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Wednesday, October 12, 2016

The Veggie Patch...

My last blog post was about our quick visit to Toowoomba's Queens Park to look at this year's display there for the annual Carnival of Flowers. 
In other years that we've visited Queens Park, I was delighted to see the use of ornamental kale in the garden beds...as in these next 2 photos copied from blog posts in 2010 and 2012. 

A very clever use of vegetable plants in decorative gardens! 

Back home here, I've worked steadily away in my modest veggie patch this year, encouraged by the slightly higher rainfall during Autumn and Winter. No kale though, this year; instead I'd planted herbs, tomatoes, capsicums ( green peppers), eggplant ( aubergines), round zucchinis ( courgettes), sweet potatoes and regular potatoes. 
In the subtropical climate here in Brisbane, zucchinis can often be plagued by powdery mildew which usually kills off the plant if not controlled. I sometimes wonder why I 'torment myself' trying to grow zucchinis...it really is a 'battle'.  ðŸ˜’ But Nanette, a fellow blogger suggested placing crushed egg shells ( I put them in the little mini food processor and ended up with a nice fine white powder) in the hole when planting out the zucchinis...which I did. The calcium is meant to make the plants stronger to resist disease. 

I did find I had to use the 1:10 milk spray as the dreaded mildew did 'rear its ugly head', but I did have the mildew under control. Then we spent 2 weeks in WA and DsD3 was house sitting. Instructions and demonstrations of how to spray the milk solution on the leaves were given. When I came home, the veggies were all still alive unlike after our previous holiday...but...
Yep! A terminal case of powdery mildew I fear....but...there was one rather large zucchini that the girls had missed whilst watering...so it hadn't been picked...and had just kept growing. 
It was healthy...
And rather large. It weighed 400 grams. 
So all was not lost! And the good news continued. The Tommy Toe tomato bushes were covered with fruit...
But best surprise of all was the eggplant. For weeks before we went away it had been covered with flowers, but they would never ' set'. But when we came home it was a different story...
I counted 15 eggplants! 
So in the last few weeks I've been enjoying picking fruit/veggies and using them.



Some cooking...
That one zucchini was enough to make a zucchini slice...
Some of the eggplants were used in a family favourite, moussaka...
 
And my niece was thrilled when I visited her last Sayurday and handed over a bag of tomatoes and eggplants from my garden. Yesterday she sent me a photo of what she made with them.
So we will continue to enjoy the crops from the garden this year, as next year might not be as productive. 
Regular readers would realise that the bush turkeys have graciously not trashed the veggie patch this year, but I keep my fingers crossed that this state of affairs should continue. 😉

8 comments:

Anthea said...

Great results from your vege garden Maria... I gave up years ago because my goodies were being stolen by the birds!

Anonymous said...

Maria you have had a wonderful harvest. Well done.

I know what you mean about powdery mildew on zucchini leaves. I am growing zucchinis at the allotment this year and I've already lost one plant as it rotted off at ground level, but fortunately not before i had already picked a (very) small harvest from it.

I have never heard about the need for calcium on these veggie plants so I'll bear that in mind next time, In the meanwhile I have a couple of plants left which seem to be doing ok - I had heard about the milk spray before so I poured milk over their leaves straight from the bottle. - didn't realise it had to be diluted. Maybe the extra protein worked instead. Ha ha. But don't try this at home as they say on the Tele.

Chookyblue...... said...

Misty working on planting put my before patch so hope it lasts will like yours... .

Jackie said...

Lucky you with the eggplant. I did get a few, but nothing like I have other years.

God bless.

margaret said...

you have certainly been rewarded for your hard work some lovely veg here. such a shame about the milldew maybe next year you will have more success. The photo of Toowoomba veg I thought at furst was a fabric it would make a great design

Anonymous said...

That all sounds so delicious! I guess because I always gardened in the southwest, mildew was never a problem, AND zucchini reproduce like rabbits in Phoenix, given a little water. In a short time, you have too many for an entire neighborhood! I've never tried growing round ones, though. The eggplant looks delicious!

Vireya said...

Wow! And here we are waiting for the weather to warm up enough to plant our tomatoes out. There is still the danger of frost, so the tomatoes are in pots inside!

Janine @ Rainbow Hare said...

You got a great crop from your garden Maria. I'm envious of all your egg plants. That must have been a nice surprise to come home to after your travels :)