My fledgling garden

I love my garden right now.

I don't have a lot of vegies and fruit growing yet, but I'm enjoying what I do have.

I've been picking the first batch of tomatoes - grosse lisse - for over a week now.  That is, the ones I get to before the bugs/grubs/possums get to.  I don't use sprays so the children can help themselves as they please.  The yucky ones (tomatoes, not children) just get chucked over into the chook yard for them to enjoy.   Sometimes I have to pick them before they have ripened but that's okay.  I just sit them on the kitchen window sill and wait for them to go red.  This afternoon I had a lovely tomato roll, with the tomato still warm from the sun.  It was heaven! 

We've been eating eggplant for a few weeks now.  I think everyone's getting sick of it, quietly.  I've always been able to grow eggplant and tomatoes without a problem.  Once it's in spaghetti sauce nobody even knows it's there!  

The Crystal Apple cucumbers are coming along nicely.  The first one is about a week away from being picked.  I can't wait to try it.

I've been picking basil for ages, along with the shallots and garlic chives.  

I'm lucky if I get to have one star fruit before the birds get to it, but that's okay.  That tree was here when we bought the house, along with the lemons and mandarines.  All three are in the wrong spot so we plan to sacrifice them and plant new ones later in a much more suitable spot.

I think we have about 5 or 6 types of tomatoes.  Only the grosse lisse are big enough to flower and fruit yet.  The others were only planted a couple of weeks ago.  I love tomatoes!!!!

I'm considering giving up on growing corn and trying again next year.  That crop has been a dismal failure.

My potatoes are in big black plastic pots.  The leaves have yet to flower so I don't know how long I have to wait until they are ready to harvest, but that's okay.  I can wait.

I'm preparing a new bed for passionfruit.  I've put down a heap of dynamic lifter, newspaper and some of the hay/leaves/food scraps/chook poo from the chook yard and after a couple of weeks, I'll add some soil and plant into that, then keep adding layers over time.  I'm planning to site it next to the fence at the chook yard and then adding a couple of star pickets inside the yard and cover it with wire so the vine can grow over it, and providing additional shelter and shade for the chickens.

My poor little Australorps have worms.  Well, at least one of them does.  Garlic cloves in their water hasn't helped, so it's on to the chemical treatment to hopefully rid them of them quickly.  They are all healthy and happy looking, so I'm not overly worried - yet.  I just don't like the conotations worms have - they imply dirty and unclean.  Luckily, not a single chook is laying yet so I'm not worried about the use of a chemical wormer right now.

I love my garden and would love to post pictures to share with you, but can't for some reason.  It took me almost 4 minutes just to open my blog once I signed in!

I'm so grateful that I have a husband who is willing to tolerate my 'foibles' and build me my dreams.