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Garden Share - March 2015

In February we had very little rain until the last weekend, in which we got the tail-end of Tropical Cyclone Marcia and about 90 mm of rain.  I was away one weekend, and so for two whole weeks Pete was in charge of the garden, and he also worked on the Saturday.  This combined with the dry and then wet weather made for an odd combination in the harvest basket when I got home!  Giant button squash, giant beans and not much else had survived.  But it did started to grow again when we got the rain.

I picked the first rosellas and I dug up some arrowroot.  We still have plenty of basil, and now other self-seeded herbs are appearing, including parsley, dill, chervil and coriander.

The harvest basket

so many giant beans...

The giant chilli bush is starting to produce chillies


I can never grow brassicas in summer - not sure if its slugs or caterpillars to blame

pretty happy that what I thought was a cucumber is actually a tromboncino

lettuce for summer salads is going ok

virtually all greens are frizzled apart from this clump of warrigal greens

Pete's hydroponic tomatoes are doing well

Jobs for March - set up some string to tie up the hydroponic tomatoes, keep weeding and mulching, think about sprinkling out some seeds for winter crops.

What are your planning for March?  How was your February?






Comments

  1. Liz that chilli plant is a giant! I am very jealous that you can continue to grow tomatoes into Autumn and beyond. Mine will finish up soon. I some about the same size as yours that have self seeded but I don't like their chances of survival..

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  2. yeh, i think brassicas are more for cool weather too, never have much success with them in the warmer months either.

    thanx for sharing

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  3. Those giant purple beans look delightful.

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  4. I love the size of those button squashes, I am going to try and get some going now, its a little late but I am optimistic. Usually all our brassica's get eaten by grasshoppers during the summer though I have just seen the return of the cabbage white moth. Glad you had some decent rain

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  5. We are getting ready to put in our winter brassicas too! Love your giant purple beans.

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  6. I just planted a round of snake beans and some more lettuce but with the 300mm of rain we got one of my eggplants turned up it's toes and there are a few other things that are looking doubtful.

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  7. Im loving my "weird arse" tromboncino (as hubby calls them). I find them much sweeter than zucchini as the seeds are in the head. Your harvest basket is so full of healthy colours. Since my pumpkins have escaped my raised beds and are running all over the yard, Tilly (the little minx) thinks that the small pumpkins are balls and wrestles them off the vines and plays with them. Arghhhhh I want an English Walled Garden with a gate.

    ReplyDelete

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