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Garden update - February 2014

The harvest basket is looking a bit empty, and its mid-summer!  We have lots of lettuce, basil, kale and tat soi. A few small carrots, mini capsicums, chillies and gem squash.  The beans are many, but tiny, so I picked them all to make the plant start again and grow some bigger ones.  Also garlic chives in the basket.  January was hot and dry until right in the last week we got 30mm at Nanango and 50mm at Kumbia.  The grass went from burnt brown to flouro green in a matter of days.  We were watering all our grey water, and doing extra loads of washing to make more grey water, as well as the upturned beer bottles throughout the garden.  That's enough to keep things alive, but there's nothing like some decent rain to really get plants to grow and produce.  So next month there might be a bit more in the basket!


Here's what's growing.  Lettuce, bush beans, I planted some more tomatoes and rosella, and there's a mini capsicum in there too.  You can't even see most of that in the photo!  And lots of pots of herbs in the background.


Greens - kales, tat soi, silver beet, more lettuce, borage...


Giant chilli bush is still going and I've picked a few red ones.


More tomatoes in pots (in case I wanted to move them further in the shade), the galangal plant is in there too, getting huge.  And I put that lace curtain over the other tomatoes to encourage them not to die, which does seem to have helped (and added a touch of elegance to the garden!).


And here's the pumpkin and spaghetti squash finally getting some decent growth and spilling out of the garden.  There's two decent squash that I can find, so hoping we will get a few more.


And some flower in my garden this month: garlic chives, pickling cucumbers (last minute plant because Pete was so devastated when I told him that we were on the last jar of last year's pickles), carrot flowers (yay free carrot seed!), and the galangal, which I haven't seen flower before, so it must be the only other plant (apart from the chillies) that appreciates the hot weather (by the way, they have a very slight sweet scent).





And we have a new garden helper!  Since Chime died, it felt very lonely with just one dog, so here's Taz, it does seem that we have a lot to learn about puppies....


And the choko plant has produced one choko.  It looked close to death during the heat, but must have gathered enough strength to produce this one choko.  I hope it has now revived and will make some more.  The idea was that they are very high producers and the chickens and cows like the fruit, but so far it has been a little disappointing!  


Once again, my plans for February are to keep everything alive and harvest when possible.  

How's your garden going?  How was the weather where you are?

Comments

  1. It's funny you guys have to deal with the dry weather and all the problems that brings where as our problem is too much wet!
    I'm going to try to grow some mini sweet peppers this year (which I'm guessing is what your mini capsicum are unless they're chillis) as I always struggle to get them to ripen with our Birtish summer weather. I'm hoping the smaller ones will do much better. The lace looks nice on the tomato plant!

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    Replies
    1. yes they are mini peppers (not chillies) and they ripen quicker before the fruit flies can get them :)

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  2. It's certainly been a frustrating Summer so far in terms of rain!
    I hope your garden does a bit better now you've had some rainfall :)
    - Christine

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  3. I also have a capsicum bush that has struggled through the wet season but it keeps producing little capsicum which are very tasty. My choko also only produced one choko - I am going to try another one now through the dry season.

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  4. I like to plant lots of things in pots also so that we can move them when the weather is extreme. Love the lace curtain, I have had old baby wraps, cloths, old sheets and all sorts of stuff draped over the garden on very hot days. Taz is very cute. Happy gardening this month.

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  5. Our spinach is doing well, but all my lettuce went straight to seed! We only had one worth eating. The weather has been crazy for vegies!

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  6. Hi Farmer Liz,
    So glad to hear you have had some rain, and I really hope there is some followup to come. Your place is starting to look good, don"t you just love that colour green. We unfortunately haven't been lucky yet in the rain stakes, only securing 9 mls in 3 showers since Christmas. We too at our place on the coast are waiting for Chokos, hasn't been a good year for them, we usually have heaps. I love Taz, what a cutie,
    Cheers
    Jane.

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  7. I hope you have a bit more rain this month. So dry here too, it just seems to be sunny and blue skies for so long now.

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    Replies
    1. Its incredible that I spend all the grey winter days looking forward to summer, but I soon get sick of the blue skies when its so hot and dry!

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  8. I do like the first photo, it is like "the circle of life". You're doing a great job and you reinforce for me the advantages of a suburban block.

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    Replies
    1. Town water being one of them! But at least I et to keep a cow or two :)

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  9. that squash blossom was just what i needed to see! nothing but snow and cold here...ugh! but that Taz is just adorable! in the "chewing" stage??

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  10. Taz is adorable, puppies can be hard work. I like your lace curtain too, it definitely adds a touch of elegance to the garden. I hope you get some more rain soon, I have my fingers crossed that it will happen this month.

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  11. Gorgeous puppy, I bet he's a help in the garden...?? Hope everything survived the heat and your basket is a little more on the brimming side next month. Hope too that the choko gets its act together and produces a bit more, though I can't help remember being force fed choko as a kid - probably horribly over cooked - and hating it. The cos and chooks are welcome to that one I say.

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  12. Oh I have those same chillies growing in my garden. The bush is huge isn't it! You're got a lot more red ones than I do at the moment!

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  13. haha yes, if you are missing at shoes, sock, or hand towels, check Taz' bed. And the other day she took the milking cloth out of the bucket of water!

    ReplyDelete

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