Three years ago I planted a vegie patch. The first year I got 104kg out of my garden and was pretty excited. Last year I got 120kg and was even more excited. Yesterday I picked the last of the tomatoes as well as some oranges and was extremely excited when I weighed the days takings and found that my garden has produced 200kg this year so far (and it's only the middle of September!). I have a set of kitchen scales and I weigh everything I pick so that I can keep a record of how economical my garden is.
I spent the weekend digging out unwanted flowering plants as well as the tomatoes and pumpkins that have died off. I went out and bought the following seedlings: rockmelon, watermelon, corriander, sweet basil, zucchini, tomatoes (4 varieties, one seedling of each...I do it each year), cherry tomato, peas and beans. I had some corn seeds that I got from the Adelaide Royal Show and some pumpkin seeds that I saved from the last pumpkin picked out of my garden. I don't usually have much luck growing things from seed, apart from parsley and lettuce that self seed in my garden, so will be looking out to see if the corn and pumpkin germinate. If not, it will be a quick trip down to the nursery to get seedlings. I also bought some manure and sugar cane mulch. I love the smell of fresh sugar cane mulch on the garden! I had a very busy day yesterday, with lots of soil preparation and planting. I didn't get to plant the rockmelon and watermelon as I have to remove the grass that has grown in the spot where I will put them. I will have to do it sometime in the next week.
Does it cost much to set up a garden? Yesterday the mulch, manure and seedlings (and Seasol spray) cost me about $130.00. Not bad considering how much I will get from it in regards to zucchinis and rockmelons, etc. It will pay for itself over the season.
My husband got me some editions of the Grass Roots Magazine from the library and I read an interesting article about how much food is NOT eaten from our vegie patches. The author started going out each day and picking produce from their garden and making a point of using it in a meal. It didn't matter if it was one spear of asparagus and a few leaves of lettuce, it still went towards a meal. I think I will give this a go, as I find there is so much in my garden that doesn't get used. My cos lettuce are huge, so I think I will pick some today and maybe make a Caesar salad for dinner. I also have a lot of spinach and silverbeet, so will pick a few leaves and make something with them (and pick the snails off them at the same time).
I am also excited that the asparagus that I planted last year has shown a new lease of life this year. After I planted it my husband and I moved it just as it was dying off at the end of the season as it was where my husband wants to plant a fig tree. After transplanting I cut it back to ground level. Recently we looked at it and declared it dead, as it certainly looked that way. A week later Spring started and new spears popped out from under the ground!
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