Summergrowth

In the past week the weather has been warm and mild, with temparatures in ths twenties. This has helped the plants speed up their growth. The pumpkins, cucumbers (if any?) and zucchinis now show their interesting colours, a splendid variation of greens. The growth in the second patch was most visible in the past week. As most seedlings have come up from my compost I am still not sure what plants they actually are. Only the zucchinis has started flowering so it might be a while until I find out what I have planted here.

Temperatures are predicted to be reaching the early thirties this weekend, but again falling at the start of next week. I have upped the watering but not by much. I still handwater each plant and am getting to know each of them pretty well.

As water is scarce and my water tank is only just over half full I will have to decide soon what to do with all the seedlings that are popping up everywhere from the compost.

I have started a small experiment with a hydroponic lettuce from the shops. It took us about a week to eat it and when only the roots were left I decided to plant it into the good compost next to the spring onions which are doing well here. After about a week it has come a fair way and new growth is sprouting. I tried this once before with some english spinach some years back, but probably the soil was not rich enough.  I only got a few leaves out of it. Growth was negligeable that time; the experiment failed. 

However, this picture already demonstrates that trying things over and over again is warranted and never loosing hope is the right choice for a keen gardener. Unfortunately the second pacth is not doing very well, with a lot of the capsicums eaten by snails and other pests. The spring onions have nearly disappeared and the beans are being eaten as soon as they pop up from the soil. I think it has something to so with the way we prepared the soil. This needs to be investigated further.

This week I attended a function by Greens Senator Scott Ludlam on Climate Change and picked up a great book from the stall of Environment House in Bayswater. I also renewed my membership with them.

This book is called One Magic Square . It is written by Lolo Houlbein on organic gardening in urban Australian backyards. It is a true treasure and has become my favourite reading material. If you are short of ideas for Christmas presents this year, buy copies of this book and give it to your friends who are not yet growing their veggies. And even for the experienced gardener this book holds many good new tips. It has inspired me to do a one square patch and plant a varieties of lettuces. A project for the coming weekend.

I can't wait!