When he went back up the ladder, I went out into the elements to “help” some more. Boy do I love gardening in Sydney!

Ears of Sweet Corn

I’m still not home and it looks like I’ve missed my sweet corn harvest. Oh well, there’s always next year. My neighbours said the corn tasted great so it’s had someone to appreciate it. John just got back from a trip away and he thinks it may be past its prime. (Yes, he actually abandoned his post and left the watering can in the capable hands of my neighbour.) I have to say, based on this photo, I agree with him. Not to worry, I’ll watch the next crop like a hawk.

This crop was planted on 29 September and was ready for eating in less than 4 months. And, if I’m quick (I’m not sure I will be) I can plant another crop as soon as I’m home (may have crop rotation issues?).  Corn can be sown in Sydney from Sept to Feb.

Check out the photo below. It looks like my tomatoes and zucchini are doing well too!

Part of my travel preparation was to spread seedlings far and wide in the hopes that some of them would do something, somewhere. Okay, not that far or wide. I scattered some through my various beds, gave a few to the neighbours and sent Deb home with quite a collection.

Updates on my orphans have been few and far between but recently Deb did breakdown (after some nagging) and send me some photos. The herbs (above) are looking pretty good, especially when you consider she actually eats them (so nice to hear humans are eating my produce rather than that ol’ bandicoot). She’s received basil, parsley, mint, oregano and rosemary. And all of it is still hanging in there (not that a 2nd batch wouldn’t go astray – it’s nearly impossible to have too many herbs).

Soon she’s expecting to harvest some chillies and maybe capsicum but the tomatoes aren’t all that great. The jury is still out on the eggplant but at least she’d managed to coax a flower from the plant. Better than I did last year. I’ve got to work on my eggplant technique!

This bed was over-planted with sunflower seeds (from my own harvest plus from a packet) and then a handful of cosmos seeds were scattered in front (courtesy of Africanaussie - she gave out packets of seeds she collected from her own cosmos crop). My theory was that the huge yellow flowers towering above the little ones would be a perfect cover for this sundrenched fence.

Unfortunately, the bandicoot (and maybe other critters) found the sunflower seeds. In the first days I found holes – the trademark wedges left by marauding bandicoots. Then one or 2 sunflower shoots appeared. Within 48 hours of a shoot showing itself, it was gobbled by something (my money’s on the possum but it could easily have been the bandicoot). Within a couple of weeks it was clear I’d get no sunflowers but I kept my fingers crossed for Africanaussie’s cosmos. Low and behold, the hearty little things survived all that grazing and I have cosmos!

John sent this photo (along with more of my veggies he’s enjoying) just to make me jealous! I’m hoping some blooms are still there when I return and I can harvest more seeds for next spring’s plantings.

Thank you Africanaussie and John for the beautiful flowers!

First up, carrots. I wasn’t impressed with the sprouting of my seeds, but those that did germinate seem to have done very well. I have it on good authority that there are more to be harvested whenever anyone is ready to eat them.

Next, the potatoes. This small patch (reportedly 1×2 feet) produced 20 potatoes. This is from the batch of seed potatoes. It could be the harvest from one or maybe 2 of those potatoes.

Below are the potato plants that are from the last of my kitchen potatoes that I threw in the ginger bed back in October before boarding my plane for Germany. The bed is really shady so who knows how they’ll produce.

There’s a bit of ginger sprouting behind the potatoes – I think they are 2nd year shoots but I suppose they could be from my last mad planting from my fridge before travelling.

I’ll end this post with my corn. I still am inordinately proud of this crop (it even has ears!!!). I’m such a farmer :-) And the zucchini seems to be hanging in there. With all the rain this summer I suspect it will die a slow death from leaf mould – but who knows, with John urging it on, maybe he’ll get a harvest.

I feel I need to be fully honest here and admit the Brussels sprouts died a sad and lonely death under the teeth of every animal that wanders in my garden. The photos John sent showed some really large plants but nothing left for humans. Ah well, maybe next year.

The whole garden looks incedibly good considering the neglect its endured. Maybe mother nature isn’t totally incompetent after all!

This year it’s even more important as I’m about to abandon my garden. My nephew will be house sitting which includes tending the garden beds while I’m away. As I huddle in the German winter, I’ll think about John spending hours every week with cans filled from my rainwater tanks, nurturing my plants.

I’m posting snaps of most of my garden so I can remember how wonderful it all looked in spring. And because this is close to the anniversary of my getting into gardening after being gone from the house for 3 years. We’ve come a long way in a year.

First up, the potatoes. They’ve gone a bit crazy if you ask me. More like runners than shrubs. I dug down because I’m not a patient person and, sure enough, there are potatoes down there! The horseradish is doing really well and a new horseradish plant appeared along the fence. Strawberries are producing, kohlrabi is feeding some critter (snails?) and the snow peas are starting to flower.

