Harvest time

Wow, doesn't time fly, it's been almost a month since my last post! Notes on this year's harvest:

Tomatoes - have ripened, been picked for the most part, and I even took out the first plant today. This year I didn't water enough and completely forgot to give them any fertiliser (hangs head in shame), so the harvest was pretty small. However I understand it hasn't been the best year for tomatoes Auckland-wide for whatever reason. The Tigerellas and Green Zebras were both delicious, and I've made one jar of tomato sauce from each variety. The Watermouths were smaller than last year but still tasty. I wasn't that keen on the Dali tomatoes, these didn't seem as interesting or as tasty as the others - possibly the colour put me off, they are a pinky shade rather than a rich red. Interestingly the birds didn't really go for the tomatoes this year. I think they were too full of strawberries!

Courgettes - one plant does seem like the right number if you don't want to get sick of them! They are still going strong, and got quite a long way into summer before the powdery mildew showed up.

Lettuce/mesclun - should have sown more. I think I should set up the Google calender now with sowing reminders for next spring and summer, better to have too much than too little!

Spring onion - still growing slowly, I definitely planted these too late, mustn't forget them next year.

Garlic - I have harvested these today, a good six weeks after the summer solstice. One was a good size, another three weren't too bad, and the remaining five were runts of the litter. Like the tomatoes, I don't think I treated these right this year - I didn't water much through December and January and never got around to mulching them.

Oooh, and I had these weeds popping up near the front door. Never got around to pulling them out, and just as well because the first one has flowered and it turns out they are self-seeded borage! I didn't recognise them from last year.