Getting Ripe!

I found my camera cable! This is a third of my new raised veggie bed

Well the weather has been awful! It is supposed to be summer and it has rained a ridiculous amount. The tomatoes are starting to ripen, but the fungal spot that got one of them is still around. However the pink pearl (cherry tomato) has now grown taller than the fence! And has over 100 cherry tomatoes on it J

 I have found that the heirloom snow peas taste a lot sweeter than the standard ones. And the cool wet weather seems to be keeping them in season for a lot longer than normal. By now they should have been well and truly done but new shoots and flowers are appearing all the time.

A week ago I used some of my rhubarb stalks so make a rhubarb and apple crumble, it was delicious!

Cabbage white butterfly has been a bit of a problem. I put out some half egg shells to scare them away but must have been too late as I have spent that last few mornings squishing little green caterpillars...ewww...lol.

 More garden pics



By far the best way to grow potatoes!




Baby Spinach



Just one of the many figs growing on my tree

Beans

Capsicum

November Pickings

Well i have had a busy couple of weeks! I have built a raised veggie garden bed at the side of my house :) i have been looking for my camera cable so i can put up pics but havnt been able to find it yet :(.

It is made with untreated hardwood (treated wood contains arsenic and i try to keep my garden as organic as i can). I lined it with weed matting and filled it with a mixture of organic mushroom compost, organic vegetable compost, organic mixed animal manure and organic sugar cane compost. I have planted sweetcorn, borlotti beans, brussel sprouts, swede, baby spinach, cabbage and carrot (the raised veggie bed is 4.5m long and 69cm wide-the area at the side of the house is very long and skinny)

The november harvest was pretty good :)

12 potatoes
4 blueberries
4 strawberries
2 rhubarb stalks
4 sprigs rosemary and...

..ready for it...

50 snowpeas!!! that came out of one pot!!!!

considering i have a tiny backyard and up until this point it has all been grown in containers i think thats pretty good :)

I am very interested in heirloom vegetable seeds as you cant generally buy them in the stores, have a much longer history, come in awesome colours and grow true from seed (which hybrids dont). I am finding the heirloom tomatoes slightly more difficult to grow then some of the hybrids as i think they require more feeding but i am learning along the way. By far the easiest tomato heirloom to grow is the 'wapsipinicon peach tomato' which is an orange cherry tomato. But i have heirloom snowpeas and heirloom capsicums as well and they are no more difficult to grow then the commercial seedlings.

I have also just bought heirloom beetroot seeds from http://www.thelostseed.com.au/ but their wont be planted until the middle of january.

I will have to try to update this blog much more regularly :)