If you never want to speak to me again I quite understand. Dear reader, it has been eleven months since I last blogged.
I haven’t been lazy, I’m still in love with my allotment and at the moment it is looking wonderful.
You may have noticed, I said ‘allotment’ singular. I gave up my second allotment during our last long hot summer, it was hard to keep up regular watering with no rain and regular 35 degrees celsius temperatures. So now I have one (tiny) eight square metres plot but it’s keeping me in vegetables and herbs. Take a look.
The netting in the background is to keep the fruit fly off my tomato plants. I bought a mozzie (mosquito) net from the local op-shop for $2 and used that. Worked a treat and I’ve been eating tomatoes for weeks now. And they taste like tomatoes should.
This season I scattered my veggies to confuse the pests. No straight rows and no ‘beds’ of the same veggies. Just a hotch potch and it seems to have worked. The ‘brides’ on the right of the picture are my netted tomato plants.
Just an overview of my tiny plot. The bricks are the beginning of my little pathway through the allotment, long since disappeared under the foliage.
This season I’ve also used flowers interspersed with the veggies to confuse the pests. That’s the theory anyway. It seems to work. With mixing the veggies up and adding the flowers I’ve had a really good harvest – and not too many ‘lace’ leaves.
It’s lovely to be back. Thank you to Sue over at the farm for giving me the push to revive my gardening blog.
I have a certain interest in another blog you may like to check out. Happy gardening.
Sep 16, 2014 @ 09:55:21
Yay! Great to see you back into blogging!
Sep 16, 2014 @ 12:29:03
Thank you Steve.
Sep 16, 2014 @ 12:05:56
It’s looking wonderful, Jean…great idea using the mosquito net!
Sep 16, 2014 @ 12:28:38
Hi Maria. That netting was a bargain, the package hadn’t been opened, and it was a huge net so I cut it in half and it did for two plants.
Sep 16, 2014 @ 15:01:27
Lovely to see you here again, Jean. The garden is looking splendid and doesn’t the Ruby Mustard look bright and jolly!
Sep 16, 2014 @ 15:10:27
Hello Wendy. I think the Ruby Mustard comes from your seeds. The garden is providing well for me at the moment.
Sep 17, 2014 @ 03:44:03
The wonderful thing about social media is that you can drop off the radar for a while and then suddenly pop up for air eleven months later and carry on where you left off. I read all of my blogs through my RSS Feed Reader. If I get a post pop up I get to read it. If no post pops up I am none the wiser. Welcome back Jean :). You also sound like someone attending an A.A. meeting with that first sentence 😉
My sister Pinky will be very happy to know that the netting actually works. She is going to make lots of little net baggies for her fruit this year as every piece of fruit that she got last year was stung by the fruit flies. This year…NO FRUIT FOR YOU! 😉
I was just going to ask what that lovely looking rusty red plant was and thanks to Wendy I now don’t have to ask :). I think that you are a clever girl downsizing your plot. Last year on Serendipity Farm the pumpkins took over the whole garden and I ended up not harvesting much at all except a few spuds, the odd silverbeet leaf (that the possums didn’t munch) and a few pumpkins (that the possums didn’t munch). This year we have so far fortified the top of Sanctuary (my fully enclosed veggie garden) and planted out 4 small citrus trees as there is no WAY that they would survive the possum invasion outside. We just finished a particularly hard unit of study and are itching to get out into Sanctuary to turn her into a proper veggie garden again. We even tipped out duckies sludge pond boat and are going to turn it into a water wicked strawberry bed for the centre of Sanctuary. Steve is going to build me at least one nice slab bench and I can feel a polar change coming on from being welded to the PC chair to heading out into nature.
I am going to try your approach with planting veggies all over the place. Did you use seed or seedlings? If you used seed did you scatter different seed in your furrows? Love the flowers tangled up with the veggies. Also going to copy. It’s very lucky you dropped back as otherwise I wouldn’t have thought to try that this year 🙂
Sep 17, 2014 @ 08:28:08
Hi Fran. Thank you for your comment bringing me up to date, I’ll check it all out on your blog to catch up. Your sister might be interested to know that a tomato resting against the netting was attacked by something, could have been by a critter having a nibble, teeth too big for a fruit fly! So I tried to keep the tomatoes hanging loose (goodness) inside the netting. That worked.
I have found the mixed planting has really worked for me. I picked up the hint at a library talk presented by Megan Gamble who is well known in Brisbane gardening circles. I started the veggies off with seedlings, mostly started off by myself from my seed-saving and a few gifted from other allotment holders (as you do). If I had more space I would just have mixed up the seeds that required the same type of soil and care – and scattered them around together. Sounds fun doesn’t it? But as I have just the eight square metres I had to be less abandoned. Good to hear from you.
Sep 17, 2014 @ 21:08:02
Welcome back Jean 🙂 I will also be bagging my fruit as much as possible this year. It’s the only way to defeat those horrid fruit fly.
Sep 18, 2014 @ 08:05:49
Good to hear from you Cathy. The fruit fly problem is a real pain, but worth the effort of bagging if it means that you get your own organic fruit and veggies.
Sep 18, 2014 @ 09:30:18
Sure does Jean. I’m busy cutting different sized squares of old nylon curtains in readiness. When is the best time to bag? As soon as the flowers fall or when the fruit is just visible or when it gets to a certain size?
Sep 18, 2014 @ 09:56:26
Cathy, I put the fine netting over my tomato plant once the fruit is just visible. Not sure if that is the best time, but I wouldn’t wait until the fruit is a certain size. Might be too late. But that is just my thoughts on the subject. You might like to check out this link to the Green Harvest website which tells you more about fruit fly control
http://www.greenharvest.com.au/PestControlOrganic/Information/FruitFlyControl.html
Sep 18, 2014 @ 10:03:43
Thanks so much Jean 🙂 I did think it should go on sooner rather than later so, after checking out that link, that is what I shall do.
Sep 19, 2014 @ 07:47:06
Hello! It’s so good to read you! Did you enjoy your break?
Your garden is looking so nice! Mine is scrappy, with winter veggies still going stronge and spring veggies still small! I was spun out by the magnificence go your food growing!
Sep 19, 2014 @ 16:40:05
Thank you for your comment Mrs Yub. I have been working this patch of ground for three years now and feeding it well, it seems to have really rewarded me this winter.
Sep 19, 2014 @ 16:47:19
Mrs Yub I did enjoy my break thank you, but I still worked my allotment, I just sort of run out of something to say (friends might be surprised at this!!)