves in the immediate vicinity were gone. You can see the vine coming out of the ground (it always surprises me just how dead it looks once it's dried and split, but evidently it still does the job), then it splits into two! Is this common? Both ends are equally sturdy and as productive as the average plant so I have two for the price of one.

Dozens of tomatoes

Definitely time to sauce, but it's far too hot to be in the kitchen this evening! I have around 4 dozen tomatoes picked and ready to be turned into pasta sauce or tomato sauce, and did a big batch of ratatouille last weekend weekend. It might have to wait until Friday - since it's a public holiday I'll be home in the morning and might be able to summon the energy to be in the kitchen.

My San Marzano aren't quite as pretty now they're ripening - they're mottled. I don't think it's in a something-wrong-with-them way......

Harvesting this week

Let the eating stage commence!

Half the garlic is now harvested, and the rest I'm going to pull up today.

Tomatoes are coming through thick and fast. I've made one small bottle of Roma tomato sauce, and will be doing one of Red Russian and another of San Marzano today, while we're busy eating the Watermouth and the Green Zebra.

I don't think the capsicums are going to be a raving success this year. We've had a couple of ripe red ones from the plant that survived from last year, but they are TINY, as are the unripe ones on the plant. I never managed to get another seedling to germinate and survive - I have a sturdy looking seedling ready to transplant now but I think it'll be too late to get anything off it.

By yesterday I had four large scallopini, so I stuffed and baked them for dinner. They were okay, problem was that the outside skin once baked is very squeaky on your teeth, so I don't think I'll try that again.

The watermelon is still growing - 3cm since last week, but it does seem to be darkening slightly and the tendrils near it are definitely darkening. If it gets too hot this weekend I think I'll have a nice watermelon snack!

Lastly, the purple sprouting broccoli was very nice, even if it is disappointing to see it turn green when you cook it.

This weekend I didn't.....

1. find out what to do with the strawberry runners (in my defence, I did go through my gardening books but none of them mentioned it, and I haven't gotten around to Googling it yet). I must say the plant that's in the ground (rather than in the planters) seems to know what to do all by itself, it's busily sending out runners that are sending up shoots at presumably the right distances apart from each other, and several of them have now rooted. I'm guessing all I need to do at some point in the not-too-distant future is to cut their umbilical cords, so to speak.

2. eat any purple sprouting broccoli. I have just now cut the sprouts around half of it, plus the centre head which was started to go brown and gooey, and will be cooking the sprouts for dinner.

I did look into the scallopini issue, and it seems it depends on exactly what variety it is as to how big you should let it get - anywhere between 2 to 4 inches. The first one is now off the vine. I'm still a little bit puzzled as to the best way to (cut and) cook it, I did find a nice sounding recipe where you slice it horizontally through the middle and fill the centre with a stuffing of carrot/onion/garlic/tomato/whatever you have, then bake it. If I can get a pair of the same size I will probably give that a go.


The tomatoes are ripening up well. We've had a couple of the Watermouth (delicious) and a couple of Russian Red (as good as last year), and today I've gathered 10 Romas (enough to make a small bottle of sauce!).

This weekend I must......

1. ...find out exactly what to do with strawberry runners (although I'm confident this is Not It)


2. ...find a delicious way to serve the purple sprouting broccoli and actually cut the main head (which now looks like it's going to seed) and some of the shoots


3. ...find out how I'm supposed to know when scallopini are ready for eating

Watermelon may be ready to pop

Visitors to the garden have been most amused by my one watermelon, but I'll be the one laughing soon as I think it's almost ready for eating. I've just measured it and it's 32.5cm from the stem over the top down to the point where the flower was, the half-circumference-lengthwise if you will (that doesn't sound like a standard measurement but it's the easiest bit to measure!), and I may declare it ready if it doesn't grow by Monday (public holiday, hurrah!). I also think that the tendrils are browning and the underside is more yellow than it was, but this may be my brain playing tricks on me...

A kind reader has suggested that the vine may be in need of some assisted reproductive technology. Once the current buds are flowering I shall manually introduce them to each other and see if they take each other's fancy :)

Tops and bottoms

Apparently the bigger things are above the ground, the bigger they are below the ground. Sadly this means that most of the remaining bulbs in the BBQ row will therefore be tiddly. On a brighter note, it bodes well for the garlic from the organic bulbs!

On the courgette front, my two plants can't seem to find a middle ground between underdeveloped-with-blossom-rot (I didn't see this at all last year), and marrows. No powdery mildew though, although the chances of getting through an Auckland February without it are pretty small. I made a Zucchini loaf today - this uses 1 cup of grated courgette which didn't make much of a dent in the marrow.

I think I can see my first scallopini too!

I've had to remove a few tomatoes with blossom rot, but luckily only a few, and there's an orange tomato on nearly every plant now. This morning the nets went on the plants.

Harvest indecision

Garlic - this is really confusing. Some references say to harvest once the tops fall over, but others say that's too late and you should harvest when the tops start turning brown. Not much help, especially as I have some that have now fallen over but are still green! I also hope I haven't got the watering regime all wrong, I found one reference that said they need lots of water in the last month, and another that says you shouldn't water at all in the last fortnight before harvest - I've been watering every other day for the last month. The organic bulbs have only just started to fall over the last day or so, while the bulbs from the garden centre have all been lounging around on the soil pretty much all month now:


I think tomorrow I will pull up a few from the other row (which are all pretty much brown tops now) plus a comparison bulb from the green-top row in the picture above, and see what they look like.

