Sunflowers and Cucumbers

My little dwarf sunflowers are now in full bloom, greeting me as I enter though my garden gate. I just love their sunny little faces and they are going to me on my growing list for a long time to come. I actually dont grow alot of flowers so it speaks rather highly

And the cucumber bath tub garden is powering away also, giving us at least 6 and up to 10 cucumbers daily. Although their are not yet climbing up their tellis like good cucumbers should, they're getting there ans should start to climb in the next week bring us even more cucumbers!

Harvest Monday

I harvest everyday from the garden, even if just a few herbs. But today is harvest Monday and I just had to share my first Zucchinis! & plenty more to come, 6 more this week and counting! Plus some cherry toms and a mini purple capsicum- Mini caps are so cute! & handy as we done use a lot, actually I don't eat it myself unless its well disguised .... as in so far cooked you cant tell what it is (spaghetti is good for this!) but my dear OH loves them and eats them raw so nothing wasted having a few pots of them around. The poor Tomato's all have blight but I am keeping them around trying to get as much fruit as possible before they are well and truly gone. Radishes galore- none today as to many already in the fridge! & the Cucumbers are not far behind... We have lebanese cucumbers and bush cucumbers this year, the prickly bush cucumbers I plan on pickling which is going to be a new adventure all together, I cant wait!

October in the patch

The patch at the moment:


Zucchinis and cucumbers are in- Lebanese & Black Jack Zucchini in the ground and Lebanese cucumber in the bathtub garden complete with trellis and snow peas which were thrown in a few weeks ago as an after thought and now flowering and producing well- How can i pull them out?

In the ground patch, some green mignonette lettuce ready for picking, a nasturtium teepee, lavender and parsley at the back. And notice the fence is now halved for better access! (Thanks to my lovely other half/handy man)











Compost tomatoes going well, New bought seedlings= 2 bushman tomato plants & 1 patio prize. Tiny tim seedlings are getting their second set of true leaves in their punnets and am thinking I will plant these in water saving hanging pots tomorrow. We also have a san marzano tomato plant (not pictured) which looks to have early blight and has been removed from the rest, the beauty of growing tomatoes in pots! Will be getting some copper fungicide spray tomorrow as i am really not wanting to loose the rest of them, some who already look to have a few spots/effected leaves from being in contact. Also various capsicum/chilli/pepper plants in pots on the left in below image





Succulents are having baby's, first fruits from the compost tomatoes, sage is flowering, and the brussel sprouts finally are looking like they are forming!

Spring is HERE!!

The patch at the moment, lots of lettuce, pak choi and a few snowpeas, brussel sprouts (not doing much??) and radishes, :


PLUS- I finally have done SOME of the tomato/pepper/cucumber/Zucchini seed punnets for my patch today! Very late but can always buy a few later down the track if I need, I have lots of different types of Pepper/Cap seeds which I wanted to try out this year though so will have to get a few more in tomorrow for sure. A couple of the earlier cucumber and Zucchini seeds have sprouted in their seedling pots FINALLY after 2 or 3 weeks but they will be a while of planting, mind you a whole heap of them haven’t sprouted so im crossing my fingers for the new sewings today.

Compost Tomatos with oregano

Rocket, pak choi and Broccoli going to seed

Plus the sugar snaps were suffering pretty bad from powdery mildew- partly because I haven’t taken care of them well enough, watered sporadically and at night which they don’t like and haven’t treated the mildew either so its truly taken hold! So out come to peas to make way for something else- MORE lettuce (Cos variety) for now as seedlings are getting to big for their punnets then cucumber or Zucchini later on…. hmmm, food for thought!


On a mention the Nasturtiums are flowering away, the bees are loving them and they are starting to seed as you can see! :) I have a few more coming up in the garden which i will put bamboo teepees over tomorrow to trying and hold them in a tighter space


I picked up some dwarf sensation sunflower seeds today also, they are suppose to grow to 45cm so they need a spot in the garden somewhere for sure, maybe in the front garden with the Zinnia's and some cucucmbers between would be usefull.

Along with some new lavender to go next to the up coming Zucchinis, very pretty!

Whats been happening in the patch?

Well.... Autumn has been kind to us. We have had lots of lovely salad greens, the chillies and capsicums have been good producers, but more exciting the broccoli is finally getting up and going after my futile attempts to protect them from the months/White butterfly, finally now with the first sightings of florets foarming on the green broccoli!!-


This is my first time growing brassicas! I can hardly wait to see the purple and Romanesco broccoli start to form. I am also attempting to grow cauliflower and brussels sprouts but they have been alot slower. Bounty peas have produced quite well considering we only planted a small punnet full. And the joys of shucking your own fresh peas! Simply devine! Alas still not much luck with the snow peas and think I will be moving onto other varietys next season. Sugar snap peas were sown a couple of weeks ago and are coming up and trailing up their trelisis well so far so will see if we get a better harvest.

But soon I will be waving goodbye to my current veggie patch to make room for a more ‘tropical’ themed garden, much to my dismay- I have been out voted 3-1. But not to worry, the veggies will continue to grow- container style- in another location, as once you know the joys of growing your own produce there is no going back! (I just keep thinking how to squeeze in all the cucumber/pumpkin/tomato variteys I wanted to grow over summer along with an aray of chillies, capsicums, salad greens & herbs....... Where there’s a will, theres a way!

