Well Friday is traditionally the day I scout around seeing what is ripe in the garden for picking. Today I had a few of veggies available.
My zucchini has finally started to slow down after 2 months of huge, and I mean HUGE, fruit. Honestly zucchini is one vegetable I am adapting my approach to next year. The plant itself grows large, and the huge leaves smother anything planted close. The fruit themselves grow exceptionally fast, and produce huge (but tasty) up to 1kg each. Next year I will give the plant plenty of space, and 1 bush is definitely enough.
Tomatoes this year have not been spectacular. I planted them late, towards the end of December, and it has only been in the last 2 weeks that fruit have begun to ripen. Long dry spells punctuated by heavy rain caused many of the fruit to crack, however they are still sweet and full of flavour. I tried a new growing technique this year, growing tomatoes up strings and removing all the excess suckers. I found these bushes much easier to manage and hope to test the system out again next year. Hopefully with more favourable weather.
The Lebanese eggplant in this picture are the first I have harvested. The plants themselves are strong growing, and I wish I had planted them sooner, as I think they would have cropped well. I have another 2-3 almost ripe fruits on the plants which will come off in the next few days, ready for some eggplant inspired dish.
The Cayenne chillies in this picture have become a normal occurance, ripening 6-7 chillies every few days. There are still absolutely tonnes of green chillies on the plant, and this weekend I am going to try and convert it to a hydroponic system so I can keep it producing throughout the winter. In Canberra there is a slight frost risk coming up on Monday, and this is going to get progressively worse.
But the cropping plant of the year award goes to...
Cucumber
Before this year I had never grown cucumber. It's not something we eat particularly much of, and years ago we received a free packet of seeds, which I decided to plant. Out of the six seeds I planted, all of them germinated. Of them, five remain today, one suffering a freak and horrific dog-trampling accident.
Cucumbers were planted from their seedling trays in January, and for the last four weeks I have been taking HUGE amounts of cucumbers each week. Every Friday I go out and see what has ripened, and this week I had a record 27 ripe cucumbers.
Of everything in the garden this year, giving away cucumbers has been the hardest!
For future reference, if this year is anything to go by, 1 cucumber plant is ample. AMPLE! The picture below is just todays harvest, and I have had similar over the last 3-4 weeks!
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