These are the 4 middle beds. From top to bottom: (olive tree) sweet corn w/zucchini; a mixed bed with lettuce, capsicum, tomatoes, carrots and spring onions; a bed with tomato & basil plus some shooting Brussels sprouts (doubtful they’ll be harvestable) and beetroot underneath (ditto on my doubts); a mixed bed with tomato, celery, spinach, silverbeet, red onions, capsicum, lettuce.

This ginger bed is still awaiting the ginger to shoot. I couldn’t wait any longer to mulch it but I’m sure that won’t deter the ginger (the ginger I planted late last Nov didn’t sprout until end Dec). There are also several garlic plants here, a couple of red onions (considering dying), 2 jap pumpkins, a healthy-ish horseradish and some indoor plants. Since I’ll be gone for most of the summer, I decided to plant some of my kitchen leftovers. About 10 potatoes and a couple chunks of ginger were planted in the front/middle & back of this bed respectively. I then reapplied the mulch and you can’t even tell they’re there (yet).

This is the shady bed I planted out in April with a diverse collection of non-edibles bookmarked by 2 lemongrass. I later surrounded the bed with 5 blueberry plants. Everything (edible and non) has survived and most of it is thriving. With the notable exception of the lemongrass at either end. They’re both alive but not making much progress. I’m not keen to harvest and potentially slow their recovery - maybe this summer.

Moving up the hill, next comes the bananas (with a mango in front). The bananas look great and I hope we have even more spears this year than we did last. Last year’s first spear appeared mid-Nov and we started eating the fruit in early April

Herbs come next. This batch along the house is crammed with the parsley I sowed from plants in the same spot, the mint that spreads everywhere (mowing the lawn gives a gorgeous scent), an oregano plant that is more than holding its ground plus 2 chilli plants, a sole sage and last year’s one remaining basil.

This bed is becoming my second herb bed. I’ve got coriander, thyme, marjoram, basil and chives in here. And some celery, lettuce, spinach, rocket, with a row of snow peas at the back. The passionfruit on the fence is covered in flowers, this will be a good year for passionfruit.

The last bed is primarily a holding bed with plants that need a more permanent home but will have to wait until Autumn to get one. It also has some strawberries and yet more spinach. There are 2 warrigal greens and a couple of lettuce in here as well.

And that’s the lot. All looking good, all ready for summer.

Then I looked around at the other flowers adorning the area near my back door and I felt a bit guilty for ignoring their beauty in my obsession to produce food in my garden. Here are a few of the nicer ones that I saw without having to leave the bottom of my stairs.

First another orchid – I have no idea about orchids or what this is called, but the colour of the flowers is magnificent.

Next comes a passionfruit flower. This flower I know because it turns into something quite tasty. But even if it didn’t, it’s always been one of my favourite flowers. Always, that is, since I first saw one. Passion fruit didn’t grow in Seattle. I first layed eyes on the vine when I moved to Australia and have coveted the plants ever since. There is something wonderfully otherworldly about these flowers.

Finally, a couple of plants that grow pretty much as weeds in my garden. The yellowy one I know is a shrimp plant. The red one, beats me.

There are heaps more flowers out there, many that come along as a bonus with herbs, vegetables or fruit trees, and plenty that just bloom because that’s what they do. Even though I can be neglectful, I do appreciate their brightening my garden.

sweet corn

I am unreasonably thrilled with my sweet corn. Sown on 30 Sept, it should be ready for harvest January-ish. Which means maybe March (history has taught me that everything takes longer to ripen when I plant it than it would anywhere else on the planet). I have no idea if it’s doing well or not but it sure looks healthy to me. 3 of the 24 seeds I sowed have been no-shows and some plants are noticeably stunted, but overall I’d say it looks like an honest-to-goodness crop. Which is, I think, why it thrills me all out of proportion. Something about sweet corn shouts farming. Everyone grows herbs and leafy veggies and even tomatoes in pots on their balcony. But to grow sweet corn, well, that’s what farmers do

Even the zucchini planted around the edges of the crop are recovering. My zucchini seedlings started to sag a bit in their trays. Maybe there is something to this companion planting stuff after all.

Olive blossom

And look, my olive tree has rewarded me with flowers (I count 4 small clusters).

Cherries

Then there’s the lawn. I know there are some gardeners who have given up on grass and there are days when I consider it. But I do love a lawn and I think mine (or most of it anyway) is here to stay. Which means my mower is here to stay.

Yesterday, after a particularly energetic stint of mowing (the grass was unreasonably long because I’m consistently too lazy to get out there and mow) I was raking up some of the clumpier bits of grass when I noticed the cover on my Flymo was resting beside the mower. Somewhere in my freshly mowed lawn is a very important screw. But that’s a less critical problem. The problem I needed to solve was how to reattach the cover to my Flymo so I could use it again.

Not a problem, after 3 minutes of ferreting through Frank’s screw collection, I found a perfect fit. The mower is now ready for another day which I’m afraid is tomorrow when I tackle the front yard.