Last days of 2011

Everything is growing well, picked the first zucchini yesterday. Eggplants are beginning to show growth from the leaf joints and I have put paving stones between them for extra warmth and moisture retention.

The corn is having sex all over the patch!
These tendrils have appeared out of the very tip of the stalk. When you tap the stem a fine mist of pollen drifts down.

 Whilst below them where the leaves are attached bulges have formed and opened their tops to reveal the fronds of the cobs, each one has to be pollinated to form a single kernel.

 

Plums are now starting to look nice, we may need to harvest them before they fall off by themselves, it seems as soon as one hits the ground it gets pecked open by the waxeyes.

 Both the yellow and green beans need picking every two days and look to keep producing for a while yet. The yellow ones do seem to make far more faster maturing pods and are also easier to find amongst the leaves. The first tomatoes are just starting to have an orange tint, and I have had put the extentions onto the tomato frames as the main stalk is now taller than me and I need a stepladder to tie it up. 

About Garlic and tomatoes and stuff

Lots of stuff, with some rainy days everything is happy and growing madly, I swear you can almost see the corn doing it. I've had to pop in a fence to keep them in their place.

 There are fluffy things starting to poke out the top!



The aubergine plants look very happy and there was a good lot of beans, the yellow ones grow much faster than the green ones.

Dug up the rest of the spuds

but the tomatoes have a blight, removed these as the rest look OK so far, fingers crossed and a good copper spray when it's a dry day.

Plaited the rest of the garlic crop, most satisfying!

The plums are starting to colour up

Eggplant planting

Lovely sunny Sunday, lazy breakfast and some good planting.
Had a practice plait with the smallest bulbs and after watching the video it was easy.

I'll dry the big ones out for another day or two before attacking them.

Had them drying on the driveway

Went mad and purchased 4 aubergine seedlings, planted them at 60cm apart, twice what the label suggested. I am expecting great things.
Half a dozen frisby lettuce (curly edged crispy green pickable) seedlings went in as well.

Sort of empty after the mad garlic, I'm sure it will fill up!
:)

Out with the garlic

Wonderfully pungent business harvesting the garlic, down on your knees lifting each bulb and admiring it's goodness. knocking the soil from the roots and piling them up to dry. Most of the crop have grown very well, due mostly to the size of the clove planted and the compost added now and then.

Nice sized bulbs, will plant some fat cloves now to grow some during winter, apparently this works!
:)

Put them all in a big box as it was threatening rain, I'll have to master the plaiting this year, would be good to make one big long one.

Box in the garage, about 75!

Just found a good video on  how to tell when your garlic is ready. Hard stem garlic (better for colder climates) grows a curly scope like a flower bulb, soft stem garlic like I have grown this year falls over when it's ready. I did not realize there was a difference and have been waiting for the scopes to form before picking. They have been leaning over for a week or two and should have been pulled then, apparently the cloves begin separating from the bulb and won't keep as well. Here's a youtube vid about harvest and storage

And here's a easy to follow video on plaiting the soft stem variety

The Cecile Brunner rose is flowering very well this year, it's flowers smell stronger as the flowers dry, great for some potpourri.