The Abandoned Garden - Before and After Shots

It is mildly insulting that my garden seems to do so much better when I'm not around to tend to it. To keep it seasonal, I'm taking a break from posting about our three-month-long travel stint to show you how the garden fared while we were gone.

The garden on May 12th

If I went chronologically, I'd probably not get to posting this until the autumn and in gardening terms that's just too out of whack.

So we left on February 5th to embark upon our South East Asia and New Zealand adventures  and returned 7 weeks later on March 29th. I didn't plant a winter veggie garden since I'd not be here to harvest it, but the native garden stole the show.  In the following couplets of photos the one on top was taken on February 3rd and the bottom one was taken on March 30th.

 

  

 

 

 

At the end of March we came back to California and stayed for two weeks - during which time I put in some summer seedlings and planted some summer vegetables. Here's what four weeks did to the veggie garden!

Lettuce seeded and protected with netting and seedlings planted for basil, cilantro, dill and kale.

 Zucchini and tomato seedlings.

The scallions are already reseeding themselves and pretty much growing wild. I pulled a few and made an "island" for lettuce hoping that the smell of the onions would disguise the lettuce from snails and squirrels. Seems to have done the job. I have beetroots from seed in the foreground.

I put these plastic tray up to protect the runner bean seeds from the birds and squirrels - I should have protected the lemon cucumber further back in the plot - they are struggling but you can't seem them past the beans today.

This bed all from seed, from left to right potatoes (four failed but hey were just left overs form the supermarket), parsnips (low germination rate - last years seeds) arugula aka rocket, and butternut squash.

Tomatoes behind and peppers in the foreground - the rosemary bush lives there all the time.

 Another view of the tomatoes.

I'll be back to reporting from our trip in the next post. So much to catch up on, now we're home!

Byddi Lee