Finding My Green Thumb – Entry 7

OK, so it’s been exactly (exactly meaning give or take a day or two) three months since I started this adventure in vegetable growing.

I’ve had some massive successes and I’ve had some woeful failures.  But, incredibly, things are still growing, in fact, they appear to have sped up!

I don’t know if it’s the mild summer weather we’ve been having here in Adelaide, or my amazing gardening skillz…..yeah, I have mad skillz…..  But either way, I’m still enjoying pottering around in the garden.

Hubby and I are at war over our little plot.  He wants to keep planting green, green, green boring as fuck green plants.  And I’m all about injecting some colour into the garden…… Give me another week or two and we’ll see who’s won that little argument.

But back to my update.  Cos I know you’re all DYING to know what’s happening with my green thumb.

My Roma tomatoes have given me a surprise.  I thought they were done and dusted, dying leaves, browning, shrivelling, then lo and behold, a whole mass of new growth and they are lanky, tall, leggy and loading up with fruit!  What the hell?  I’ve struggled with keeping them upright.  Now they seem to have become this weird, curved, bent, winding mix of vines being weighed down by the tomatoes that are really starting to come in thick and fast.

 

My Vine tomatoes are still giving me anywhere between 4-6 tomatoes ripening every couple of days and they have been SO delicious!  I’ve used them and my basil to make some delicious bruscetta’s.  They’re the best!  This plant too, has gone berserk, growing long and leggy and curling around.  I’ve spent this morning trying to tie them up a bit to get the fruit up off the ground.  Literally the ground.  Still so much fruit on the plant, and lots and lots of new growth and flowers still happening!

I’ve cleaned a lot of the dead growth away from the plants.  Not sure if you’re supposed to, but in my head, I’m figuring half dead growth is only pulling nutrients away from the healthy plant.  I guess I’ll find out if this was the right thing to do or not.

 

The cucumbers.  Well, I know nothing about growing these.  So it’s been a complete learning curve on these.  The plants are going gangbusters, finally.  I’m getting loads of both male and female flowers and the plants are starting to grab onto the trellis and grow.  But so far, my only claim to fame is this poor little thing…..

 

I’m finally getting some chillies!!!   But my capsicums have been a bust, so far.  I still have hopes they will kick in soon.. but I am probably just running on wishful thinking.

In general, I’m happy with the way things have gone.  I’m still learning a lot, and we’ve decided to move one of the garden beds because it’s just not quite in the right spot.  It gets too much shade.  So we’ll be emptying it and moving it forwards towards the lawn.  I also made the mistake of not mixing in a good amount of  compost into the soil before I planted.  So over winter, I’m not going to grow anything, as originally planned.  I’m just going to let it sit and hopefully all that compost will produce some great soil for next summer.    Learning, learning all the time!