Monday, April 2, 2012

Fiddle-dee-dee puh-tay-tahs

With my apologies to Danny Bhoy

Since returning to full time teaching I've had trouble finding the time or inclination to play in the vegie patch and hence my "no news is no news" absence on this blog. It is, however, now the school holidays so this morning I harvested the first potatoes I've ever grown. It wasn't much of a harvest but as with most of the 'firsts' involved in this gardening caper, I've learnt a few things for next time.



And while my back has been turned (and I've been more focused on students, assessment & report-writing) other stuff has been happening too. What I originally thought was a squash turned out to be a pumpkin (or a VERY big squash!) And it's produced 7 pumpkins so far only one of which we've harvested. This may be a case of overabundance as we had with the leek, so pumpkin, anyone?



One of my eggplants has a fairly decent fruit on it & others on the way. They are SO slow growing, though that I sometime think they won't make it before the frost gets them.



I threw some marigold seed into one of the beds so they're looking pretty now:



Prior to the squash/pumpkin confusion, this was the only pumpkin we had. It was self seeded & it completely took over one garden bed as per the photo below but despite it's expansive vine and being left to do as it would, it only grew one fruit! (On closer inspection this morning, I found two others coming along but gee, it took it's time.) 



We still have a couple of gorgeous looking purple cabbages from Ed & Tracy's seedlings too.



And lettuce that has self-seeded & gone feral:



The rocket still looks good (well, the part that Nashi doesn't sleep in still looks good anyway!)



Just waiting for the oka plants to die down so we can harvest these - if the plants are anything to go by, we'll have a decent crop of these NZ yams (Thanks to Morrie & Kate).



Another bit of colour in the patch are the flowers on the artichokes. When they finish, we harvest the bulb (and then I'll have to figure out what to do with Jerusalem artichokes! - all tips and hints gratefully accepted.)




There's not much left of the flower bed so Sweet Alice has done its opportunistic best to take over all of the available space.



And despite not having time for what we've already got going, we've bought some more fruit trees! (Some gardeners never learn!)





That's all for now. I think I might get my Irish on and make something potato-ey for lunch!