Happy New Year everyone! How are your gardens? Did you get a chance to do some gardening over the Christmas holidays? I had two weeks at home pottering, and we finally got some rain!
About 100mm altogether,
which is very close to our long term average. The garden did what its supposed to do, and GREW with all the rain. If the weather did this every year, I think I'd have my sub-tropical spring seed-raising system nearly sorted. I need to start the seeds as early as possible in a green-house, around late August, so that they are big enough to survive the hot dry months of September and November, and then take off when it rains properly in December and January. Unfortunately we can't always rely on the rain, so you never know what will make it through to actually producing a harvest. Last year we were still waiting on decent rain by March!
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| the garden looking green again |
This year I have plenty of purple bush beans. Does anyone else find bush beans difficult? I prefer climbers, but they are slower to get started, the bush beans seem to just sprawl and collapse over the ground and its hard to find the beans without breaking off the leaves! I've also got plenty of button squash, I love these because you can pick them small, before they get blossom-end rot, which is a real problem when its dry (the plants can't get access to enough calcium). With the wet has come the dreaded powdery mildew. I know that there's mixtures I could spray on the leaves, but I prefer to just cut off the badly effected leaves and let the plants continue, this seems to work. I've also picked three pickling cucumbers and
started them fermenting already, I hope we get some more because three is a bit lonely in the jar! Pete loves the pickles, so he's been feeding the cucumber plant with worm wee.
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| purple bush beans |
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| button squash |
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| pickling cucumbers |
The choko vine is massive (regrown from last year, in case you're thinking
what's a choko?), but no flowers so far, same goes for the rosellas (
what's rosella?). Lots of "micro greens" have popped up in the garden, mostly broccoli I think, and I've been picking them to weed out to just a few plants. Also, the chilli bushes are looking very healthy again and I fear that there will be too many chillies again! There are
only so many chilli flakes I can make!
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| crazy choko vine and some strawberries below |
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| rosella - no flowers yet |
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| self-seeded micro-green goodness |
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| uh-oh more chillies! |
And finally, I have an enormous plant that I thought was an eggplant, but now its flowered, I have no idea what it is, any suggestions?
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| the chickens come running when I go into the garden |
How was your December? Did you get plenty done in the garden? I am just hoping for more rain and more growing and harvesting in January.
Join in the Garden Share Collective, link up here and link back to
Lizzie at Strayed from the Table.
Hi I do find bush beans difficult, but they are good producers. I prefer the runners, but the bush beans are the first ones to get going! I have just started doing that with my cuc leaves too. I used to spray various concoctions to no avail. Bin the leaves is good! Gosh I don’t know but that plant you were querying looks a bit like an ink weed to me and a very happy one too! Love those chillies!
ReplyDeleteAmazing how the garden responds to rain. Yours is looking lovely. Sorry cant help you identify that plant.
ReplyDeleteI am hoping for some rain later this week as it is so dry here, my water bill is rising trying to keep things alive!
xTania
The rain is amazing for giving green things a boost. Wish it didn't work so well on the weeds. I usually provide my bush beans with a bit of support otherwise they just run all over the place and it's hard to find the beans. Happy 2015.
ReplyDeleteMy rosella is flowering for some reason. I have never grown them before and I tried picking a few of the red flowers the other day and they wouldn't budge. Do you cut yours with scissors or should I be waiting a little longer before trying to remove the flowers? Glad to see you had some rain and what a super harvest of button squash.
ReplyDeleteLiz,
Deleteyes I cut the rosellas off with scissors. Wait until you have a big juicy calyx though, since that is what you use, that is after the flowers have died off.
I also think bush beans are trickier than pole, they are certainly more susceptable to pests in the early stages. Growing them on some kind of support is a good idea, I'll have to try that.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year.
I find anything that grows so well and looks so healthy has to be a weed... at least that is the way it goes in my garden!
ReplyDelete