It occurred to me that now the Spring rush is nearly at an end with Summer imminent, I have a couple of less stressful months just keeping stocks of the regular veggies going, such as lettuce, beetroot, carrots etc. All the big summer crops are in and we are awaiting the abundance!
One crop that I’ve not had much luck with, and that is continuing to frustrate me is eggplant. Usually I put them in the sunniest spot I can find, they don’t grow for ages, and then suddenly kick in just before it gets cold in autumn. The fruit don’t mature and it’s all over for another year.
I’ve planted four lots of eggplant now in consecutive fortnights and all of them apart from three plants are the same size!! Those three plants are in the ground, but all the rest are still in the greenhouse. This backlog in the greenhouse doesn’t do a lot for the planned harvesting schedule in the future – and then delays the next crop. My job now is to monitor the ambient temperatures to identify the optimum point at which they take off, and then amend the plan so that I don’t have to keep that information in my over taxed brain.
There are also a hell of a lot of tomato seedlings in my nursery. I figured that cherry tomatoes come up all over the garden every year, so why not plant other varieties everywhere as well, and see if we can get Broad Ripple and Black Russian tomatoes to self-seed each year…
We have been harvesting loads of potatoes, lettuce, spinach and bush beans, a trickle of beetroot and carrots, a couple of meals of parsnip and a few onions. A while ago I planted way too many spring onions that I’ve just finished taking out. They don’t get used too much in our kitchen so Lou found a recipe for Pickled Spring Onion that I’m going to try.
I’m also feeling the need to make sure I have some compost ready to go. Quite a few of the beds will need a good dose of black gold in the near future.
I hope everyone is enjoying the spring greenery and the results of your labours at the dining table. Can’t believe I started the Galaxy Garden at the end of June and it is nearly December already. Where did that go?
