Experimenting with my veges

In New Zealand I enjoyed having a vegetable patch and I had really got to grips with producing my own potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, courgettes, beetroot, turnip, swede (true to my irish roots I was particularly gifted with root vegetables). Since we moved into our new house I have begun to experiment this year to see what things grow and how they grow.

Above in the picture is the first of a yellow courgette and my first cucumber.

Growing well


We purchased two large pepper plants they cost $9.95 each. Peppers in the supermarket cost $4 each. I have harvested 6 green peppers so far which means I am at the moment breaking even but it looks like they are going to produce many more. I didn't have a great deal of success with peppers in New Zealand.

We purchased one aubergine plant, this definitely was a failure for me in New Zealand but here in Australia the plant is thriving with many flowers on it which should begin to bear produce.

My beetroot are looking a little hit and miss this is probably due to not giving them enough water when I first put them in.

Another huge success which I have never been able to do before is grow basil. it always seem to just disappear after I planted it but despite the barrel I put it in becoming flooded with water in the floods it has thrived in the humid conditions.

Below is my courgette plant.

Failure to thrive

My biggest disappointment has been the tomato plants. I put them in the barrel alongside the basil. The first heavy rains came, the barrel flooded and the tomato plants rotted. I purchased some more but it was late in the season and they are very lack lustre. I am trying to revive them with tomato feed but as we head later and later into the summer I fear that there will be no crop of homegrown tomatoes this year.

This is a lone green tomato which has come from 7 tomato plants. I usually enjoy an abundance of tomatoes and along with courgettes the girls love it when I make ratatouille.

I lost all my onion seedlings and leek plants in the floods they were swamped with water and have disappeared.

1st time experiment
I am trying for the first time to grow melon. There are some flowering buds on the three tiny plants so fingers crossed.

 All in all I plan to do a little more planning for the forthcoming growing season through the winter.