Suburban Tomato

There are some things that I really struggle to grow.  Things that are generally regarded as easy, things that are kitchen garden staples and yet I often fail dismally to produce reasonable specimens.  Then there are the things that simply aren’t worth growing, the things that take too long, are too hard, or are too susceptible to pests to really bother with.  This is my Top 5 this week.  The things that I have given up on growing (until you convince me otherwise), the things that I’m just not sure I can be bothered struggling with anymore.

1. Carrots – Does anyone grow good carrots in Melbourne?  If so when and which varieties?  My family eats a lot of carrots – about 2kg a week – so even if I managed to find a decent variety I would have to devote the whole garden to them to keep up supply anyway and frankly I’m not quite willing to do that, not when there are easier and more exciting things to grow.

Personally I have two basic problems with growing carrots:

1. Getting them past small seedling stage – either they get eaten, dug up by blackbirds, smothered by other faster growing plants or I simply forget I’ve sown them and walk all over the part of the bed I put them in.

2. I can’t seem to grow ones that taste better than shop bought.  I’m not sure whether this second issue is a product of not enough sun throughout the day, a relatively mild climate or simply varietal selection but I just can’t seem to grow really yummy carrrots.

2. Peas – I have had two disasterous years in a row with peas.  Don’t get me wrong, I like peas and would love to grow them well but for the last two years my seeds have germinated and then growth has stalled.   I think that this is in part because they keep getting eaten by slugs & snails but I think there’s more to it than that.  I have been sowing out of date seed – perhaps some new seed would resolve this particular issue.  Even once I do get them going though I’m never going to be able to grow as many as we eat although I do value having a few fresh to supplement the bags of frozen ones.

I will keep growing sweet peas – I seem to be able manage them:

3. Leeks –  is there any vegetable that grows slower than a leek.  If so I really do not want to meet it.  For my current crop I sowed leek seed in January and they are still less than a cm in diameter – in fact many would struggle to be half that.  Once again this may be a lack of sun issue but even in partial shade surely they should be a bit bigger than this.  Even these that I grew last year took over 6 months to reach a semi decent size – still not that big as you can see when you compare them to that worm.

4. Melons –  I have tried growing melons a few times but without success.  My general feeling is that I need more room, more sun, and more warmth to grow then really well and successfully.  Once again maybe I’m wrong and I chose the wrong varieties.  I have tried both watermelon and canteloupe but in both instances I used seed from a Queensland supplier, maybe I should have chosen something closer to home?  Is it really worth persisting with Melon?

5. Coriander in any season other than winter – I have written on my battles with coriander previously, in fact I’ve devoted whole posts to my battles with this lovely but petulant herb.  In a nutshell though unless its winter it seems to be pretty pointless bothering with in Melbourne, it bolts just too quickly and isn’t even good for seed as the plants are too small when they bolt to produce anything useful in that respect.  For me now is the time to be growing it and for once its coming along nicely.

Now I like to think of myself as an optimistic person (with pesimistic undertones on the odd occasion) and yet I’ve written a post full of negatives.  So now what I need is for you all to convince me that I’m wrong to abandon these Fruit, Veggies, and herbs and to share your successes with them with me.  Of course if you can’t convince me then that just leaves room for more tomatoes and there’s nothing negative in that!

And once you’ve finished here then head over to The New Good Life and check out what she has come up with this week.  Or indeed enjoy Garden Glut’s Top 5 Garden Friends , a post that I just realised that I completely forgot to link to when whe wrote it a couple of weeks back.  A thousand apologies!