First garlic

(If this is the first time you are reading my blog on vege patch - rest assure that I don't have green fingers and have no formal qualification in agricultural science.  This is really a hobby.  As most gardeners will tell you, we get to consume the plant we grow twice - first the satisfaction of watching them grow, and the final consumption of the plant.)

As an experiment, I planted garlic in autumn, using the garlic bought from the shop that has started shooting.  Here is my first harvest of ONE garlic.

My first garlic harvest

Rock melon and tomato seedlings are coming along nicely, I planted them a few weeks ago.  The rock melon seed was collected from one I bought from the shop, which was so tasty and juicy, I decided to save the seed and try my luck in planting.  The tomota seeds were collected from last season.

Rock melon

Tomato

 My new toy in the garden - a worm farm.  Just bought it last Friday with 2000 worms. I counted all of them!  This is the project I have been thinking about for 2 years.  It takes me that long before I make the move. Worm juice is collected from the bottom tray (it's hard to see, but there is a tap there) and make great fertilizer.  The worm cast also makes great compost for the garden.

worm farm

The strawberries are here, I just transferred these to the containers.

Strawberries

 But wait, there is more!  I need to transfer these and add some mulch and compost.

 New chook house was built in September.  You can see the chooks looking after the nectarine tree.  The nectarine tree came out of the compost and we haven't harvested any fruit.  This could be the first year.

Close-up of nectarine

  

Capsicum, silverbeet

The kids don't really like the silverbeet, we planted them mainly for the chicken.

Silverbeet

 We planted this capsicum last summer and have a really good harvest in April.  Quite surprised to see it fruiting again.

On the other hand, this capsicum plant is 3 years old.  The yield wasn't as good as the new plant mentioned above, but there are lots of capsicum ready for harvesting soon.

Close-up photo of the same plant, will get a meal or two out of it this winter.

How much land do you need to grow vegies?

An overview of 'size of my garden'.

This is a very narrow strip of land on our driveway.  We managed to plant climbing beans, tomatoes, 3 chilli plants, some Asian greens and mint.  Now that tomato season is over, I will be planting some green vegies over autumn.  The beans climb along the fence, tomatoes grow upwards, we have asian greens growing at ground level.

Driveway

This is a small patch in the backyard, used to have the tomato plants growing here.  We now have green vegies.

A different view of the same patch. We also grow vegies in containers.

This is another patch.  We have luffa climbing along the fence and over the top. This is a much bigger patch than the one above.  There are 3 chilli plants close to the fence, also some strawberries. Red russian and lettuce self-seeding most of the time.  Almost have constant supply of lettuce all year round.

We still have more land that are being used for compost, ready for spring planting.

This makes my day - Watermelon

After the heat that killed many of my baby water melon, I am pleased to see this one that survives.

I am hiding this one from the direct sun as well.

This capsicum plant from last season started to produce again.

I have 6 new capsicum plants from the compost this year.

Planted some Asian greens in container.  (Aim to grow a continuous supply of vegetables.)

This gourd is planted from the seeds I saved from last season.

 It has started to flower.  Depending on the weather, might get to harvest one of two.  We have a good harvest last season.

Batch 3 of tomato is coming along nicely.  I didn't plant these, they came out of compost, so I decided to give them a go. Though it was a bit late in season (Nov last year), looks like we will get to harvest some.

Seeds

We have been harvesting our own lettuce seeds for years.  Just one plant will provide more than enough seeds.

Close up picture of the seeds.

Bak Choy seeds.

Coriander seeds

Chickpeas, carrot and more

 Planted some chickpeas, to use as 'green manure'.

chickpeas

carrot - before harvest

baby carrot

3 of my chicken, they are no longer 'babies'.  We collect 3 to 4 eggs daily, occasionally 5.

I have no idea how I am going to collect the tomatoes in the middle of this bush.

Cucumber

We planted some potatoes as well.

We have been picking the tomotoes since early Jan. Notice how some are green, while others are ripe?  That's the beauty of growing your own.  We get to pick and eat tomatoes over a long period rather than harvesting all at once.  This is batch 1, batch 2 has started producing fruit, batch 3 has just started flowering.

First batch - 3 tomato plants

This is from the same plants above. They are still flowering and producing tomatoes as we picked them.  The later ones are getting smaller, guess the nutrient in the soil is depleting.

The big picture

I took this picture late Dec, we have since harvested and ate them all!  This is the dwarf beans, we still have climbing beans to harvest.

Have been harvesting zucchini as well.

I waited for a very long time, this is the first sign of watermelon!

Australorp

We got new chicken this year to replace the old ones.  This time I decided to get Australorp.

Collected the first egg on 29/11/2011.  Noticed how small the egg is.  Fay loves them, in her words, "They are so cute!".  The eggs are bigger now, but still not as big as those produced by Isa Brown.

Updates on the vege patch.

8 days later, we can see the fruit.

Planted second batch of tomato seed in Oct.  Here is a picture of the seedling.

Protecting cucumber seedlings from the snails and slugs using plaster bottles.

4 weeks later ...

Have been harvesting coriander, they just keep coming.

Beans ...

They are climbing!

Strawberries ...

4 weeks later ...

Attempt to grow watermelon.  It took a long time to grow from seed to this. 

On the other hand, Pak Choy seems to grow very fast, according to instruction, 8 weeks from planting to harvest.  I put egg shells to prevent snails from getting to the plant.  It seems to do the trick.

My first attempt at growing chickpeas.  To feed the chicken as well as using it as green manure.

Lady Fingers - grown from seeds we saved last year.  Seems to take forever to grow.

Batch 3 of tomatoes was unplanned, just sprouted from the compost.