Summer Stocktake: Fruit and Vegetables

As summer is coming to a close, I thought I would take a photographic record of some of the fruit and vegetables we have growing at the moment as I am trying to learn more about the best plants to grow at certain times. We have a number of fruit trees 'down the back' where I don't venture too much and I would like to try and save some of the fruit down there from fruit fly in the future. This year for the first time, we have picked quite a lot of figs after sewing calico bags and putting them over much of the fruit. It wasn't pretty but it was effective in the main.

I did manage to rescue a few guavas before the fruit fly got them and will have to do a bit of study about how to protect them in the future if that is possible without spraying.

 

The fruit of the three peach trees met the same fate due to fruit fly.

 

 We did manage to save quite a few figs as I have mentioned. The calico bags worked well.

The passionfruit is looking good so far. 

Our old tamarillo tree died due to lack of water but a new one has shot up thanks to some kind bird which obviously dropped a seed on the other side of the property from the old tree.

Next to the new tamarillo is a pawpaw tree which I didn't even realise was growing behind the guavas. I daresay we won't get any pawpaws as we get frost in winter here.

 

There are some persimmons growing at the moment so hopefully some will actually make it to the kitchen. The calico bags are being used on these at the moment. 

 

These aren't the most wonderful avocados but I don't think the three resident possums mind. Another fruit we have growing are rockmelons and it is so nice to be able to pick our own fresh from the garden.

The watersaver garden isn't looking too wonderful at present as I am going to pull out the beetroot soon and replant the garden with winter vegetables. We rarely add water to this garden despite the low rainfall we have had this summer. 

 

 

 I have so many carrots which have gone to seed that I will have enough seed to grow carrots for an army. I like to have them growing as much as possible in the garden so I don't have to buy carrots with spray on them.

 

 This is a Gympie Gold cucumber which is a yellowy/light green colour. We didn't get a lot of cucumbers from these two plants but there was a lot of foliage. We did have plenty of cucumber for salads each day though and thankfully didn't have an overabundance like we had last year when we grew a different variety...

 

 ...which was probably the same as this one which I put in recently to see how much it would produce before the cooler weather arrived. It's all a bit of trial and error for me I must admit.I also put in a couple of zucchini seeds even though it is probably too late for them.

Savoy-verona purple cabbage, rainbow chard, purple sprouting broccoli and chinese cabbage have all been planted and we are trying to protect the seedlings from the birds and all the wildlife around here. The mini-watersaver garden we made out of a wooden crate is going okay and the lettuce seedlings planted there have been attacked by birds a number of times so the garden CEO has covered it with chicken wire and now it looks like Fort Knox. The birds have done a lot of damage to plants this year which I didn't notice so much last year. Potatoes are growing well in a potato bag from Green Harvest and I hope to eventually grow sweet potatoes as well.

These cherry tomatoes have been amazing and just self seed and are no trouble to grow at all.

We also have three macadamia nut trees, a black walnut and a pecan nut tree but I have given up any hope of being able to rescue any pecan nuts as the cockatoos enjoy having them for afternoon tea. At least with three macadamia nut trees we do end up with some to enjoy ourselves.

I think that is about it. I also want to take stock of our herbs and flowers as having a blog is a great way to keep track of what is growing at certain times of the year. Sorry if it is boring for my readers though. :-)

What's growing in your garden?