Last day of 2011

Well another year is nearly over and where did the time go?

I know I have said a few times I will post up my list of tomatoes that are planted and I better do it before the year ends.

So here goes.


Brandywine Red (Landis Valley Strain)
Granny Cantrell's German Red
Juanne Flamme
KBX
Marizol Red
Marizol Purple
Cherokee Purple
Olena Ukrainian
Greek Witness (unknown seed variety)
Honey of Mexico
Japanese Onion
OzGrow Cherry
Malakhitovaya Shkatulka
Old Ivory Egg
Brandywine
Koenig Humbert
UK 2000
Franchi Red Pear
Marmande
Oxheart
An unknown beefsteak variety (grown in an inner city backyard for at least the last 20 years)


And.....
I have four Dwarf Varieties
Grizzly F2
Tidy F4
Peaty Pink F4
Frosty Brown (purple) F5




Most things are growing ok. There has been a lot of humid weather and I have had some fungal disease on some of the tomato plants that I have tried to control. It does not look like I will harvest as much as last year. 
I'll be happy with whatever I get.


So on to the pictures.


Once again this year the zucchinis are not doing to well. I have not had the best of luck with them the last couple of years and a lot are dying very small. These are Lebanese.

The potatoes are starting to come on. These are Nicola.

The cucumbers are again doing very well this year. We have been eating them for about 3 weeks now.
I have burpless and Green Gem.

The only ripe tomatoes so far have been the Jaune Flammee.

But that will soon change. (Insert evil laugh here)

Some capsicums and peppers are in. There is a lot more to pick. I'm thinking of pickling some.

I picked the first of the beans yesterday. These are Lazy housewife bean. I preserved this lot in my pressure canner. 

And finally. I dried some of our Oregano in my dehydrator.

That's it for this year. I hope everyone has a happy and safe new year. 

Here is the end result of the garlic.
I have been advised to not braid it up till the stems dry so tomorrow I will unbraid it and leave it dry naturally. A couple of years ago when I got a garlic harvest i did not braid them and they dried well.

Anyway, the weather has been really cool. I don't think it got over 20C today. Everything continues to grow.

Here is the main patch with potatoes in the fore ground and tomatoes in the background.

First cucumber. I nearly picked this today and sneaked off somewhere to munch it all by myself. Here's hoping for plants laden with fruit like last year.

The lazy housewife beans. I am also growing Blue Lake and another variety that grows purple. Pics of those at a later date.

Eight more days....

and summer is here.
I'm looking forward to some warmer weather as our spring has been rather cool. Not too unusual for us as it can go either way in our part of the world.
Anyway....I have not been well hence the lack of posts. That and my trusty camera died and I a having to use two other ones that I am not too happy with. So some of the pictures are not the best.

Onto the greenery.
My basil patch this year is looking like last years one. It was a hard slog getting basil to germinate in this patch and it's looking the same again. Stay tuned in the next couple of months for lush green basil plants. (I hope).

Where's the basil?

Some new Swiss Chard. That's a fancy way of saying silver beet, and some fresh endives next to the ever expanding potatoes. Also some leeks and cucumbers.

The main potato patch.

The main Tomato patch.

Still need to post up my final list.

I have four different kinds of dwarf tomatoes growing. Three varieties are in pot like this one and one is in the ground.

Egg plants.

Butter nut Pumpkins and capsicums. the pumpkin vines will be trained to grow the other way. That's the plan anyway.

And finally some cantaloupe plants. Here's hoping there is a harvest this year.

Have not posted for a few weeks.
Some picture might say a lot more than I can right now.

Tomato seedlings about 3 weeks ago.

Nearly all of the remaining tomato seedlings as of today. A lot will get given away.

The last of the carrots got picked about a week ago. The season was not too bad.

The asparagus has been steady but unfortunately there is not enough of it.

Got an artichoke harvest.

Roasted in the oven and served with a shoulder of lamb.

I have not had much success with capsicum germination this year, just a few so far and very late. So I had to use store purchased peppers and capsicums.

The main vege patch. Potatoes on the left and plenty of tomatoes on the right. I have planted 20 plants and will be planting a few more. Leeks can be seen as well.

Some non related yard shots. 

Home made dumplings for home-made wonton soup. 

Then someone had the bight idea of frying them. It was all over at that stage.

I ate about 3 times what is seen in the below picture.

And finally. Taking a walk on a windy plain.

Spring

Is finally here for us.
Not as much got done this weekend as I would have liked but nevertheless progress is being made.

Some potatoes got planted. These are Desiree of which there are two kilos. One kilo of Nicola was also planted out.

I picked a few more carrots. Not much luck with them. I have mentioned in the past that I cannot seem to grow large ones. Maybe my soil needs adjusting.

The second last cauliflower was picked. That will be eaten with tomorrow nights dinner.

And finally. The asparagus is starting to show up. We started eating some last year and I hope the plants produce well this year. There are seven plants in total.

More autumn days

I've been trying to prepare for some autumn plantings and in the process harvesting the summers leftovers.

I started by pulling out the last of the cucumber plants and harvested the cucumbers. There were another three that had started to yellow so I left them out of the picture. These ones will be good to eat. The worms can have the yellow ones.

I was also going to pull all the butternut pumpkin plants then found a couple more immature pumpkins so I left the plants and harvested the pumpkins. Hopefully there will be a couple more pumpkins in the next few weeks. We have already eaten about five of these and they are superbly delicious.

The beans are still going great. These are Blue Lake. Some were picked for last nights dinner.

Looks like it is the end of the potatoes. It is sad as they taste so good. We have been eating them for nearly three months now. It will be store bought ones from now on.

Of course our beautiful chooks gave us some more eggs.

All together now.

And some red to offset the other colours. This is a Jimmy Nardello in a pot. There are still plenty of chillies and capsicums around.

Old Friends

Heard from old friends yesterday and they ended up coming around for dinner. It was good to catch up as it has been a couple of years.
My, how some people have grown.

I warned them before they came over that I would be busy all afternoon in the yard as I had a lot to catch up on.
I am now at the pulling plants out stage. Cleaning of all the ripe and green tomatoes. Not sure if I will make green tomato pickles this year. Made it last year and it was a huge success with everyone that got a jar. We are not big eaters of it. I can assure you it is delicious. Just that eight 600ml Fowlers jars can get a bit much.

Pulled about five plants out and harvested a lot more ripe fruit from a few others. I know that when I made my first post I said that most of my tomato harvesting was done but I have once again underestimated.
Lots of peppers coming on that should last a few more weeks and one lonesome dried up corn that I had totally missed. I'm toying with the idea of drying it and trying to make popcorn. It may not be the right variety but what the heck.

Had a bumper cucumber crop this year. Best ever, and there are still more to come. Also still have a few potatoes hiding around the place.

And of course some eggs from my lovely girls. The chooks.

As you can see there will be more tomato salsa making in the next couple of days.

Brandywine alert bottom left hand corner.

After having a great time catching up all afternoon and having a nice dinner, old friends departed with a big bag of home grown produce. I know they will enjoy it.

Bonus harvest

I was preparing a previous potato bed for some future crops earlier today when up popped these lovelies. I thought I had salvaged them all but obviously not.
These are Nicola potatoes and have featured a couple of times before in our garden.

They are so good either steamed or baked then topped with sour cream, chives/spring onion and shredded cheese. Or top them with anything you fancy. Plain butter and a bit of salt is so delicious.

It is hard to describe to people just how good a fresh home grown potato is.