Wordless Wednesday

Garden update

Well, some things have continued to go down hill in my patch (As they do when your not fully green thumb certified)

The tomatoes, particularly the cherry Romas, have been badly effected by wilt. I have cropped back alot of the foliage & they are still producing both ripe fruits and new flowers amazing! However, I dont hold much hope for all the plants past another 4 weeks or so. Which makes me think, perhaps might grab a few big pots and start another few store bought seedlings for quick turn around

The cucumbers have had a tough time, after fighting off the powdery mildew with bi-card spray (Worked a treat!) I then forgot to water them on one of the hottest days and came home after a long days work to a very sad looking cucumber patch, I’m such a bad veggie mum and the patch lost half of its foliage. Then came the aphids... Goodness me! Any one else want to have a go at my cukes?! All be they to are still producing and look to be bouncing back with some new foliage and fruit, little troopers!

I have to date had 1 capsicum off my bigger plant, we had quite a few fruits set but all but 1 dropped off. After not having 1 flower set fruit for over 4 weeks, in the last week or so it has set 7 new baby caps, time will only tell if they hang around and grow. To be fair to them they are (as you might just be able to see them above) buried behind the tomatoes under a shade cloth, and now knowing they prefer a sunny spot I am lucky to get anything at all from them
I also have some mini bell capsicums but find these pretty useless and more ornamental more than anything, but cant help saving the seeds when I do pick one! What on earth am I going to do with hundreds of mini bell seeds?

Then we have some new additions to the garden, my $1 potted colour buys... I pick these up at my local markets, I cant help myself for $1 and often feel the need to 'rescue' them and give them a bigger home (Even if only just slightly bigger than the seedling pots they come in!)

Lots of Marigolds , Frost Fire Petunias, ?? Unsure but looks pretty, Succulent of some variety, and some birds eye Chillies

I also have new eggplant and pumpkin seedlings in a fairly new bed.... in VERY late but hoping to get something off them before the winter frosts. And a new Zucchini tub with seedlings just stating to emerge and get their first true leaves..... but more on those later.


This time next week I will be on the road heading North to spend a lovely 10days in sunny Coffs harbour. Its going to be so strange not to wonder around my garden everyday, I will miss my fresh herbs, tomatoes and cucumbers, I will everyday think and worry about it, but it will be so exciting to come home and see the change after 10days. I cant wait, both for holidays and to return!

My yellow thumb strikes again

My cucumbers are not going so well.... they have the dreaded powdery mildew fungus. I have just been milk spraying at the moment but with no luck. I was searching for home remedies as I dont like using chemicals at all, & the withholding periods really put me off..... All up I think we have had at least 40 or so cukes off my tiny bath tub cucumber patch in around 2 weeks, not a bad run I figured!

I had resorted myself to the fact the cukes would eventually succum and die off, to be honest I am blaming myself, having planted 15 or so seedlings into the bathtub patch (Yes, I now know better- do not over croud your cucurbits!)

However today another lovely gardener form the oz grow forums suggested a home made bi-carb remedy to me. I will try the bi-carb spray and see how they go- hopefully they can still be saved, fingers crossed!

I am also watching my new pumpkin seedlings with a very close eye, so if the bi-carb spray doesn’t save my cukes it may well come in handy to save the pumpkins!

The stow away that stayed a while

I found a little stow away in the Kitchen just over a week or so ago... a fat little green caterpillar that had made its way in on an unknown vessel..... I think it was maybe the potatoes that I bought?! or perhaps the lemons from my lovely neighbour... without sighting his boarding pass I will never know! He's a pic taken of the little guy who was being a wonderful model despite recoiling at the flash of the camera:

After a photo shoot, I placed my new friend (or Foe!) on the bench and put a glass over him so I could show my dear other half our stow away visitor when he got home and he took it as in invitation to stay a while, climbing the glass and building himself a little cocoon

After watching the cocoon twitch, get fat, striped and turn white... he emerged from his slumber yesterday morning- ready to say his farwell.

Unfortunately for him he didn’t make it back to the garden, but found a lovely new home, in the lizard tank and in turn the lizard had a lovely meal for dinner…. Ahh the circle of life. So, anyone one else want to come stay at my place soon? ;)

Starting from the start

So here I am, starting my very own gardening blog. More so for myself to look at while I am not able to be in my garden and track my own progress.

I Guess I should start at the start! Here goes:

My garden started some time around mid-end October 2009 with my OH deciding I was way too stressed (or in man land I was going to make his head explode if I didnt get off his back to finish the various 1/2 finished renovation work) and needed my own little haven. Having had a small courtyard type garden a couple of years before that I really loved but sadly had to leave behind when we moved, he was 100% right. And so the garden started off, pictured below a couple of weeks in with some store bought Tomatoes- Green Zebra, Tigerella, Principe Borghese, Tommy Toe, and a Roma Cherry of some sort, Capsicum- Big red, Cherry pick and mini bells along with lettuce and Snow pea seedlings

Plus some lebanese cucumber, globe radish and carrot seedlings- The first veggie seeds I had sown myself


It was exciting times! With the addition of a new 'bathtub' garden for the home grown cucumber, radish and carrot seedlings, the garden flourished and before I could blink looked somewhat like this:

Then came my first harvest, how satisfying! And now, im hooked!! And have slowly started to take claim my very small backyard back from the dog- digging new veggie bed after new veggie bed

.... so please come along and join me on my first vegetable gardening journey!