Lately it's been so humid that the garden is going crazy. I guess that's really wierd for you gardenrs in the Northern Hemisphere - Christmas for you guys is expected to be cold. Not us. We hope for pool and beach side Christmas Days.
Given the humidity, I do wish I'd planted more, but I was losing a bit of vim as the slaters just kept eating everything. I'm still not sure if my tomatoes will come back to health after they got stuck into the stalks. I've tried everything to prevent it in the raised beds but ended up throwing up my hands this year. The raised beds can just bloody sit there another year til I"m ready to deal with them. AT least the tomatoes in the ground are doing better, but I can't remember what variety I planted. I'm not a very particular gardener, am I?
At least I learnt the soil was terrible - ten bags of compost later, the cucumbers are doing okay. The ones in the wicking beds are doing a lot better - they love it in there. The capsicums seem to like it is as well, and they are all surviving beautifully.
The dwarf beans I wanted to have in the raised beds all got eaten but the few I planted in the ground are bearing beans - yay. The coriander has all gone to seed. The silverbeet is happy, and I'm eating a lot of it - and so are the chooks. I eat it thinly sliced in salads with beetroot leaves, fennel tops, herbs. There's a lot of veg in the garden that can be used for salad with a bit of imagination.
Silverbeet, lemons, potatoes, fennel, tomato
The raspberries aren't as abundance this year either - I'm not actually sure how to nurture them. Should I be cutting all the canes down to the ground or what? The lemon verbena is absolutely beautiful this time of year in delicate flower.
I swear everyone that visits loses their shit over the amount of lemons I have. LImes too. They're the easiest things to grow im my opinion. They just need a bit of water in the summer and some citrus food at intermittent times of the year. The mandarins also - not as easy as the lemons, but they seem to be coming good. I'll have to remind the housesitter to water them over January. The renters that were in basically ignored everything I said about watering the garden whilst we were gone, so that's why I think some of the plants are having a bit of an issue bearing fruit this year, particuarly the black currants. No issues with quinces or apples though - I must net them before we go to Tassie.
Lemon Verbena and Artichokes
Of course the zucchinis are beginnning to come through. I thought I'd planted midnight but seems I have the pale green ones and the yellow ones. Variety is the spice of life after all. PIckled zucc, anyone? I have a ton of recipes I've come up with over the years so not too bothered. I love zucchini - I never really get sick of them.
I've really cut down on the amount of herbs I had because I've been travelling and they can be hard for people to maintain in the house. But there's always mint, thyme, horseradish and elecampane. One of these days I'll pull the horseradish to make horseradish cream!
I still have mugwort, lavender, ashwagandwa. The mullein didn't self seed this year. I think a lot of things might have self seeded but the tennants thought they were weeds. Never mind.
We have also been thinking about moving. It does freak me out a little as this garden is so magnificent. But I want to be closer to the sea. This does influence how I garden anyway - it is more controlled than it was before. I keep thinking about what would work to sell the place. Right now it's looking amazing. Any person who loves a garden would surely want to buy it immediately.
Oh, forgot about the chamomile. Lucky that self seeded after the renters left! The bunnys got in under the gate and ate all the violas. I can't really be mad at them. Bunnys and flowers are kinda a match.
I managed a quick pic of some of the chooks that didn't turn out blurry. Aren't they darlings?
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