My edible garden

in gardenjournal2018 •  6 years ago  (edited)

I was encouraged by my sister @crazymum to take on this challenge as she knows I am a keen gardener . I am keen but I am still a novice.

When my children were much younger I did gardening with them. We planted carrots, lettuce, tomatoes and runner beans. It was fun! We are so lucky to have a large garden to allow us to do just that!

The golden gage tree which bore us abundant juicy golden gage fruits. The fruits used to drop to the ground and we'd ignore them. We didn't realise they were edible until 11 years after!

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Below is a photograph of the three variety apple tree we planted more than 10 years ago gave us only one type of apple. It produced a few apples, not much.

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We got this dwarf apple variety to help pollinate the first apple tree. So far it has provided us with some apples but has been no help at all to the first apple tree. This year has been difficult for the second apple tree as we've had a very dry spell.

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Our conference pear tree has proven to be quite challenging. It's flowered and fruited but at the end of the day the squirrels get them so I've only had probably 2 pears from its 8 years with us. The second picture shows disease on the leaves. I hacked it quite viciously after autumn. It grew back healthy but this is what happens every time and I haven't a clue, even by googling, what causes this!

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When our patio was laid 8 years ago by a cowboy builder he made such a mess of it. When the last patio installers ripped the old one up he discovered my beautiful Indian slates were laid upside down! sigh

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So in April of this year when the patio was relaid, I requested for a patio to end a few inches away from the fence so I could plant in it.

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This year I was ambitious! Roll on many many years later, after a long absence from gardening due to work and other commitments, I'm back!

This was the state of my vegetable patch upon my return from Malaysia after 5 weeks. My daughter and a house sitter helped me to water them.

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My yellow courgette plant was overgrown so I propped it up. I weaved a bamboo stick through it to prop it up as it was quite fragile & prickly to move.

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My tomato plants were so overgrown and grew in all directions. I had to sort out that out too!

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My runner beans have been doing well and are growing rampant! They have been doing well but I think I harvested them too late as the beans were quite tough to chew. I am thankful my family are not fussy with food!

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This is the first time I'm growing brussel sprouts! They were on sale! I don't think they are doing too well but I don't think they're doing bad either.

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My poor cauliflowers! They were so beautiful and so precious but 5 weeks of me being away proved too stressful for them. They were infested by caterpillars! We actually picked the caterpillars out by hand, placed them in a container, fed them and they actually turned into butterflies which we released. They came back to feed and lay eggs on my vegetable patch! But of course! That's when I patiently picked them out by hand and fed them to the birds!!! Good riddance!

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Who knew that cabbage ravaged by caterpillars could be so beautiful! Bye bye cabbage....

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Chillies that were grown from seeds that were given to patrons of Wahaca, a Mexican diner

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Strawberries which failed to produce last year but provided this year in abundance!

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Garlic flower which I took from my husband's uncle's garden in Ireland about 10 years ago

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Two dwarf apple trees I acquired free from someone from a community site.

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See that dead tree on the right? That was a miniature cherry tree that was given to me by the same lady who gave me those apple trees. I think it's dead but I'm hoping I'm wrong. If it is I shall replace it with an olive tree.

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On the plus side I have avocados growing from seed. I planted the seeds straight into soil and forgot all about them. While moving some plants around I discovered them! Hurrah! I had painstakingly grown one by suspending it in a cup of water using 4 toothpicks and then potting it into soil. A discovery via Pinterest! Unfortunately it was destroyed by a... yes! squirrel!!!

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Oh my goodness! I almost forgot to show you my little herb patch. Here I have bay leaves, lemon mint, rosemary, peppermint & aloe vera. And that sums up my edible garden.

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You are too kind @filipino! Thank you!!!

Gald to know we can help.

Thanks!

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Thanks a million! xxx

You're welcome @rpattwell!

Impressive. It is one of my dream to learn the right way of gardening. The feeling watching something that you pour your hardwork into growing is an amazing feeling right .

It sure is @ezandanial! Even better when you find a fruit hiding mysteriously behind a leaf.... then, harvesting the fruits of your labour and then eating them.. best feeling ever!

Hahahah. So true ! 👍🏻

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Thanks a million!

I'm really glad you joined, @rpattwell. You have a very nice garden.
And I loved your update. I went from being stunned, to laughing my ass of to feeling sorry and all the way back, lol.

Those pictures from when you got back from your travel, hahaha. I know all about such overgrown tomato bushes.

Quite nifty, by the way, what you did to that zucchini plant.

From what I can see, there seems to be othing wrong with your Brussels Sprouts. Just give them some more time and they'll be delicious!

Those caterpillars are aweful little things, are they. I'm experiencing the same problem here. I forgot to spray the cabbabges with a garlicspray with neemoil and a little soap, to make the leaves smell less attractive to butterflies. It's too late now, of course.
Everyday, I need to go 'caterpillar-picking'. But even then it looks like they are outsmarting me somehow, becaus the leaves of my cabbabges get eaten every day a little further.

Anyway, great update! Thanks!

Oh @simplymike! Thanks for such wonderful comments! I do love gardening. It's my sanity and insanity... blooming pests! Here you go! LOL!
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Now my yellow courgettes seem to be flowering but not producing much courgettes! I see some emerging but are turning a little brown when they are about an inch long. What's going on??? Can you help? And any idea what's going on with my pear tree?

I'm definitely not an expert on pests. They seem to be all around my garden this year, but the only ones I can identify are spider mite and mildew. Literally almost every tree, bush or plant is infected with something and I can't figure out what's wrong with them :0(

I have the same thing going on with my zucchini plant. There's a flower, a little later the zucchini starts to grow and is looking good. But then, when he is a little bigger than my finger it turns brown and dies.

Other hears we harvested more zucchinis than we would need ina lifetime, this year not a single one. And again, I don't know what's going on...

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Ahhh... I googled and it may be my inconsistent watering.... It's been a very dry spell this year. I'm glad I'm not the only one suffering from this... Thanks for your response and good luck with yours!