Despite the few very hot days we experienced in Melbourne the vegetable garden survived. I used shade cloth during the day and by the evening the plants sprang back from their limpness during the hot day.
I mentioned in the last chapter the beans were looking yellow. As the weather warmed up, the beans turned green and thrived. So have the beetroot.
I’ve been making many stir fries with Silverbeet and crunchy salads with the lettuce and tomatoes. It’s definitely been really rewarding being able to cook delicious dishes with the produce grown in vegetable garden.
I’m pleased to report that the vegetable garden performed really well without any major issues with pests (besides snails – which I remedied with iron based snail pellets).
As we’re approaching autumn, I’ll be preparing and rotating the beds for the autumn/winter crop. What I’ve also done the last week or so is removing plants in other areas of the garden to prepare the beds for fruit trees. At this stage, I’m planning to plant a couple of fig trees and a nectarine and peach tree. That would keep the birds happy. I do have an apricot tree that gave us plenty of fruit this year. We gave away many to friends, family and neighbours. We were left with about 4.5kg worth of apricot which we made into jam – delicious!
My aim this year is to transform the back garden into more of a produce based garden. Let’s see how I go.
Photos:
Mei Yin Cheong
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