I'm not sure how it got to be the end of October so quickly but, it has and I am here posting my Garden Share. How can that be?
This month has been overwhelmingly hot. I know there have been cooler days but I can't seem to remember them. The maximum temperature (measured on my veranda) has been 38.7 degC and the minimum 5.5 degC. We have had 20mm of rain this month but you wouldn't know it looking at the paddocks and our 'lawn'. I've been watering the garden almost everyday.
Harvesting
- loquats...yum
- asparagus
- spring onions
- cauliflower
- strawberries
- broad beans
- peas
- sugar snap peas
- snow peas
- radish
- lettuce
- carrots
- leeks
- garlic
- herbs
Tomato Jaunne flamme |
The tomatoes are all at various stages. The self-sown are coming along in leaps and bounds and the seeds I planted are growing well and should give me a long harvest window. I will direct sow some more seeds this week. I think they are hardier that way than the greenhouse sown ones.
The asparagus is almost finished for the season. There are a couple of plants that aren't rushing straight to fronds as the days lengthen. The asparagus bed really needs a tidy, they don't like competing with the weeds but most of those weeds are larkspur plants so I don't like to pull them out. I'll have to compromise, the asparagus won't.
Planting
I've been planting in earnest this month. Seeds, seedlings and some plants from the garden centre too. I loosely base my planting guide on the list on Gardenate but I do find I have to modify it for my climate which in the winter is cool/mountainous and in the summer it is more like temperate with a bit of arid thrown in for good measure (like most of Australia really)
Here's my list of seeds I've sown
- beans (7 varieties)
- beetroot- red globe, albino white
- carrots (6 types)
- gourds
- cucumbers
- luffa
- okra
- squash
- soybeans
- radish
- rosella
- rockmelon
- watermelon
- zucchini
My poor cauliflowers have given up. I think they have been putting out some sort of mercy call because if the sun and wind didn't finish them off, the cabbage moths have finally descended after being absent all winter (which was a pleasant change). I've pulled them up, spruced up the empty beds with compost and deep watering in readiness for something that doesn't mind following on after brassicas. The chooks have enjoyed the leaves and we have been enjoying eating our last caulies until next year.
I'm also pulling out all of my peas. I left them in long enough to dry out the seeds for saving and sharing. I'll be using the dried foliage as mulch because affordable mulch is hard to come by around here at the moment. Hay that would normally be relegated to the mulch stack is sought after now as fodder for the less discerning animals. It's not cheap either.
To do in my vegetable garden in November
- weed
- water
- composting
- keep planting
- the usual stuff
Now here's all the information the Garden Share.
"The Garden Share Collective is a group of bloggers who share their vegetable patches, container gardens and the herbs they grow on their window sills. Creating a monthly community to navigate through any garden troubles and to rival in the success of a good harvest we will nurture any beginner gardener to flourish. Each month we set ourselves a few tasks to complete by the next month, this gives us a little push to getting closer to picking and harvesting. The long-term goal of the Garden Share Collective is to get more and more people gardening and growing clean food organically and sustainably." taken straight from Lizzie's blog.
If this sounds like something you would like to be a part of then write a post about your vegetable garden and head on over to Strayed from the Table at 9am on Monday and share it with the other members. It's easy, even I can do it. There's a Facebook group too if that's more your thing.
Tracy