Garden Diary, 24 April 2006
Oops ! Missed a couple of months. Not much has happened in the last wee while, mostly just harvesting of corn over mid-March to mid-April. Probably got a dozen ears altogether, so not a great yield.
Also harvested all cherry tomatoes. Sadly, we chucked a few kilos out since they were ripening in the sun in my office but weren't very sweet as a result. Must plant fewer cherries and more soup, etc., varieties next year.
Got another 6 strawberry plants, so the patch is ever expanding - need to mulch it up for winter.
Got some logs in the end for the mushrooms - I need to wait to next weekend before putting the dowels in. Hopefully they haven't been waiting too long in the fridge - been in there a couple of months now.
We got 6 pumpkins at an average size of maybe 600 gms for a total of around 4 kg of pumpkin from about 4 square metres.
Got the usual massive crop of runner beans that noone likes, so cutting down on those a lot next year.
Just planted a couple of kiwifruit vines, one of each gender for pollination, and I need to build a frame for them to grow over. Should be interesting to see what we get off them next year.
The current composting arrangement seems to have the capacity to handle our needs now. Worm farms are kicking along nicely, too.
Just read Bill Mollisons book on permaculture and am determined to redesign the garden along these lines, using much less digging and more permanent cropping techniques.
Next year we're going to have a grape picking party for the neighbours, I've decided. Otherwise they just go to waste since not enough people like eating them here and there's not really a lot we can do with them. It'll be a good activity for the new neighbourhood group ...