Monday, January 5, 2009

Happy New Year and update

Happy New Year to all.
I've been offline for a few days, resting up and socialising in the hot weather we've had here, also recovering from putting my neck out and on top of that a phone fault prevented us connecting to the internet... our lifeline was cut!
Anyhow, what's to report down on the farm?
We harvested the first of our beans today, from the variety 'Market Wonder' although they are flat green pods not yellow.
Have also dug up a small amount of garlic. Will be harvesting the rest any day now. Have done a bit of research on plaiting so will be interesting to see how this turns out.
Getting lots of zucchini. Broccoli still going ('Tender Stems') also have lots of the Palm Tree cabbages, these taste like spinach or silverbeet, so would be good for a lasagne or similar savoury dish. I might freeze some for use in a dish like this later.
The chilli seeds have still not germinated, so I bought a cayenne pepper plant which is already fruiting. Can't get by without any fresh chillies! Also marked a spot in the garden for my galangal to be planted , so far it's been in a pot. It needs about 1m space and grows to around 1.8m so I had to consider the shade it would create in the garden. So it's going next to the compost heap.
We picked some of our first nectarines the other day. Early Red, which has red skin and a yellow flesh - very tasty, and Spring Red, a white fleshed variety with red skin. These trees were only planted last year and they're quite tall, still requiring a good prune, but it's lovely to get a taste of what's to come.
Still getting some nice tasty carrots.
Also have acquired some kumara plants. Once the garlic comes out we'll put in the kumara, adding some peat to the soil first to build up into mounds. Apparently they need watering in well for 3 days but after that should look after themselves. I have only grown kumara a couple of times in the past, but never successfully as I didn't realise the importance of mounding the soil to improve drainage.
The basil seedlings are coming along, won't be long they can go in the ground next to the tomatoes.
Also have some seedlings of Spanish yellow onions and some shallots.
Will post some photos soon of all these things.

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