Greetings Fellow Gardeners
With the current temperatures all over South Africa, I honestly can't tell if we're in Spring or Summer at this point! I know there were a few days over 30C in the northern parts of SA but I'm sure 
Since the weather has been so good I decided to move up the time of getting my plants outside so they can get all the benefits.
From the front to the back. There is a baby sugar melon (a gift for 
Talking of potting out:
My restaurant rosemary was doing so well, it was getting rootbound! I decided it was time to finally put it into its permanent home. I'm leaving it in the shade for now to give the plant a chance to recover from its ordeal.
Did anyone see the little guest I had?
Don't worry, I moved them off to the strawberries, as I prefer to have nature take care of the pests in my garden.
After my mint became riddles with aphids, I cut it down and allowed it some rest. Some extra fertilizer and lots of water, I was rewarded to this two weeks later.
All mints are voracious growers, and they'll take over a bed if you're not careful. Luckily, this guy has his own area and it can grow to its roots' content.
Three bush beans and a baby sugar melon in a 20 L container. They're all doing great after their transfer. I love watching the bush beans! They open and close their leaves depending on the heat!
The tomatoes are taking longer than I thought they would, though that may be my fault. I left the seedlings too long in their egg carton and their roots grew into it. Instead of trying to pull them free, I buried the carton in the new container. The seedlings may be taking strain because of that. I've also had to thin the numbers a little as I basically closed my eyes and threw seeds into the carton when I first planted the seeds.
Slugs, I have slugs, and they're smart too! They are nowhere to be seen during the day. I suspect they are under the self-watering container, but I am not going to move it as I filled it during the week!
Here are two of my four cucumbers that survived. They are taking some strain with the heat, so I have to cover them during the peak of the day as the radishes aren't shielding them as well as I had hoped.
The other two were sadly eaten. The first was destroyed by a scarab beetle larva I am yet to identify. They're living amongst the garlic now, but seem to be wary of eating them. The other seedling was taken out by slugs. At least I have two left. I may stagger another couple of seeds to make up for what I lost though.
Last year I only managed to get a single cucumber to grow and was sadly only reward with a handful of fruit. Cucumbers have male and female flowers that open at different times, so getting them pollinated was an issue as they aren't self-fertile, and I had no other flowers to attract pollinators! I won't repeat that mistake this year!
So I messed up with this. The idea was brilliant, but I forgot one crucial aspect. The bottle is blue and is meant to cut the effects of sunlight on the contents. While it did work, it took considerably longer than it should of. For those of you that want to try this method, I would suggest working with clear bottles only!
Sun damage on strawberry
Sheltered strawberry
Not much to say here. I moved the strawberries into a sunny area about a month ago to capitalise on the heat, but then the heat got to be too much! All the strawberries and the gooseberry were moved.
Still not sure what is causing the black marks on the leaves, but the gooseberries are doing great!
The radishes are due to be harvested, in fact, I think they are overdue! I had some issues with them though. While one group didn't grow as well (a nutrient issue I'm told), the bulbs all cracked. This is a common issue when too much water is received and roots and fruits can't contain all of it. We've had weird rainfall that always seemed to coincide with when I was watering in the morning. I don't think this was something I could have avoided.
Once they are harvested, I'll be adding some fertilizer to the mix and do some staggering with cucumbers, and pot the peppers out. I also want to see if I can find some cucumelon (imagine bite-size watermelons with a zing to it) and lemon cucumber (round, yellow cucumber) seeds. These are unique cucumbers I read about last year, and am dying to try them! Sadly it looks like I'll have to order them online, as most places have never heard of them before!
Until next time, my fellow earth diggers!
