October, for me, was about two things – planting and bolting. I was either choosing which seedlings looked best for planting out:
or watching my winter and early Spring crops bolt.
The photos are a little difficult to make out but flowering in my garden at the moment are Coriander, Silver Beet, Bok Choi, Cavolo Nero, Spring Onions, Beetroot, Celery, Lettuce, Parsley and Watercress. I plan to save seed from all of them but I’m hoping they hurry up as I would appreciate their space for other things.
More postively I also have some summer crops flowering. My early sown Tiny Tim tomatoes:
potatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, pretty much all of the citrus and my broad beans are all currently blooming.
For all the flowering excitement October was really all about planting out.
As well as the tomatoes I also planted out sweet potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, beans, eggplants, golden nugget pumpkin, ginger & turmeric.
This is what the tomatoes looked like on planting. They are much bigger now though.
and here is the zucchini;
By the end of the month it had begun to set fruit. On the subject of fruit I am still happily watching my blueberries slowly swell.
Almost as exciting is the reappearance of the leaves of my Scotch Bonnet chilli (this chilli is a Cardinel/Bishop Cap style chilli known as Scotch Bonnet in Australia).
I tried to overwinter 4 chilli varieties; these, a birdseye, a cayenne and a long cayenne. This was the second winter for the Scotch Bonnet and the cayennes, and the 3rd winter for the birdseye but thus far only the Scotch Bonnets have started growing again (and I’m pretty sure that the others aren’t going to). I’m not sure whether to attribute this to last winter being a little colder than the previous one or birdseye and cayenne being a fairly short lived chilli varieties. Anyone know?
Finally I had a request from a reader to include more shots so they could get a feel for my garden. I found it harder than I thought – too much junk, and kids toys lying around. So I thought I show it bit by bit. Here is my potato bed which runs down one of the side fences. It is overshadowed by my neighbours large Eucalypts but I’m hoping there will be enough light for potatoes. The silverbeet (you can see it bolting in the shot) I grew here during Autumn & Winter didn’t seem to mind too much.
Certainly lots going on in your garden
It’s all happening – I need to build some mroe beds for all the excess seedlings I have.
Same here, lots of planting out and seed saving happening. I have this weekend earmarked for even more planting of seedlings. I just hope they hurry up and grow! Your early sown Tiny Tim tomatoes are an inspriation, I may just have to give very early sowings a go next year!
Its the first time I’ve tried a May sowing and I think it worked for this variety because they are small so they can be kept undercover easily throughout winter. I might try some others next year though.
You’ve done well to get your chilli plants through so many winters – I’ve tried in the past only to have the plants attacked by millions of aphids as soon as the new leaves appear in spring. The broad beans are looking good too!
I’ve never had aphids attack chillies. They are always too busy with my broccoli & kale i guess.
Your garden is looking great! I’m impressed that your zucchinis are flowering already, I only just got my seedlings in last week, hope I haven’t left it too late. Did you hand-pollinate yours last year? Mine were a disaster…I’m hoping for better outcomes this summer!
I don’t think its too late at all, i just got a bit over excited and planted out heaps of summer crops a bit early. for most things I think it will work out fine but i am concerned about my cukes – they are growing pretty slowly. As for zucchini – I didn’t grow them last year so can’t help at all.
October was a busy month for you, I look forward to seeing how your garden does. We overwinter our peppers as well. Last year some plants didn’t make it because they were infested with aphids. Of course we didn’t notice them while the plants were outside, it wasn’t until we brought them into the warmth that the aphids exploded. The plants that did survive the winter indoors slowly came back this past summer when we brought them back outside. I don’t know about the birdseye and cayenne varieties, but maybe with time they’ll come back?
I haven’t had issues with aphids on chillies before – perhaps they are spending too much time on my brassicas to bother.
Wow! Those are lots of tomatoes, hmmm, I don’t think my garden looks any better (have over 20 tomato plants :)), they are really reliable plants in my garden (unlike peppers…). I also overwintered some pepper plants, but they do not seem to carry fruit well if they have gone through this. And on aphids, I hate aphids, squish them when I see them 🙂 Your garden looks awesome (I am sure that the kids toys won’t distract – considering that it is a ‘working’ garden – well, at least that’s my excuse 😉 – mine has tools, pots and buckets splayed all over the place, hardly neat and tidy 🙂 )
Its interesting that your peppers don’t carry fruit well after over wintering – last year my best fruiters were my overwintered ones – i think because they were large enough to fruit earlier in the season.
funny – spring is always about planting and bolting it seems! Everything looks great and looks like you’ll be enjoying a gazillion tomatoes soon.
You have such an amazing garden, I hope mine can be like that one day:)
Bolting is the buzz word around here, too. I’ve pulled out most of my silverbeet and will make a silverbeet and cheese pie thingy and freeze the rest. I’ll make some soup with the bolting parsley. The Wombok didn’t heart at all and is flowering. Not sure what to do with that! Chooks? Compost? Ditto with the Pak Choi. I don’t have any luck with the asian greens they never come to anything and go straight to flower.
My broccoli is still doing well and I made your Penne with Broccoli dish tonight for the first time and I just LOVE it! It will definitely be served up again. Really delicious, thanks! Though I added more chilli and garlic but that’s just me. 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it!!! There is always room for more garlic & chilli!