Gardening When the Climate's Gone Nuts -or - Get Your Husband to Build a Greenhouse

I will admit it has been a frustrating season for me. No matter how carefully you plan as a gardener, nothing can prepare you when external factors are all wrong. I like to think of this season a bit like Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were- Rabbit. No matter how much you lovingly try to protect your garden, there are some things beyond your control. This includes an enormous were- rabbit tearing through your garden and scoffing your carrots, or in my case - waiting for a Summer that has never arrived.  Since the number of sunny days we have had this summer can be counted with one hand, I'm sure for those of you in the mountains at least will have had a multitude of things go wrong. The trees are so out of it that some of the Japanese maples have already turned orange and red! 

My tomatoes have not grown well at all. Basically, despite well drained soil and plants in raised garden beds, they are waterlogged, and a bit too cold.  The tomatillos on the other hand, have popped up in a warmer corner of the veg patch as volunteers, loving the moist conditions. My first sowing of beans also did not like the cooler summer; but on the other hand I had a multitude of peas, which like cool weather, and a bumper crop of broad beans. The zucchinis have been slow, but are now taking off - I'm keeping my fingers crossed they will not suffer from mildew and if there is a dry day I will be going out to spray with a baking soda solution just in case.

My biggest loss has been the onions I so carefully sowed and tended through winter and spring. The massive amounts of rain has caused them to put all their effort into tops and the bulbs failed to swell. The garlic, which was planted and grown much earlier, was excellent, but then I pulled them up before the rains came. All of these things are through no fault of my own, but if I had known, then I wouldn't have bothered with summer plants at all, and just grown those that like Spring sort of weather. If I had a greenhouse, the poor tomatoes would have had more favourable conditions.

On the plus side, I haven't had to water any of the fruit trees for about 10 weeks. The peaches in particular are going brilliantly, and it looks as though this year may be the year of the olive - there are masses of tiny fruitlets beginning to swell. The raspberries produced masses, and I think there will be a few buckets of blackberries for jam. Even the strawberries were good after I netted them from the pesky birds (we have four cats, and do you think a single one of them lifted a paw to help us on that one? No! So much for cats killing local wildlife!)

And also, lest you think I am ungrateful for the rain, we have not had a fear of bush fires. Normally, this time of year is hot and dry, and in the mountains, the smell of smoke puts us all on edge. So at least our firies have had a less busy season.

So, since the long range forecast is for rain, rain, and more rain for the rest of summer, I've got ahead of the late summer and autumn planting and put in those that will welcome moist conditions. Spring onions, coriander, red Russian kale, thousand leaf kale, perpetual spinach, yellow stem silverbeet, romanesco broccoli, purple sprouting broccoli, turnips, and kohl rabi. I've also ordered some garlic bulbs and broad beans for March planting. Sowings of quick growing lettuce and rocket have also been done to get a last crop before Autumn. My suggestion is to get going on cool veg now, so that you will have something for winter. 

In any case, I suppose what I'm trying to say is, hindsight is a wonderful thing. And if I had a greenhouse I'm sure I would have got a few more tomatoes. Obviously, the Beloved had better get ready to build a greenhouse. Happy gardening!

Harvesting the Loot Saturday

It's been raining and raining and raining...where the bloody hell are ya summer? Christmas just isn't Christmas in Australia unless it's hot. It stopped yesterday, although it was still overcast, to allow me to get out and do some urgent harvesting, among other things, in the garden. It was a very productive, pleasing day, despite the sound of the Beloved using the mulcher to chop up the spent broad beans and artichokes (watching him is not for the faint hearted) and the high pitched screaming and squealing that went on and on and on ALL freaking afternoon from the brats next door. Seriously where the f*** the parents were I have no idea - it sounded like murder was being committed. I was sorely tempted to get the hose out and use the jet nozzle over the fence...

