Hello 2013!

A whole new year, hopefully it will be a good one for all of us.

The weather has been a bit mixed but Ohope Beach on a good day is hard to beat

tide pool examination, West End Ohope Beach

A cat's eye view of the edge of the vegetable patch

garden view

Harvested the garlic on the 31st as it was s'posed to rain and it had been a good dry spell till then. It was all lying down and going quite yellow so it was time.

garlic lying down with yellowing leaves

There were some very nice sized bulbs, though the majority was of medium size. It should keep us supplied with garlic for the year though, as well as being able to keep the fattest cloves for planting in autumn.

part of the garlic harvest

a few fat bulbs amongst the garlic

I made teepees for all the capsicum and basil plants in case of wind and wild rain, plus I think they look nice and organized in the patch.

empty garlic patch ready for other things

I have soaked some beetroot (crimson globe) and zucchini (black coral F1) seeds in water for a few hours to help with their germination, it will be interesting to observe the effect if any.
I did read that the yellow variety of courgette is more resistant to the mildew that besets them. Though a spray of a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda in a pint of water makes a pretty effective spray for keeping it at bay.

Zucchini and beetroot seeds soaking

Zucchini mound

The beetroot went in a neat line and now have a plank on top of them to keep them moist and safe from birds etc till they germinate. The zucchini seeds have gone into a mound I prepared, planted six and will thin to two. They have a large upturned pot plant saucer over them for protection.

The plum tree is laden with fruit and the odd one has been falling off, nice for eating after a few days ripening indoors. I gave the tree a good shake and a dozen fell down for us to gather before the wax eyes peck the sweetest bits.

wonderful fortune plums

the view from underneath

The tomato plants are thriving and the first few sweet 110's are sarting to colour up.

sweet 100 tomatoes ripening

fennel flower for fennel seeds later

Just also sown a good line of new bean seeds as the current lot are starting to slow down now.
I alternated green (dwarf top crop) and yellow (dwarf golden wax) again, gives a nice mix.