the news from the garden 4

Brandywine and currant tomatoes. We have enjoyed one brandy wine so far, another is ripening in the green house. And we collect a small handful of currant tomatoes each day. Can you believe how cute they are?!  There are hundreds on the plant.

Quite a few Zucchini coming. Not overwhelming yet. The round ones are fun. Scallopinis! All the onions are harvested. Peas are almost done, it is getting a bit hot for them. Beans are just starting. Gherkins are coming along nicely. I will try to pickle some soon, unfortunately all my dill has died!

Marigolds are having a party in the garden. We started them from seed and they are doing great!

Stripey beetroot! Nigel found this somewhere. It says heirloom so we might let the rest go to seed and see if we can get some more of them.

This Yellow Sunsine Pumpkin was the size of a plum when we left for parachute. 10 days later and it is bigger than my head. It is the only on on the vine so far and we are not sure if we should leave it or cut it off and more will grow. Any pumpkin experts out there?

Eggplants are not happening. We had three lil ones on this plant before parachute. When we got home lil worms had made homes in them! So we cut them off to try again. Lots of flowers, but no eggplants yet.

the news from the garden 3

We have peas! We have been enjoying meals this week with ingredients all from our garden. Fun times. First peas on Dec 16th.

The garlic is harvested as of the 18th of Dec. We had a friends over the day before who is a garlic expert. Or so we think. She told us to watch our garlic because we were supposed to get some rain and the moisture could cause it to go to seed. Sure enough the next day the rain came and then the look of plants going to seed. We pulled it all and are drying on a table in the shed.

And other news
More fruit on the tomato plants. None ripe yet.
Flowers on the squash and pumpkin. I have been hand pollinating them.
Mustard greens going to seed.
Harvested white onions today. Laid them on the ground to dry. Pretty small.
Lettuce still crazy!
Peppers showing first signs of fruit.
Dill seems to be bouncing back after extreme aphid/white fly attack.
Aphids and white fly seem to have calmed down in the garden.
Some mildew starting on cucurbits. I am going to try a milk/water spray on them tonight.

the news from the garden 2

Lots of blooms, The peas, the potatoes, the zucchini, the pumpkins, The peppers, and the tomatoes!

The round garden is going nuts. The tomatoes dont seem to be doing much since we moved them out from the green house. But they are defiantly surviving. Mustard greens are hard to keep up with. You cut the leaves off and they are back the next day. The garlic seems like it must be almost done! We hear you are supposed to harvest on the longest day. It takes all my will power not to pull one up and see what is happening under there.

Some of our carrots are going to seed, so i pulled them up to see what was happening. We ate these ones last night! These are the carrots that we planted a bit late last winter. Aprilish. I think they have been in the ground too long. Will be interesting to see how the ones we planted this spring do.

And....we have a constant battle with the aphids and whitefly. The dill is not doing well as it has been attacked by both. The green house is constantly being infiltrated. I think we have it under control.
We have lettuce coming out of our ears.
Radish trees are just starting to dry out.
Pumpkin are finally starting to grow. There are two signs of fruit on the Sunshine plant.
Okra is coming up slowly.
Beans are sending out curly tentacles.
Spinach is all gone to seed, new batch started in the green house.

the news from the garden

Everything in me wants to start another blog dedicated to gardening. But since i already have three blogs I will carry on here. I mean technically i am still on a journey with  Serenity. Never mind that we have been parked up for quite some time! I have realized that instead of keeping a garden journal to look back on for planting and such things next year that I can blog about it! Photos and everything.
So here is some random news from the garden.

We are trying out Artichokes. Will see what happens. And Mustard Greens. This is our Alabama plot!

Peas and carrots love to be together on a plate and in the garden. When Nigel and I sow seed I always seem to sow twice as much. I guess Nigel has more faith in the seed than me.

Potatoes are away. Three stacks three high. Might have some ready for Christmas!

Our strawberries got aphids! I made a spray with water, dish soap, and veggie oil. Sprayed them each evening for three days and the aphids seem to be gone! Yeah! We also have some aphids on our lettuce patch. I have started spraying those with a garlic and hot pepper spray. I didnt like the idea of eating oily lettuce. It has only been two days so will have to see how that works.

The first Iris! We got these bulbs from a friend and weren't sure if they would bloom or not since we got them in the ground late and everyone else seems to have already bloomed. But here they come in all their glory!

the radish trees

We are loving having a garden. This is the first time since we have been married that we have been in one place long enough to plant and watch grow and enjoy the fruits or vegetables of a garden!
Spring is slowly on its way and we are waiting a bit impaitently to get stuff into the groud. There is still a bit to keep us busy.

We have let some of our winter radishes go to seed. It is interesting. You dont usually see vegetables in their flower/seed form. I have yet to see the seeds, but the little pink flowers are pretty. And they are so tall! Little trees.

Nigel built us a pea wheel for the circle garden. I think it is going to look great once the peas start climbing.
 We have tried some mulch on the onions and carrots. After a bit of research we have decided to use dried pine needles from the paddock which have the added benefit of being laced with sheep poo. Nice right? And on top of this we have sprinkled coffee grounds which I collect from the cafe. I found a blog where this woman tried a bunch of different mulches. I might do some testing of my own!