Golden Nuggets

The Golden Nugget pumpkins have gone a bit berserk in the last couple of weeks. They all have small flower buds so in a couple of weeks the bees can do their business.

The Three Sisters

Today I planted some Bule Lake climbing bean seeds amongst the corn. This is part of a native american indian companion planting combination known as the three sisters. The sisters are corn, beans and squash. The idea is that the corn provides support for the beans, the squash, in my case butternut pumpkins, shade the soil keeping in moisture and smothering weeds. Even though my butternuts are going to be growing vertically I'll let some tendrils creep amongst the corn. The beans fix nitrogen in the soil for the next crop. They are also a good nutritional combination. I've never tried this before and as a big fan of companion planting it will be interesting to see how it works out. Not much to see at this stage apart from the corn but i'll keep up to date as things progress.



Zucchini

I'd forgotten how fast veggies grow at this time of year. If you look back to the Mid Spring post you'll see how far things have come on in a couple of weeks. The zucchinis have produced their first flowers. Unfortunately they are all female so they haven't been fertilized. This is a bit odd as usually the males open first. There are some males about to open so hopefully I'll have some zucchinis soon.



Cavelo Death

The Cavelo Nero has come to the end of it's life and is dieing a failry undignified death. It has been completely savaged by cabbage moth caterpillers. I was going to pull them out and dump them in the compost, but I've noticed that they are always surrounded but wasps, hoverflies and ladybugs and the rest of the garden remains pretty much unscathed. They can stay there now as sacrificial plants while bringing in those other beneficial insects.



Garlic

I've had some garlic in pots since April and I pulled them up today. These have been grown for a few generations now from a head of purple garlic I bought from a local fresh veg market. I think this season has been the best yet. Maybe I've finally got the soil mix and ph correct. The method used was to fill most of the pot with a combination of potting mix, compost and old sheep poo. The top 80mm or so is just filled with potting mix and a handful of dolomite lime. If you have compost or poo touching the bulbs as they develop there's a good chance that rot will set in.
If I leave the stalks attached to the bulbs and they will keep fresh until I'm ready to plant at the beginning of April next year and behond. This abilty to store for so long makes garlic a must for the back garden veggie patch. I might find a place in the garden next year rather than in pots.



The Last Beans

The broad beans gave up their last pods this week and today I cut them down, covered the stalks in chook poo and straw the same as I did witht the peas. I think these did pretty well, and were delicious, so they will definatley be going in next year. I might plant them a bit later, end of June/early July, with the plants a bit further apart in an attmpt to increase the crop.



Mid Spring

In the last week everything has started to boom. The bed below, the lower leg of the E shaped bed, has the Mortgage Lifter and Roma tomatoes. The Mortgage Lifters to the left are about 600mm high with stems as thick as my thumb. If they keep going like this they may well be monsters as advertised.

The marigolds are there for a couple of reasons. They attract bees and wasps as well as, apparently, protecting against root nematodes in tomatoes. They look good too. There's plenty of basil amongst the tomatoes, a good companion plant plus you can never have too much basil in your life. The bed below, bed three, has the Sweet Bite and Grosse Lisse tomatoes along with the eggplants. This was the bed full of green manure during winter. That gold/green patch to the left is Golden Oregano. Maybe not quite as flavoursome as the standard oregano but worth growing for looks alone.

Below are the zucchinis. They're in the middle part of the E which is in the no-dig section. In the last few days their roots seem to have escaped the little pockets of soil and are into the composted manure/straw layers. They are growing like crazy now. The small things in the middle of the four zucchinis are cos lettuce. These grow quickly enough to utilise this space before they are overwhelmed.

Next are the Golden Nugget pumpkins these are in bed two, where I grew some green manure during winter. They are coming along fine as well and are just showing their first little flower buds.