Really happy to find the time to write my garden journal for September, it's been a very busy few last weeks, and I am surely looking forward for winter, to take it slow, except in the greenhouse of course.
Lots of hivers complained about the weather, and I have to admit that some of my crops didn't do so well. I barely managed to grow cucumber, my carrots are late, and lots of crops got attacked by birds and Asian hornets.
After spending the entire year just farming non stop, I also realise that I will have to reduce the size of the cultivable land, as it's a considerable investment of my time. I was of course doing it for fun at first, but it has become an important mission with time, and I learnt a lot.
We had so many tomatoes, that I forgot to pick some and let them rot. The chicken love to come around and eat what hasn't been picked. I generally try not to let them ripen for too long.
I think it's gonna be time to harvest the corn soon, it looks like the silk has turned brown, I don't see much difference from one month to the other. I was just growing them for fun, and using them as a trainer for the beans. It wasn't a success, but now I have corn to eat :) even if it's just a few
Man, I've been trying to grow butternuts in South Africa for years! I never managed to get the flowers to create a fruit, it always starts good until the small fruit starts shrivelling, and die.
This year, has been a miracle, most of my butternut plants created so many veggies, and very sizable. I cannot wait for them to ripen, we were constantly making soup back home, it goes well with some cream, butter, even roasted and caramelised. We even eat the seeds!
by far the biggest butternut.
I started a cohabitation project, between the watermelons and butternut. Maybe they have been fighting with each other for light, as the watermelons are the size of a melon. They look ready to be picked, but I am hoping for a last minute growth 😌
It's also the first time I even successfully grow a watermelon from seed, some fruits are really more challenging than others.
I only managed to grow 1 cucumber this year, all my plants died, I am not too sure why.
The pears got attacked by everything you can imagine, from birds, to deers, to insects, it's been a rough year for our pears. I went to check my buddy @rubido's pears, and they were perfectly fine, so it's really a matter of chance, area, and factors that we probably don't really comprehend.
We got some peppers ready today, they stopped growing, so I am just guessing they are ready to eat? My son grabbed one and ate it, it's definitely not chili 🤣
Potatoes
AAaah...The potatoes.
4 months ago, when I started growing the potatoes from stubs, and was very pleased to get some help from a neighbour farmer, as he owns a tractor.
In a previous episode, I was explaining that there were some animosity from that very same neighbour since I asked him to stop spraying my crops with stuffs, and it went pretty much downhill ever since.
The poor man just had a blood clot from youknowwhat, so I am trying to keep him as calm as possible, and avoid conflicts, by avoiding him, the last thing I need is to get the old man mad, or worse.
In the meantime, I can't use his tractor, meaning that I have to harvest an excessive amount of potatoes.
To be honest, I don't know when I started harvesting, maybe a week or two, and I am nowhere near done...
The first step is digging them out, but then you got to brush them all one by one, and that sucks major balls.
it almost made me regret growing my own food.
But then the food reminded me very quickly why I was doing it ❤️
Twice ❤️
It took me maybe 2 hours to brush 210 lbs, my first projection was that we would have 600 lbs of potatoes, but it looks like it's gonna be much more.
I was so happy after digging up one row of potatoes. I still have 2 more rows to go 😁
I separate the potatoes... It's a bit like the health passport, if they look sick, they get quarantined. Yes, people are like potatoes....
Apples Grapes Figs
Yeah, I had so many apples, and a bit like a greedy man during a bull run, I waited a tad too long. It happened so fast, in less than a few days, they were devoured by the birds and hornets. I still pick some , not as much as I thought I would. The figs are coming up, and the grapes turned black, but we managed to save a few. Not great!
And here is the selfie, next to the fig tree and the greenhouse, Ed signing out!
If you are down to it, I nominate @rubdio and @iaura, show us theses pears and apples!!!
