Spring 2012 is here

Madly planting tomato seeds now and looking forward to the coming months of gorging out on tomatoes.
I've been picking some of the past winter harvest.
Lots of lettuce.
Kilos of snow peas.
Winter green staple, Silver beet.
Beetroot (today).
Good green eating all around for the winter.

The kale was given away at a community swap along with the mustard greens.

The first of the tomato seedlings.

Winter Solstice

It's just happened here.
So we are on the way to longer days.
There are a few things growing in the yard, namely weeds in the main patch. The weeds will be taken care of soon.

And also a few pretty yumalicious edible greens. (Maybe not the Kale)

Baby lettuce, mustard greens and a few beetroot.

Baby silver beet, endives behind them and pak choy hiding behind them.

The kale which is not very popular here. I had some seeds and threw them in and they germinated well.

A firm favourite here every year.

Snow peas.

And surprisingly, I still have a few small capsicums growing on my plants.

look out for a couple of busy bodies in the picture.

(pic wont behave)

If anyone has been wondering what's happened to all the tomatoes don't worry. There have been quite a few. They are after all my favourite. I've been bad and not posted in a long while.
Other commitments are keeping me very busy.

So here are some photos of the last few weeks.

15 January harvest.

21 January harvest. A couple there are eaten by birds. First time I've had bird problems.

23 January harvest.

21 January harvest.

17 January Harvest

8 February harvest

4 Feb harvest

Variety of harvest January

There has been quite a few more but I'm sure you can see I've been very busy.

My Largest this year. Not that I grow for size but I was impressed. A KBX.

A big Oxheart. Over 500gm.

A big Oxheart.

I'll try and update more often though things are slowing down now.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are starting to get eaten now. Here is an update with these pictures taken last week just before ripening started.

Brandywine (Landis valley strain)

Brandywine

Unknown Beefsteak variety

Cherokee Purple

Granny Cantrell German red

Greek Witness (unknown variety)

Honey of Mexico

Japanese Onion

Marizol Purple

Marizol red

Malakhitovaya Shkatulka

Old Ivory egg

Olena Ukrainian

Oxheart

OzGrow Cherry (yellow)

Franchi Red Pear

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. 

Things are growing

There has been a bit of rain here in the last couple of weeks and it is making things grow quite fast. It is busy work now trying to keep up with it all.

The first cucumber was picked about 6 days ago.

Then a couple of days ago I got the first of the zucchini and a couple more cucumbers.

These two were eaten with dinner just before.

My barren basil patch that I posted about at an earlier time is still struggling. So I am planting my basil in pots for now. I have about 6 pots going around the yard.

Zucchini plants. With a sneaky self sown tomato in the bottom left.

About one quarter of the cucumber plants that are growing.

The Butternut pumpkin patch.

Some of the sweet peppers. Store bought as I had a bad germination rate with mine this year.

And finally. Some tomatoes. These are Juanne Flamee.

 I really need to post up my growing list and I am really going to try in the next post.