Garden and Growing | picklebums.com

February 18, 2010 | Filed in: Garden and Growing

At this time of year we should be reaping the benefits of our veggie garden. We should be watching things ripen and eating from our garden every day. This year though, things are a little blah on the garden front.

We’ve had set back after annoying little set back with the garden this season. Nothing major but enough to notice a definite lack of produce and to encourage a bit of a rethink on the way we do things.

The problem?

A combination of a few things. Crows digging out all our early seedlings, my bad back and then weeks spent dying of early pregnancy have all contributed. Then with all the rain among the warm days a strange prolific weed took over when I wasn’t looking and the late tiny seedlings have struggled to compete.

It’s not all bad.

As usual the zucchinis are not letting us down, with more big green monsters than we know what to do with! The rhubarb, as always, is going strong and we’ve got radishes and some herbs and lots of green tomatoes, and some fabulous bee attracting flowers.

On the downside we have two measly pumpkins, and only one or two cucumbers that may or may not ripen before the frosts come. We might get some corn if the weather is good to us, but our sunflower crop is just dismal and so are the beans.

It’s kind of depressing, but I’ve been working on ‘making the best of things’ and taking this as a sign that we need to change our ways.

I really think we’ve bitten off more than we can chew in the size of our veggie garden (it is rather huge) and how we plant it. The Baldy Boy doesn’t have the time to put into the up keep and every year I think that next year I’ll be able to spend more time out there keeping things under control, but every year something pops up that makes things difficult. We need to downsize and look at how we plant and use the space to minimise weed issues and optimise plant growth.

I got Jackie French’s book ‘Backyard Self Sufficiency’ for Christmas and it was the perfect gift, with the perfect message at the perfect time. We don’t need a HUGE veggie garden to grow all the food we want to grow. We could fit so much more into a smaller space and have it work so much better for us. Just because we have the space doesn’t mean we have to spread everything out and use it!

So we are downsizing the veggie garden, packing loads more into less space and hopefully it will be easier for me to maintain. We’ll still use the big space we have for growing things. We are looking at some chook food plants that we can sow in a large area and mostly leave to themselves, a few cover crops/green mulch like clover, oats and peas, and maybe down the track a BIG planting of sunflowers for oil, or another ‘big area’ crop. But the high maintenance veggies will go into a smaller section and I’m feeling much more positive about that!

So here’s to a new outlook, new motivation and lots of good home grown stuff!

How about you? How is your garden growing?

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Then came the battle with the crows/ravens. My careful germinated seeds which I’d held onto inside during the heat wave and then finally planted out were ravaged by the crows. They just pull them out of the ground and leave them…. they don’t even eat the damn things. Then when I come out and cry over my lack of zucchini, cucumbers, melons and pumpkins they sit on the fence and laugh at me.

So I planted more seeds and collected a million sticks and spent hours bent over making little stick cages to keep the damn crows out. Now, finally, the seeds are sprouting and so far so good with the crow cages. But if anyone else has any ideas on how to get rid of the crows please let me know!

In other exciting news the Baldy Boy and his very clever mate got together and fixed our windmill which hadn’t been pumping all year. All those Aussies out there who are trying to grow gardens with super harsh water restrictions will understand how wonderful it is to have your own water and be able to use it however you choose!

So among the million and one weeds, the strawberries and rhubarb are still growing strong. The herbs are going nuts, and going to seed. The broad beans, peas and caulis are finally done. Tomatoes (both from seedling and seed) are growing but who knows if or when we’ll see fruit. We have popping corn sprouting nicely, along with sunflowers. A few beans that the crows didn’t attack and one or two potatoes that made it through the early heat. Plus the very late planted zucchini, cucumber, water melon, cantelope and pumpkin seeds which I am still hopeful will grow and fruit eventually.

So what’s growing at your place?

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