Greetings fellow Gardeners
It has been too long! I apologise for that. My previous update was on October 23 and then life not only happened, but it hit me with a damn mallet.
We lost a close friend to cancer and Eerie, my little rat, sadly passed away after a short bought of illness.
My garden suffered a little because of this because I just didn't want to go out there and do the work. I randomly watered it and didn't take good care of it. Sadly, this resulted in me losing all my cantaloupes (overwatered) and half of the berries on my blueberry bush dropped due to underwatering. I'm doing better now thankfully, and have some pictures to share.
I haven't spoken of my garlic since it started growing! It surprised me with this beautiful flower the other day, and it's slowly starting to open. I can't wait to take a picture once all the flowerets are fully open.
My cucumbers are doing well. This particular one has flowered once already, which is a little weird considering how small it is. I think both my cucumbers got too hot, as they were in direct sunlight for a long time. We have no replaced our shade net over the braai (barbeque) area, and the cucumbers seem to be doing better. But these aren't the only flowers which have been emerging!
Radish flower buds!
Radish flower.
Several radishes blooming.
Last year I allowed some watermelon radishes to bolt (make flower and seed) and I loved the flowers so much I wanted to try again this year. However, I dug up all my watermelon radishes, so decided to allow some icicle radishes to bolt. This was the result. Although they don't smell as nice as the climbing jasmine a few houses down, they are beautiful with their soft whites and and purples. They are attracting a ton of bees and hoverflies to my garden, which is great for my beans, which are also flowering (yet to take pictures). Some stems even have some seed pods on them!
The radishes that remain at this point are all likely too bitter to do much with as the plant has bolted, but I wanted to show the sheer size of them. They are at least as thick as my thumb.
Since the cantaloupes died, I was very upset with myself and immediately planted again. Five seeds resulted in five seedlings. I'm monitoring them a little better this time around and I hope that I will be harvesting some fresh cantaloupe in the next few months.
I also replanted the tomatoes as planting them with the egg carton was a major failure and they all ended up this week's little saplings that are dying off now. Lesson learnt! Plant tomatoes and peppers directly into the soil as the temperatures reach 20 degrees C (68 degrees F). On that note, my peppers are finally taking off, and I hope to see the secondary leaves soon.
However, the night temperatures are still low, surprisingly low for this time of the year. I think this is what is killing my baby sugar watermelon which seems to be on its last legs. Oh well, I'll try again next year with some fresher seeds.
The beans are doing well, as there are flowers and pods growing. I'll take some pictures for the next update.
The gooseberry has dropped some berries, but I think it's time to dig the plant up and plant some more seeds. Still deciding on this though.
Other than that. It's late in the season, and there are few seeds which can still be planted at this stage. I'll be nurturing what I have left until fall arrives and I plant a massive number of radishes for pickling again.
As for where we placed Errie, she is under the rosemary plant which is thriving. Hopefully next year this time, I'll be making clippings of the herb and growing it for other people.
And that's it from me, fellow gardeners. I hope you enjoyed this update! Enjoy digging in the dirt, those of you in the southern hemisphere, and those of you in the more temperate northern hemisphere. As for the rest of you, good luck with the cold, and if you have hoop houses, let me know, I'd love to see your designs!
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