Garden Update

I've taken a semester off uni (again) - I have a lot or work on, and it was all getting a bit much. However this has meant I have had the luxury of time to get out into the garden and remember why I hate weeding, and I really hate couch grass!

However, I've cleared 3.5 beds, and have even planted some winter veg, so I am making progress. We signed up to the local CSA scheme again this year so our veg is still (very) local, but at a minimum I'm determined to have some Kale and garlic in the ground over winter. I haven't had to buy garlic for years now and I don't want to start now. It will be hard enough to go back to buying tinned tomatoes at some point in a few months when I run out of my preserved ones.

Here's how things are looking.

These will be garlic beds - one "resting" after a mammoth dig-over, the other a work in progress.

Beds I dug over last week - now planted with 3 kinds of kale and silverbeet, cauli, cabbage, spring onions, turnip, swede, sugar snap peas, rocket, lettuce and a few radish varieties (mixed, podding and daikon)

The "wild garden" beds - all a bit haphazard, but at least there are a few peppers (L) and chillies (R- jalapenos) still to pick, as well as cherry toms. 

 And this will give you an idea of what I still have to do.......

 SIGH.

Is it April already?

How did that happen? It doesn't feel like more than a month since I last posted...but if it's any consolation you haven't missed much!

I thought I'd get back in to the swing of things with some garden updates. After 10 weeks away last winter/spring, and uni and work over summer the garden is really in a "state" (to put it mildly). Thank goodness for berries and the peach tree so the harvest season hasn't been a complete bust. The tomatoes were an epic fail this year, other than the self seeded cherries and tommy toes, which just keep on keeping on. I have had small successes with a couple of chilli plants, the eggplants were a waste of time, but the parsley and basil varieties have been outstanding.

Many locals have reported poor tomato crops this year, probably due to the late start to summer and a few cold snaps in November. As for the rest I'm not sure why - this year I bought seedlings rather than started from seed, and it is tempting to blame that, but who knows. Berries have been the hero crops this year - around 35kg of them. However I must put in a mention for the peach tree I was going to pull out 18 months ago. I cut it right back to 3 "stump" branches, but it wasn't going to give up without a fight. It surged back, and this year we harvested 17kg of the most gorgeous peaches - some up to 350g. Needless to stay its survival is now assured.

The garlic did very well again, and I have enough bulbs to eat, as well as to plant out for the next crop.

Updated garden pics to come in the next post