A very Merry Festive season to all

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Liz

At the end of November VeggieGobbler suggested that; instead of using plastic Christmas trees it would be a great idea to decorate a branch in a festive manner.  Happily this suggestion co-incided with one of my parents Acacia Cognata plants losing a limb in a storm.  Thus a Christmas Acacia was duly decorated in the Suburban Tomato household (there was some resistance from the kids who found it difficult to get the decorations on the branches so I’m not sure how much I’d recommend this particular species for future use though).  I love the concept so next year I think we’ll try a Eucalypt.

Here is Santa (beautifully knitted by my partners mother) upon the branch wishing you a very Merry Christmas and Happy festive season.

 

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Potato Experiments – Kipfler Harvest

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Liz

I harvested my first Kipfler potatoes this week.  They are the first of the 4 different varieties I have planted this year to be ready.  They were pot grown ones.  I planted them in August and used two different methods for growing them, although both involved 40cm pots.  One pot I simply filled with potting mix and submerged the potatoes and left them to grow.  Then other pot I only filled a 3rd full of potting mix and then over the next couple of months topped up the potting mix as the plants grew.

Interestingly (or not, as this experiment was far from scientific – too many variables…) the former method – filling the pot completely initially yielded the most potatoes – 47 from 3 tubers.  The second method only produced 27.  I had a similar experience last year also from Kipflers.

Here are the potatoes from the completely filled pot: (that is my daughters hand – ever since she had her photo taken at Kindergarten she has fancied herself as something of a model…)

And a more meagre pile from the second pot:

I haven’t eaten any yet as we have been at my folks place for the last couple of days and we also harvested my fathers.  For the record I should mention he got well over 50 (much larger) tubers from a 50 cm pot using the top up the potting mix method.  His pots get full sun all day, compared with my half days sun.  Even so I did feel a bit of harvest envy……

I did get to eat his though – a salad for a family Christmas get together and they were delicious but the texture was a lot more floury than Kipflers I have had in the past.  We got our seed potatoes from the same source so it will be interesting to see if mine are the same.  Perhaps its because they went straight from ground to pot but generally I expect a more creamy, slightly waxy texture from Kipflers.

P.S on 02/01/2012: I harvested a third pot of Kipflers last week – 38 but weighing in at 1.25kg which was about the same yield as the other 2 pots combined.  I used the hilling up method for this pot which just goes to show there are many ways to skin a cat, or indeed grow potatoes.

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Monday Harvest – 20th Dec 2011

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Liz

We got back to Melbourne on Sunday after 2 weeks camping holiday to find the garden thriving but a little on the wild side.  Thanks to my parents for sorting out a few watering issues (it turns out that it is a good idea to replace batteries in timers for sprinkling systems before going on holidays……).  Today is my day for sorting out the garden but I did a quick harvest upon our return on Sunday.

This is the second last cabbage – I will probably harvest the last one next week.  The beans and the cucumbers are the first of the new season harvest.  I’m particularly pleased with the beans – this is the first time I have grown Majestic Butter – a bush variety which have produced quickly and abundantly as well as tasting good in a pesto and pasta dish.

Most of broccoli plants were in flower and quickly pulled but I did find one which had some decent non flowering heads.  I will be interested to see how many bugs they contain…..

Other than the veg I also harvested some herbs; some mint – photographed below and some basil which I failed to snap in focus in my rush to make pesto for some ravenous pre-schoolers…..

My other major harvest was the rest of my garlic, which was fabulous – at least 50% larger than the ones I pulled 2 weeks ago: which just proves any number of old adages: patience is a virtue, plants thrive on neglect, a watched pot never boils (or bulbs….) etc etc etc.

And finally I did have one other very small harvest which was popped into my mouth quicker than you can say tomato – my first one was a broad ripple currant and very nice it was too.

For other harvests from around the world discover Daphne’s Dandelions.

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Monday Harvest – 5th Dec 2011

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Liz

This is a bit of mini harvest post – brought to you by the wonders of WordPresses scheduled publishing facility.  I am (hopefully enjoying myself) in Sydney at the moment on a camping holiday – unfortunately, and possibly typically, Melbourne’s weather forecast for this week is divine and Sydney’s is pretty average but I am hopeful of enough non weather dependent activities to keep everyone entertained.  It had better be nicer next week when we hit the beach on the NSW south coast though……

I did harvest a fair bit (about 80 heads) of garlic before I left  – a couple that I initially pulled had started to get a bit mouldy – I think this may have been aphid weakening the stalk more than the bulb rotting per se but I’m speculating.  The majority were pretty good though, albeit variable in size.  I do think they would have probably benefited from being left in the ground a little longer though.  Here is a sample:

As well as growing garlic in the ground – I also planted some in polystyrene boxes – I harvested from the last box this week.  I was pretty pleased with the results – decent and pretty uniform bulb size.

I still have about 20 garlic plants growing so it will be very interesting to compare and see if they suffer, or benefit, from the extra time in the ground.

The only other thing I managed to photograph in this – a shortened harvesting week – was this plate of salad ingredients:

In fact I harvested this same combination quite a few times this week.  This particular mix went under some fried haloumi for lunch.

I’m not sure if our campsite has WIFI so I may be very quiet for the next couple of weeks.  If so normal service will be resumed in a fortnight.

In the meantime though there are fabulous harvests to be viewed if you head over to Daphne’s Dandelions.

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November – The Wrap Up

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Liz

The garden is looking great at the moment – and I’m enjoying it before the hot weather comes and turns it all a bit brown and unsightly.

  

Fruits are fruiting:  The tamarillo has flowers all over it, some of which are starting to set fruit, the fig has figs forming and my old passionfruit looks like it wants to produce again this year.  All these are very exciting but its the passionfruit I am most pleased about as the one I planted out recently isn’t putting on as much new growth as I would like….

     

They aren’t the only things fruiting.  Tomatoes are being set, beans developed, cucumbers forming and capsicums are growing.  Those capsicums are on a plant that I brought through the winter and as a result I am very proud of it (not that I did much other than not pulling it up out of its pot last May).  Both my capsicums made it through winter (along with all my chillies) – only one is fruiting so far but both have flowers on them.  The slower one was the one I pruned and I have to say the pepper plants that weren’t pruned or were pruned in mid Spring are now the ones that are the most vigorous.

 

 

Elsewhere in the garden the shallots look like they might be starting to form bulbs.

The drying beans are flowering:

But less good is that there’s something wrong with one of my pots of potatoes:

Diagnosis and cure would be gratefully accepted.

And that was November – the attached doc shows what I sowed and planted and when I did it.  November 2011

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