Watermelon - still getting bigger every day. I think these should take around 75 days, and the vine was transplanted 2 November, which brings us to 16 January, ie around now. I found these extra indicators of ripeness online - the tendrils on the stem near the melon turn brown, the surface becomes dull, rough and hard, and the surface sitting on the ground turns from green to yellow. Not sure that last one applies as mine is very pale green but lighter on the underside, and has been all along. However the surface is definitely firmer now, so I guess it's getting there. As it looks like this might be the only one I get, I don't want to harvest it too early or too late!


Purple Sprouting Broccoli - I believe the theory here is to harvest the head then leave the rest of the plant - harvesting the head encourages the individual shoots up the side, hence the "sprouting" in the name. No idea when you harvest the head though - at the moment the stalk isn't as tall as what you would see when buying a cut one, but perhaps that's leaving it too late if you want the sprouting to happen. Aaargggh!


Yes, the caterpillars do appear to be well fed, don't they? At least they appear to prefer the leaves to the pretty purple bits.

And lastly, my most exciting discovery of the day:


Roma for the win! You may notice that this is on the plant that has collapsed the most, which is why all the bunches are very close to the ground. I'll be putting some netting around that one tomorrow to keep the birds away from My Precious.

Update on the tomatoes

I spent a bit of time tidying up the tomatoes this morning - I have planted them a smidge too close together, they all seem to have quite vigorous foliage, and they're starting to fall backwards onto the lemon tree despite the sturdy 1.5m metal-core stakes, so the end result is one big tangled mess!


This is of course Not Good - airflow being particularly important given Auckland's humidity - so I have retied each plant to its more-firmly-bashed-in stake and cut off a lot of leaves close to the ground (and accidentally lopped off the main stem of one of the Russian Reds - still, it looked like something had been a-nibbling on the tomatoes of that stem, probably the caterpillars I found scooting their way across the soil beneath).

Variety by variety:

Green Zebra - would be around 1.5m if they would just grow straight up! One of them is growing in a complete Y shape with the fork not far from the gound, so hopefully it can support itself throughout the upcoming ripening weeks. These are very pretty so far.



Next to the pair of Green Zebras are my Russian Reds, a repeat sowing from last year. These seem to be much sturdier than last year but I think this is because I have the laterals under control. They're barely a metre tall though, so quite squat compared to the others. You can see in the photo that something's been nibbling on the leaves.



Next in line is the Watermouth. Now that I have pruned a bit I can actually see these two plants. They are very nice, 1.5m tall, and seem to behave themselves compared to the others.



Rounding the corner are my problem children, the three Romas. These disregard every suggestion I give them as to how they should grow, preferring instead to sag to the ground and get themselves tangled up with each other and their neighbours. They had better pass the taste test when saucing time rolls around or I'll be giving them a miss next year...



Lastly are my two San Marzano. These are tall ones as well, almost 1.5m, and are fruiting in attractive bunches. I can't wait to see if they taste good!



I don't think any of them will make the mid-January harvest time. They're getting to the right size, but no sign of any of them starting to ripen up as yet. I do need to get organised with netting of some kind now though - I'm on to you this year, birds!!

Watermelon progress

The watermelon seems to be doubling in size every couple of days. Pity there's only one watermelon on the vine doing anything! Several of the flowers have a baby watermelon at their base but they don't seem to be developing at all.

Five days ago:


Today:


The vine seems to attract the mosquitoes for some reason - there's always a cloud of midges that fly up if you disturb it, and there's always several sitting on the melon itself.

Thar she bolts

These both came from the organic mesclun seed - they've gotten away on me a bit.

Strawberry runners

The Camarosa strawberry plants are now starting to send out runners, so I will have to research as to exactly how to make these into new plants for the coming year. The parent plants are still producing lovely berries but I will try to have more plants next year so we can have quantity as well as quality!

So far I've had two courgettes but another three have rotted on the vine. Not sure why, will have to investigate. It's actually the second plant that wasn't transplanted until mid-October that is doing better than the first, but I think this is because it's more exposed so is getting more sun and bumblebee action than the first.

The garlic is starting to keel over. Interestingly it's just the Printador garlic from the garden centre, not the organic garlic which is still standing proudly. Last week I dug up one of the garlic (where there were two stems wedged next to each other, I figured they wouldn't reach their full potential like that anyway), and there was a definite bulb but it wasn't an impressive size yet.

I've been very slow off the mark with the basil this year. So far only two seedlings have made it into the ground, but there's another two hardened off ready for transplanting today once it stops raining.

Mental note - plant less albino beetroot! It's just not as much fun once it's been bottled. I do have a recipe for beetroot dip which I'm planning to try with the albino beetroot over the next couple of days.

The rocket has shot up and been flowering vigorously for the last 10 days or so. I tried trimming it back, and have removed one plant altogether, but I think it's time for the other two plants to come out.