What's going on in your garden (2023)?

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Coming back from my lunchtime walk combining physio with collecting the post, I needed a couple of bay leaves from the tree, so walked passed the tomatoes on the way back. There were loads needing picking and watering....

These were just the ripe tomatoes. There's at least this again and more yet that still need to ripen. The darker purpleish cherry tomatoes are amazingly sweet.

3kg Home grown tomatoes

3kg Home grown tomatoes


A decent number found there way into our evening meal. The rest will make their way into a tomatoes and red lentil soup next week. What I do with the next lot of they are ripe is anyone guess right now. I already have tubs of tomato passatta in the freezer.
 
I found a cucumber growing, well not really growing in the veg plot, because the cucumber itself wasn't in the veg plot, though the plant was. How it had survived the chooks I've no idea because they love cucumber normally.

This 1 cucumber weighs just under ½kg. I also came out with a fallen pear which means the rest of my pears are starting to ripen. There were also 3 apples down, but I couldn't reach them. Hubby was out at work all day today. I'm get him to get them tomorrow.

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I've also "found" 3 Queensland blue squashes. 1 large, 1 medium and 1 small. I'll leave them outside for as long as possible.
 
It has been rather chilly here this Spring, so my pepper and herb plants are not growing aggressively, as they would in warmer temperatures.

CD
 
This morning I mowed the front and back lawns, a bit of weeding and tidying, glad I did because it is now pouring down.
 
finally finished what I started last week. from the jungle:
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To something vaguely resembling a garden. In the first picture you can see that the Heliconias (long stalks, big green leaves, wonderful zigzag flowers) had doubled over. This happens if they grow too tall, and they'd completely covered the bromelias. A few days later, having severely pruned the heliconias and caused myself multiple lacerations removing the dead bromelias and dead leaves, the back garden is finally beginning to look respectable again>
Garden 3004231.jpg
 
I raided the tomato cage again. Anything even vaguely ripe and anything on dead vines was harvested (why predictive text thought vines should be bones I have no idea but it did)...

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There's 3-4 kg of ripe tomatoes and about the same again of unripe tomatoes picked.
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I've about 5kg or so of green tomatoes left on the living plants at the moment but we're due overnight temperatures around 0°C by the weekend and minus figures early next week. I'm try to ripen as much as I can outside (sunny daytime temps of 14-17°C (roughly 60F area) during the day, so some will partially ripen before the remaining plants die back. Then I'll need to decide what to do with green tomatoes... right now the only thing that comes to mind is chutney.
 
I've also found another 2 squash taking my total to 5. 1 is very large, and the same as the very small one, the middle 3 are of another variety. They are now resting on empty plant pots to keep them off the bare soil.

The beans are flowering. Hopefully something will pollinate them (fingers crossed) and the raspberries are slowly coming to the end of their fruiting (I collected about 20 berries and saw quite a few more developing with plenty of flowers yet! ). The garlic is in to over winter, and I've a few seeds germinating, but I need to get my winter produce sown or purchased in the near future, else the plot will be empty over winter which is the main growing period here (summer is dormant. Too hot and too dry).
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Then I'll need to decide what to do with green tomatoes... right now the only thing that comes to mind is chutney.
Click to expand...
I had exactly that dilemma a few years ago - loads of green tomatoes at the end of the season. This is what I did: Pickled tomatoes
I'd say on a scale of 1 - 10, they rated about 7. Pretty good and a wonderful mouthfeel when the little tomatoes explode inside you mouth!
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
I raided the tomato cage again. Anything even vaguely ripe and anything on dead vines was harvested (why predictive text thought vines should be bones I have no idea but it did)...

View attachment 99522

There's 3-4 kg of ripe tomatoes and about the same again of unripe tomatoes picked.
View attachment 99523

View attachment 99521

I've about 5kg or so of green tomatoes left on the living plants at the moment but we're due overnight temperatures around 0°C by the weekend and minus figures early next week. I'm try to ripen as much as I can outside (sunny daytime temps of 14-17°C (roughly 60F area) during the day, so some will partially ripen before the remaining plants die back. Then I'll need to decide what to do with green tomatoes... right now the only thing that comes to mind is chutney.
Click to expand...

Fried green tomatoes, a Southern US favorite. :okay:

CD
 
I had a quick wander around the garden in my slippers this lunchtime...

Lemon grass

Lemon grass


Rhubarb & strawberries

Rhubarb & strawberries


Not all of it is weeds

Not all of it is weeds

Beans, turnip/radish, New Zealand yams, garlic chives, sorrel...

Raspberries

Raspberries


The beans

The beans


Raspberries

Raspberries


In there are 4 squash of varying sizes

In there are 4 squash of varying sizes


And another squash

And another squash


1 of my squash

1 of my squash

Growing in the veg plot if you count hanging outside of the veg plot as in it!

There are still some tomatoes ripening but I'll have to pick them tomorrow evening. We've got a heavy frost (-8°C) due on Monday morning and that will definitely kill the plants.

My potatoes are still in the ground. It's a reasonably good place to keep them. The carrots the same and the apples are still on the tree.

I picked the remaining pears last weekend and am still waiting for them to ripen.

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I was excited to find some of those iron hanging baskets for cheap, the kind that are lined with that coconut husk stuff, for a more natural look.

They’re 14 inches across, so I got two and potted up the first of the flowers, watered them, and…they’re far too heavy for any shepherd’s hooks we have.

For the moment, I’ve got them hanging in a tree out front, and they look better than I thought, but it’s still not quite what I wanted, but at least they’re not going anywhere.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
I raided the tomato cage again. Anything even vaguely ripe and anything on dead vines was harvested (why predictive text thought vines should be bones I have no idea but it did)...

View attachment 99522

There's 3-4 kg of ripe tomatoes and about the same again of unripe tomatoes picked.
View attachment 99523

View attachment 99521

I've about 5kg or so of green tomatoes left on the living plants at the moment but we're due overnight temperatures around 0°C by the weekend and minus figures early next week. I'm try to ripen as much as I can outside (sunny daytime temps of 14-17°C (roughly 60F area) during the day, so some will partially ripen before the remaining plants die back. Then I'll need to decide what to do with green tomatoes... right now the only thing that comes to mind is chutney.
Click to expand...

I still have 5kg tomato in freezer waiting for me to decide what to do with it. Pasta sauce is leading atm. That and ketchup.
Wife has brassicas growing in winter which is due next month.
I f ing despise winter.

Russ
 
My garden is wall-to-wall weeds right now - it’s been rainy every weekend in April so been hard to get anything done.

Norm the groundhog put in his first appearance of the year! He is cute, but I’ll have to set up the motion-activated sprinkler to keep him out of my vegetable patch.
 
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