Silverbeet sharing space
They really perked up, with the arrival of rain - but more so, from the overcast days. I want to get the most out of my container space, so decided to plant my favourite bean in the same pot: Purple King. As long as it gets water, it can handle the heat. I have plans for these beans to help cool the area, around the containers for summer.
Click to enlarge
This concrete rebar, was left over from our neighbours' house build. The new neighbours did a yard clean recently, and asked if we could use it. So now it will function as a climbing archway for many things!
Peter decided he wanted to use it for a play area, but as you can see in the background, the chicken tractor, also shares the green runway. Isn't it nice to see green again!
Curious as to how far, these will climb
So now the beans have a sturdy structure to climb, instead of curling around each other. I'm looking forward to tasting fresh beans again. The seed is saved every year, so they're fairly well adapted, to our harsh conditions.
I will probably put my potted choko vine, on this structure also. With the intention, in a few months time, we'll have some valuable shade.
Spring 2018
This is the kitchen garden in October. Unfortunately the strawberries are rotting on the plant, from too much moisture. That's a problem I can live with, as the plants themselves are doing fine. The cherry tomatoes are doing well also, and setting flowers. Although many of my herbs have gone to seed, so have planted more!
I intend saving the seed, from the herbs, to use again next year.
New
As my original kitchen garden was performing so well, I decided to expand. I made a simple stand out of leftover wood, used for cementing part of the driveway. My kitchen garden projects, are using up a lot of supplies around our yard, and the neighbours!
The only question I am yet to decide, is whether I will build another archway, against these new pots. There's an extra piece of rebar yet to use. However, we couldn't install the marque for Christmas - as it shares part of this space, and only this space. Decisions? Honestly, I'm learning towards the archway. Because it will live there all of the growing season - with the benefit of shade. But the marque only goes up for a day.
With the rain, and my new growing areas being developed, I'm hopeful for some Christmas goodies, for lunch! I hope your gardens are thriving, wherever they are.
Love the archway idea, I'm always looking for ways to grow up! A choko vine would definitely make great shade for the Summer trailing over a structure like that. I've got lettuce self seeding but I'm snipping off the very young and tiny leaves rather than waiting for it to get much bigger. It bolts so quickly. We had a hailstorm come through this afternoon, the garden here is loving the rain and there's so much coming in to bloom. I noticed the day lilies have formed buds and so I'm looking forward to those opening. In the veg patch, it's the cucumbers I'm most looking forward to. There's just no comparison to the freshness and crunch of a homegrown cucumber! Meg:)
ReplyDeleteI hope your edible plants survived the hail, Meg. Apparently we got a pretty bad hailstorm in our region, recently, but it skirted around us. Not a good time for tiny seedlings in the garden, with hail. Yum to the cucumbers though. I've not had much luck with cucumbers, but I've heard of a few heat tolerant varieties, I'm going to try. I especially love pickled cucumbers!
DeleteI envy you that archway, it looks great and very practical. Nice to see everything growing so well after the rain. I am having luck with cucumbers. Even though the tag said Lebanese cucumbers they are more like the old fashioned kind which is great. Happy gardening. Pauline
ReplyDeleteIt's lovely when the garden responds to the rain, especially when the edibles show promising signs of a crop. I hope you get a bumper harvest with your mystery cucumbers. Be sure to save the seed, if they do really well!
DeleteOh I LOVE the archway! It will make such a lovely, cool shady play space!
ReplyDeleteEverything has picked up so much after the rain Chris, how wonderful! How is your little man? Feeling better?
xx
I feel so blessed Emma, to have the rain, a new archway that only cost the effort to move it, and the promise of summer shade from edible climbers. Especially blessed, Peter is back to his regular self again - playing in the yard. The virus has passed, and his breathing has returned to normal. Although we now keep an inhaler at school, just in case. :)
Delete