Addy's Page

It's been a while since I blogged... but my backyard has been a hit-and-miss affair this year, and has looked so disorganised and untidy... witness my tomato jungle:

A few things I planted in winter have kept us going - snowpeas, lazy housewife beans, broccoli, lettuce, Chinese greens, mustard greens...…

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The December storms and subsequent fiiling of the rainwater tank, brought hope to my heat-stressed, thirsty backyard. But I shouldn't complain, as we've never run out of veges for the wok.

Corn has been a good staple. The first dozen were in a shady spot, yielded small cobs.I planted the second block in full sun and was really successful, with each plant producing 2 and a few, 3 cobs. The first cobs were all large and full, the second, small but sweet.… Continue

First zucchini harvest was really gratifying! When we returned from Melbourne a week ago, there they were, ready for the wok! My dad had been watering the backyard while we were away, thank goodness, or everything would have shrivelled up and died.

However, while we were away, the dreaded mildew had also developed on the zuk and cuke plants. Started spraying with watered-down milk and that seems to have halted the pest. I am still hand pollinating, as… Continue

CUCUMBERS! My favourite summer crop, and the first spring planting to go into the old tomato bed. The "infrastructure manager" built a fab angled cukie frame which also incorporates a frame for shadecloth:

The cukies are climbing happily up the mesh, and already have baby cukes! I planted 8 "burpless" and 4 "lebanese"! I've also put in some zucchinis with the cukies. Going to be a crowded bed… Continue

This heat wave, plus empty water tank, has put great stress on my productive garden! We have been hand watering and mulching like mad, but today I noticed 2 of my little caulis have turned pink - the bigger ones seem to be coping. So some damage control measures had to be taken, and hubby was pressed into labour. In a few minutes, he erected a frame over the brassica bed, and threw an old shadecloth over it, stapled on and voila!

During the last… Continue