I’ve spent the my daylight hours over last couple of weeks indoors chained to a computer and haven’t been giving my garden the love it deserves, so it was a very pleasant surprise to head into the back garden on Saturday afternoon and find it’s been happily humming along without me.
My sage, which I thought I might have to replace because it getting so mouldy, has lovely flushes of new growth and is getting pretty purple flowers. I’ve been spraying it with diluted chamomile tea, which is supposed help with the mould. Seems to be working, so I’ll keep it up for a while so the new leaves aren’t affected.
Mystery citrus - orange?
I have a huge ugly terra cotta pot with a mystery citrus (courtesy of the previous home owners), that I’d been thinking about getting rid of. Last year it produced masses of fruit that all dropped off when they were about 5mm in diameter. But now, it has a couple of clusters of fruit well beyond this size – the biggest is about an inch. They’re beginning to look less mysterious and more like oranges (yum).
I’d just about given up hope of getting cauliflowers, but the first tiny fruit is just forming. Fingers crossed I’ll get a couple more! They’re mini cauliflowers (like most of my seeds, purchased from Diggers Club) and grow to about 10 cm.
My broadbeans have lots of flowers, but these are being eaten by slugs. I might have to do night patrols every evening if I hope to get any beans…
The chickpeas I sowed are growing well (other than those eaten by snails). They’re about 10cm high and looking vigorous. I’ve put a few more in to replace the snail eaten ones.
Strawberries in hanging bag
And the strawberries I just planted in a hanging bag look happy. I bought them bare rooted from Garden Express, and have ordered some more to fill my other two bags.
Tiny little amaranth are coming up but not many quinoa yet (these may also be snail or slug victims… might have to start them off indoors). No sign of the chia I sowed a couple of weeks ago. I’m not sure whether I’m just being impatient, or whether I planted the teensy little seeds too deep. I put some more in on Saturday with just the tiniest sprinkle of seed raising mix over the top.
Today I ordered edging to add a couple more raised beds over my paving – have just bought myself an additional 2.4 square metres of garden! Next weekend I’ll start preparing them by layering them up with manure and straw.
In non-food gardening news, lots of natives are in flower – eriostemon, micromyrtus, hardenbergia and paper daisies are all looking lovely and attracting lots of bees to the back garden.
Any suggestions for snail control are very welcome – I’ve tried beer traps, egg shells and caffeine spray to no avail. Might give the egg shells another go when I get my chooks.
