I find it hard to evict those tenants in my yard who are still working hard and producing yummy food.
Kale works year round here.
The tomatoes are still throwing out tonnes of fruit though the bushes are looking a little bedraggled. The okra are being left to go to seed since these pods got away on me. Okra needs to be harvested when much smaller.
Zucchini is still spewing forth, albeit at a slightly slower rate.
My nephews thought these were bananas when they visited - I wish! Still not a bad assumption. You can see where they were going with it.
The peppers are coloring up nicely.
And speaking of color - one day's harvest brought in this rainbow of color and taste.
The harvest is top heavy with tomatoes, but the romas are great to freeze and paste later. I eat the cherry tomatoes as if they are candy, constantly nibbling on them, and the classic and beef tomatoes are usually eaten in wedges with a sprinkle of salt or in my lunchtime sandwich. My antioxidant levels must be off the scale!
One of the best things about growing your own food is that you can get varieties that you cannot buy in the stores. Such as red skinned (and higher antioxidant content) carrots.
Carrots grow all year round here. I planted these carrots in June after I harvested the garlic. They are now a good size to harvest.
In some plots I am able to seed the winter vegetables where there are some summer ones still on the go. Here I have some beans still growing up bamboo and string teepees producing enough for dinner every night. There is a late developer egg plant in the middle which may or may not still produce something and a tomato plant and a melon hanging forlornly over the edge of the raised bed (to the left of the picture).
The bed is planted with sugar snap peas and cauliflower. The peas are at the right hand edge where they will be easy to harvest on a regular basis. I'll support them with trellising which I can add later as they sprout.
When planting peas, soaking them in water overnight helps them to germinate.
The cauliflower is a more "static" crop in that they are not harvested daily and so I have them in the middle of the bed where it is harder to reach.
Right now everything is protected with Sluggo to beat off the mollusc pests and bird netting to stop my feathered friends from eating the newly germinated seedlings. When the tomatoes and melon get pulled out, I'll plant that section with low growing lettuce as it is on the south side of the bed and won't be shaded nor shade the cauliflower. Lettuce are also fast growing so the crop that is there has a chance to finish.
I don't usually let the beds rest, preferring to use organic methods to fertilize the soil to keep its nutrient level high and mulching with compost.
In the front, the native garden is supporting all kinds of wildlife. Squirrels have excavated the soil from under this fuchsia and made themselves an attractive little home.
In North America squirrels are no big shakes in your garden, I know, but in this case my squirrels are helping me! It seems that they have been stealing/harvesting bulbs from someones else's yard and bringing them back!
I'm not sure what type of bulb it is but I'm going to put them in a pot to grow for next spring. They sure have gathered up a fine collection.
Out back, the baby lizards are scooting about. This little fella is only an inch or so long. The rusty nail head above and to the right of him gives you some idea of scale. Isn't he just adorable?
I can't wait till he's big enough to eat slugs and snails, though judging by the tiny wee snails I found recently, he may be the perfect boyo for the job!
Byddi Lee
