The Ugly Truth About Gardening....

...isn't the floral gardening gloves or the safari hat, or even the dirt under the fingernails. Actually, it's letting things go to seed! My garden at the moment looks like it has been taken over by great giant warty stick insects - that are taller than me! But what has actually happened, is that the silverbeet (chard for those of you reading from the States ;-P ) has gone to seed. And since I am a gardener who likes to save her own seed, I have to put up with these monsters that are sprouting up everywhere.

Normally, I don't care so much for an untidy garden, after all, if it was good enough for Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden (no, there were no gardeners there, were there? Yet, it's everyone favourite garden), then it is good enough for me. But some things are always the exception to the rule - scraggly gone-to-seed plants are mine.

Unfortunately, this is pretty much all I have growing in my garden for the time being too, since we had the 30 year floods hit on Christmas day - our suburb being one of the worst hit. I lost all my cucumbers, lettuces, most of my tomatoes, and anything that was at seedling stage (that means nearly EVERYTHING).

So, today, I decided it was time to clear everything out. Since I had put my hand up for the Nillumbik Home Harvest Festival, and volunteered at the bare minimum, silverbeet, then I figured that I must at least have that GROWING by harvest time in April (which is Autumn/Fall over here in the Southern Hemisphere).

Well, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only so I have a few seedling silverbeets starting, but I also found plenty of parsnip and carrot seeds to share on harvest day. I also will have plenty of spaghetti squash to contribute to the event, which should challenge the chefs and cooks on the day! I might even have a few watermelons and rock melons to spare - fruits that normally don't grow this far south, but have been the only thing to flourish with all the rain and humidity.

But my greatest find was one last Golden Queen peach, clinging to a branch. With all the Queensland weather we have had this summer, all our stone fruit have moulded as soon as they started to ripen. But I found one that is close to ripening. One that I can take off the tree now and let mature on a windowsill inside.

Hopefully, there will be one peach to enjoy this season!


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Officially it's Spring!

Although, as I have been saying, really it has been spring now for weeks. It doesn't stop that wonderful feeling of promise though. It's as if the plants can read and have watched through the window as we ceremoniously turned the page over on the calender this morning. There is a new electricity in the air that just wasn't there yesterday. I went shopping on Friday in anticipation of this feeling. This year I plan to limit the variety that I grow, but what I do grow - I will grow in bulk. Therefore I can now justify the four packets of corn seed I bought, as well as a packet each of zucchini and watermelon.

So with the new season, the peach blossom has dropped, in perfect time to plant out the mother load of seed. I'm not so sure it really is the right time to be planting corn, because even though the blossom has dropped - it is only on selected trees. It looks like all the trees that we planted last year, and have shallow root systems have welcomed in the season early. The older (and possibly wiser) trees are only just coming into bloom over the last few days. It will be weeks yet before they drop their blossom. To compensate for this, I have decided to buy another four packets of corn seed and plant that lot when my older peach trees do drop.

{cough} corn glut...

Well, here's hoping anyway...