I should be naming this article “Top and Flop Crops”, as that would be the perfect way to describe my edible garden so far this season. The things that are growing well are absolutely flourishing, such as the espaliered pears which are dripping with pendulums of burgundy fruit, and the tomatoes that all have healthy thick stems and full trusses. We have had the most massive cauliflowers which I grew undercover during winter, and the beautiful cabbage and daikon radish pictured above have been made into kimchi to eat over the warmer months. The winter sown red onions are bulbing up nicely while the lettuces are hearting up too. We have been enjoying using the inner leaves as fillers for beans and rice, a light and summery change from flatbreads. The spring planted fennel is giving us loads of sweet bulbs which I love, especially in salads, or just nibbled on whole and raw. Whether you love or loath it, fennel is really good for your body and great at helping with stagnant digestion, making it the perfect palate cleanser to eat after a filling dinner.
Now on to the long list of “flops”. Certain vegetables are sulking and refusing to grow, carrots being one of them. They are on their third sowing with still no sign of a single carrot top. I’m not sure if slugs are to blame, or bad seed (although I have used three different lots of seeds), but something is certainly not letting us have carrots any time soon. I have even spaced the sowings out to account for the thought of “maybe it was too cold then” ... or “maybe I will wait until after that rain we are meant to get” ... but still to no avail. I’m not one to give up easily, so I will try again in the new year when hopefully the conditions are more favourable. I am having similar issues with the curcubits – they either aren’t germinating, or if they do, they are growing to a point before getting eaten off at the ground. In one case I discovered slaters eating the stem of a cucumber planted in the seedling house, so I piled dirt around the stem higher than the damage in the hope that it would grow more roots. So far the plant looks great, with cucumbers developing, but part of me does feel like I am putting off the inevitable, especially when water displaces the mounded soil, and I can see the stem holding on by a thin thread!
Another failure is the new potatoes that have been decimated by weka. After a month of me chasing the devious birds out of the garden I did eventually rig up a makeshift fence, but by then the damage was already done. The potatoes never recovered from the constant pulling and plucking of leaves early on in their life, and all the plants died.
I did manage to collect a basket of spuds, but it was a pretty feeble harvest considering the size of the patch. Once again that never give up attitude has kicked in, so I have tried to look at this situation positively by utilising the now broken up friable soil to plant sweetcorn seed in instead. So far this is doing alright – not great as I can see signs of slug activity - but I think the corn may (just) be winning!
In the tropical fruit department, there was a series of unfortunate (and completely unavoidable) events. Look out - husband rant coming! Usually Brett undertakes the making of garden beds and structures, while I plant and tend to the crops, but for some reason my lovely man decided that the only lady finger banana plant with a very large healthy bunch of fruit hanging off it at the RIGHT time of year (ie summer - meaning it would have had the potential to fatten up and ripen over the warmer months - as opposed to the autumn forming fruit we had been getting) needed a prune, and he thought it would be a great idea to cut the bunch of fruit off the tree, so it could finish forming and ripen in the shed!?! I'm not sure of his logic, but clearly I wasn't impressed. To make matters worse, he cut the whole banana tree down – as you should do once fruit has been harvested from it – and placed the chopped-up remains directly around the a prolific passionfruit, causing the passionfruit stem to promptly rot off at the ground. The added frustration was that this was the first year this particular passionfruit had an abundance of formed fruit hanging off it, and it was shaping up to be a large harvest. I have always known not to put mulch directly around the stem of passionfruit, but I was still surprised at how quickly the stem rotted. The “top” part to this story (I had to search for one!) is that we have another passionfruit vine that has countless fruit hanging off it. This is planted well away from banana plants and husbands, although poor Brett is so sheepish now, I think it will be a while before he makes any more major decisions in the garden without a korero first...
Harvesting: broad beans, the last of the asparagus, red onions, cucumbers, dill, coriander, fennel, cauliflower, cabbage, daikon radish, redcurrants, raspberries, strawberries, new potatoes (kind of!), chilis just beginning from the over wintered Poblanos, spring onions, nasturtiums, lemons, lettuces, Italian parsley, mint, silverbeet
Growing and planting: many varieties of tomatoes, okra (my first time growing this and it is growing fast), zucchini, butternut squash, pumpkins, maincrop potatoes, cucumbers, beetroot, ginger, passionfruit, vanilla passionfruit, cherimoya, figs, apples, pears, aronia berries, blueberries, Chilian guavas, boysenberries, blackcurrants, feijoas, borlotti beans, green beans, sweetcorn, sunflowers, basil, asparagus, peach, grapefruit, mandarins, lemonade, lime, kaffir lime, rhubarb
Other garden happenings: We have made new raised garden beds on the bottom terrace that I have planted out potager style with a mixture of herbs, flowers and kitchen vegetables. Cucumbers, tomatoes, okra and zucchini sit alongside heliotrope, calendula, strawflowers, cosmos, cornflowers and dahlias, while basil, dill, strawberries and lettuces are dotted throughout. All these plants are thriving in the company of such a diverse group of characters, and once the flowers and fruit begin to form it will look quite beautiful. These gardens are connected to a large archway that you walk under to make your way to the seedling house. I am growing pumpkins over the arch, although in keeping with the top/flop crop theme, my pumpkins are struggling, with this being my third attempt at growing them this season. So far it seems third time lucky, although I only have two surviving plants out of around thirty seeds (this season is so strange!), but they are growing strong.
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