Summer Garden Update - December 2017

December 31, 2017

The first day of Summer we welcomed a new family member to the Love of Dirt family. Little Isaac was welcomed to the world on the 1st of December. So as you can probably assume, not much really got done around the garden during this time and to add to the neglect, the heat and storms have not been kind.

In the Aquaponics

We're still yet to setup our second grow bed on the barramundi tank but we've purchased everything to do so. This will probably be a January job as we'll need to do some jenga to move the old system out of the position and move the fish as well. We're still harvesting bucketloads of lettuce, swiss chard and warrigal greens. We also got some impressive corn from the aquaponics and we'll definitely be growing corn again. https://www.instagram.com/p/BdLlmgRjiIP/?taken-by=loveofdirt We culled all the lettuce from the Jade perch tank for Christmas salads and we're slowing building up the succession of those plants. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc5pp12DOkW/?taken-by=loveofdirt As you can see it ended up being a pretty impressive looking jungle. https://www.instagram.com/p/BcvMXvaj3pM/?taken-by=loveofdirt

Front Garden Beds

The 3 front garden beds got pretty neglected and dried out! So the only thing doing well is the rockmelon and pumpkins. We've already eaten a few pumpkins but there are another 10 growing and 4 will be ready to eat very soon. https://www.instagram.com/p/BdYquPJjq8f/?taken-by=loveofdirt

The fruit orchard

We ate our first fig! It was delicious. I've also picked a few limes from the lime tree for a super yummy lime and ginger slow cooked pork dish. https://www.instagram.com/p/BdYqkSTDrR4/?taken-by=loveofdirt

Back garden

The cucumbers finally succumbed to the aphids and we had to pull them out. We did get a bumper crop so we definitely got our money out of it. We've now planted some new plants which will hopefully start producing by the end of summer. I also planted some golden bantam corn in this bed, and again they failed. They seem to flower before the silks have formed so the pollination just doesn't happen.

Seed raising

Seed raising has been put on hold for now, I'll be growing some more lettuce and cucumber soon though.

Other bits around the garden

The chicken became broody again, this time we left her. She sat in the box for the month and has just resurfaced. Not sure when she'll start laying again. We harvested some peanuts, a lot more than last year but hardly worth the mention. There is still another plant on the go which I'll leave a little longer. The sweet potatoes are doing well, but the celery died in the heat. The pineapples are slowly growing and we may be able to harvest them at the end of summer. https://www.instagram.com/p/BcVq2tAj-yo/?taken-by=loveofdirt