Garden Share Collective: December

It is the final ‘Garden Share Collective‘ for the year, so here is another little update on what has been happening in our garden.

Harvest:
We had a modest harvest of baby beets – they didn’t seem to want to grow past the baby stage, but that suited us ok and I roasted them up for a roast on Sunday night.  We have been harvesting cucumbers in larger supplies than we can possibly consume.  I have plans to make pickles in the coming weeks.  We have also been harvesting zucchinis, including growing one zucchini somehow hid itself under the leaves camouflaging itself until I wandered up one morning to discover it had become the biggest zucchini I have ever seen.  Be prepared to be barraged with zucchini recipes I try out over the next few weeks.  Our tomatoes have started to ripen finally and we are looking forward to enjoying those few that the possum leaves for us.  Rocket, as always, is in ample supply as are our herbs: basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, mint and rosemary.

Plant:
I’ve planted some new eggplant seedlings after {with a heavy heart} pulling out the bushes that I accidentally killed.  The new seedlings are small, but growing steadily and I am sure they will have eggplants growing in no time.  I’ve also planted the most amazing variety of climbing spinach.  It seems to be very hardy, and the spinach leaves are deliciously dark and juicy – and the perfect size for one leaf on a sandwich.  The plant itself is quite beautiful and I could imagine it grown along a fence would be not only attractive but useful too.  One to keep in mind.  I recently planted new seedlings of corn, beetroot and perpetual spinach – just in time for some summer storms that blew over a few days in a row.  I love it when it works out like that.

To Do:
You will probably believe that the chicken coop is still not finished.  But I have scheduled it in for next weekend – finally – looking forward to ticking that one off.  We will however, wait until the craziness of Christmas and New Years is behind us before adopting some feathered friends to move in.  We have some sort of issue with one of the zucchini bushes which I’ve been looking into.  One is perfectly healthy with dark green leaves and great loads of zucchinis being grown.  The other has yellowing leaves with almost a mildew over the stalks and leaves and the zucchinis seem to be stunted after they first take off.  Other than that, keeping up the water to the garden on those stretches of days when it doesn’t rain is the biggest job on the to do list, luckily it’s an enjoyable one.

Thanks again to Lizzie for organising the Garden Share Collective.  You do a wonderful job.  I love reading what people have been up to in their gardens over the month.