Vege Patch Update

Well we have had some success and failures in the vege patch this past year with many lessons to be learnt. The best growers were the cabbages, leeks, pumpkins, cucumbers, chilli's and cherry tomatoes. The regular tomatoes were very unsuccessful, dying off from the base up and full off fruit fly that I just couldn't get control of, so I have pulled them out along with the last of the pumpkins and cucumbers that developed some sort of leaf mould and in there place I have just planted some new crops, including, rockmelons, beans and watermelons. I'm crossing my fingers with the melons as the kids love to eat them.

The eggplants that went in about the same time as the pumpkins have only just started to fruit. I never knew that the flower of an eggplant was so beautiful and I feel really stupid not knowing that it was purple. All we have to do is keep the chooks from eating them - they seem to be a favourite. However, I have the kids onto it and they shoooo them out of the garden for me whilst I weed and water it each afternoon. Yep I have even taught a 15 month old to shooo chooks - its hilarious to watch.

I would really like to plant more pumpkins, we all love eating them and they add such a beautiful display of green to the garden. The leaves of a pumpkin plant are amazing, shaped like huge funnels, taking water down the stems to the roots, capturing sunlight and protecting the fruit with their rough surface from insects.

We have had a lovely surprise appearance from a single sun flower magically emerging from the soil and has just this week begun to bloom in all its yellow glory. We have no idea how it came to be in our little suburban garden, but have theorised that it could of been from a bird or perhaps something in the chooks food. Anyway, its beautiful and I plan to plant lots more.

The chooks have been a great addition to the family and also to the garden, providing a regular supply of rich fertiliser, keeping the lawn trimmed and eating lots of bugs. We recently moved the chook coop and found the soil that it had been on was beautiful and healthy full of worms, ready for planting. So we have planted two olive trees in the soil in the hope that this rich fertilised soil will help them provide us with some delicious olives. All we need now is for the chickens to lay some eggs, I'm beginning to wonder if we have barren hens or perhaps roosters?