A New Arrival!

There's been a new arrival in the garden today - A Crepe Myrtle Lagerstoemia Miami (http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/7905/)

This went out on the front corner in preparation of the future "one day" garden

The soil was rock hard and it took a fair amount of effort to dig the hole with just a shovel. I ended up digging about 3 to 4 times the size of the pot and filled the hole with water a few times to give it a good soaking. It took a good hour or so for the water in the hole to drain - not a good sign of my soil quality!

I also added some blood and bone and water crystals to the base of the hole...  Fingers crossed!

Beetroot and Pumpkin

The remainder of the beetroot was harvested last weekend - the pic below shows the harvest minus a few that had already been given away.....

hmmmm.... what to do with beetroot.... you'll need to wait and see!

Also the first golden nugget pumpkin for the season was harvested. Just a good size to bake for 3 people! mmmm.. .yum!

The Summer Harvest Continues

Happy New Year!

That can mean just one thing.... It's time to harvest!

The tomato plants are starting to yellow as the heat of the days ramps up in true summer style. I'm watering nightly to keep up but by 11am the plants are wilting but recovering with the nightly water and rest.

But the tomatoes are ripening nicely on the vine. I'd picked the first smaller ones a few days back and the taste was just yum. These were chopped up for Lily who munched them all down!

The tomatoes below were picked this morning - yes, that bigger one is nearly 10cm! A few tomatoes have holes where some bug or other has had a munch despite the tomato dusting to keep them at bay. Right or wrong, I'm leaving some of these in place hoping they'll be sacrificial fruits to the bugs who will leave the others alone......

Another zucchini picked this morning and while there I'd noticed some more coming up so did some more hand pollination. I've found this is the only way to get the fruits to remain viable!

Finally, I had a peak at the corn. These are smallish which I think is due to being planted too late in the season, forcing the flowering to start too soon. Will need to plant earlier next year! But in any case, it does look good and we'll need to plan a good roast or something so we can pick and eat them along with the 2 golden nugget pumpkins that are sitting there ready to go too!

mmmm.... Reaping the seeds you sow - Its a good time for the veggie gardener!