My first job was to harvest all the broad beans, to dry out for winter use. I cut the plants whole, just above the base, and the Kitchen Fairy obligingly pulled the pods off for me while I got on with other work. We have a lot! this of course, doesn't include the few baskets I already got to use fresh, so we have quite the bumper crop this year. The roots, being valuable to the soil, I kept to dig back into the bed after I thoroughly weeded. If you look at the photo below, you can see the nodules of nitrogen fixed to the roots. This is precious - much better than the chemical crap sold in bags at Bunnings.

I replanted the bed straight away with some well established seedlings that are heavy feeders, some cool climate fast growing melon, and some tomatillos. I confess I was reaching despair for the tomatillos this year. All the seedlings I carefully raised suddenly died after transplanting due to a few really hot days, despite the watering. I have a suspicion Yoshi puss may have "watered" them himself after I planted them...but to my joy, several volunteer plants are sturdy and beginning to flower so I moved them to a better location. I won't bother sowing seed again, I'll just let them pop up when they are ready - they are much like tomatoes in that respect, and borage.

By the time I'd finished with that, the soil was dry enough for me to harvest the garlic. It wasn't as dry as I would have liked, but I've lain them out to dry off for a few days, then I will carefully brush off the remaining soil, and plait in strands to hang up and cure. It was a crop similar to last year ( we still have a bit left), which means that I judged correctly and we will have enough until next harvest. I haven't had to buy garlic for well over a year, and being organically grown is much better for us. It is also much stronger than the imported Chinese stuff, so less is required.

Next job yesterday was netting the fruits - a job I was more than happy to do! My raspberry canes are fruiting this year (it takes until the second season to fruit after planting) and I'm anticipating lovely fresh berries to have as dessert. There are quite a lot of these little bunches along the side fence, and the blackberries have also begun to flower. I wouldn't want the birds to feast on these rather than me!

                                        

                       

                       

For the same reason, I netted the peaches, which was a bit of an effort, but with a long stake I managed to push up high enough to get over the top without resorting to a ladder.

And with all this fruit coming along nicely, I'm trying not to count my peaches before they're ripe!

I finished the day off with mucking out the chook shed, transplanting zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers,  weeding, and chopping back the artichokes after their second crop. I may even get another crop by the end of summer, but I will have to divide the clumps in the autumn. There were some early spuds to harvest, the first of the strawberries, and  purple podded peas. Whew! I hope your weekend was as productive as mine!

Welcome to the Jungle...

Artichokes going nuts! They are bigger than me!

I know, I know, I know. I just seemed to have gone AWOL after MoFo. But I have been a very busy girl! Work has been a little bit busier for me when one of my workmates was on holidays, and straight after that I was preparing for a lovely event...a wedding! I don't have any photos at the moment...because in all the haste I completely forgot my camera...but I will make a proper post of it later. It was so much fun to do food for a vegetarian wedding with one of my best buds Meredith, and the Kitchen Fairy helped as well. Even the Beloved was indispensable on the day!

Can you find the little apple-lets?

Spring has finally come to the Mountains in full force and my garden is looking a bit jungle like, so I've imagined myself donning an Indiana Jones hat and wielding a machete to find hidden treasure...or alternatively, David Attenborough turning up and going exploring with a running commentary in that wonderful British accent, and finding one of my lost pairs of secateurs...but I'm rambling. We've been busy on every weekend for the past month, so it will be mowing and pruning for us on Sunday! But as I burrowed under towering broad bean bushes I discovered we'll be eating beans this weekend, and the artichokes have gone mad, so we'll have to have some stuffed artichokes as well. So many reasons to feel good at the moment. The rhododendrons and azaleas are in full bloom and the garden looks oh- so- pretty! And the weather is WARM!  And our house has been renovated. And the chickens and ducks are happy, and the cats have been basking in the morning sun, and its iced tea season, and Christmas is coming... and there will be lots of fresh produce coming from our garden. So I'll keep y'all posted!