Anyhow. We've had some scorching heat this past week and earlier in the week I was horrified to find a whole swarm of fruitfly helping themselves to our silverbeet, and some on the tomatoes! Not happy ! Went to the local Bunnings and it was explained it was going to be hard to get rid of them as I would have needed to set a trap for the male, and that should be done before they appear. .. Or I could pay $30 for a chemical concentrate to spray on.. I thought I'd give a home remedy a try.
So I mixed 2 tb of beer with 2 litres of water and 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped, and 2 tb dried chilli flakes (we had dried our own, use fresh chillies if you have them) boil for 5 minutes, and leave overnight. Strain, and then put in spray bottle. Well, it seems to have worked. We applied it every morning and watered at night only and there's no sign of the little blighters today, despite the dreadful heat over the weekend. Woot to no chemical sprays!
So here's the garden!
Tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes!
Tomato berries... aren't they cute?
Here's some of the Grosse Lisses, there's loads of them this size and bigger!
These are thai pink tomato seedlings, there's no more room in the opera house so they're in pots!
And here's a black russian in an upside-down planter, it took a while to take off but now it's found the sun, it's doing nicely and growing steadily (not a scrap on those Black Russians in the Opera House).
Silverbeet is about a 1 foot high now
celery, cos lettuce (which we are eating presently and have harvested outer leaves) and carrots.
Rhubarb has exploded this past week!
Leeks, Baby Cos and climbling beans
Cucumbers, still flowering, growing nicely...
The pumpkin patch, has now ventured out of the wire under the jacaranda tree as we'd hoped :)
Watermelon has doubled in size in the past week
and here's some seedlings ready for transplant (watermelon and rockmelon)
Eggplant are flowering..
And here are some more baby eggplant to go into the garden
Climbing beans are growing leaves, shoots and flowers at an alarming pace!
And here's a look at the easterly end of the garden (click to enlarge if you wish!):
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6 lovely comments:
Wow, what a fantastic vegetable garden! We seem to have lost momentum with ours, thanks to massive plagues of cabbage moths and tiny caterpillars! Will have to find our enthusiasm again, yours is an inspiration.
Wonderful, Liss, everything looks so healthy and well-grown. Oh, how I wish for the space to grow watermelons! My Lotto-win fantasy is to buy the house next door, knock it down, and grow lots of melons and pumpkins and fruit trees and all the things I can't into my small garden.
Wowsers! I might have to come and borrow some cos lettuce.
Do you find that you're saving a lot of money from having your own patch?
Christie, the kids love it, and we're so passionate about them understanding that food doesn't grow in packets in the supermarket! Eloise does the timing of the watering, we turn it on a 4.30 and off at 5.00pm - she reminds us by keeping an eye on the clock. Cabbage Moth and grubs aren't hard to control - just get some derris dust from your nursery or hardware shop.
Jamie - goodness knows if the melons and pumpkins are actually going to survive.. these were all seeds that we dried from fruit so if it doesn't, we have no loss, but it would good if it does!! We have more room to dig up more garden, however a reticent husband as he did it the first dig up and the grass is so thick it was hard yakka!! I'll keep working on it :)
Telle, Our autumn garden we kind of broke even because we bought mainly seedlings and lost a few things along the way whilst we were learning. We are only just starting to harvest and have done more growth from seed than seedling (and the seedling we did get were on sale!) I'm sure when the seasons' done and dusted we would have saved lots of money growing our own - plus it tastes so much better from seed to table!
Liss, that's phenomenal, you have packed an amazing amount in to your space. You shouldn't have to buy too many veges for a while.
I dream of having a green thumb like yours! I have killed a cactus-no joke! And pink tomatoes? Tell me more! :P
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