Over the past week, it has been so hot here in Melbourne (getting up around 40 degrees celcius) everything around the place, including me, has been wilting. Then in true Melbourne style, when the change came through and the rain and the cold rolled in, the mercury plunged to down around 19 degrees…I tried to keep the garden hydrated during the heat but sometimes it was like pushing, um…you know what, uphill. So I was very glad for the downpour, and water I don’t have to pay for!
During the extremes of weather, and of course the Christmas madness, i’ve had little time/inclination to devote to the garden, so I snuck out this morning between rain showers, and after a very, very refreshing 12 hour sleep, to pull a few weeds, tie a few things back, and do a bit of harvesting. Today I got some bush beans, some broad (fava) beans, and some curly lettuce. Yum!
I managed to harvest a great whack of basil for the Christmas day feast, which was fantastic seeing as I only put it in a few weeks ago. It’s in a new garden bed this year, and it seems to like the hot position against the corrugated iron shed, so I think i’ll reserve that spot for it going forward. The broad beans have been a bit mixed in a similar spot against the shed – i’m not sure if it’s the heat, lack of water (though god knows I tried to keep up!) or the soil itself…some plants have thrived, others have carked it, so it’s hard to say. Anyway…all part of figuring out what works in this garden I guess. Given I have literally dragged it up from a muddy clay mess with no plants to be seen (apart from weeds), and covered in assorted building crap and other rubbish, i’m happy with where i’m at…but there is always so much more to do.
One thing I truly wish I had access to is a ready supply of free manure, delivered to my door…the garden can certainly take it, but it’s annoyingly expensive to buy in bags at Bunnings, not to mention I can’t stand all the plastic that comes along with it…but at the moment, it’s the only place I can source it. Hopefully in the new year I can remedy that situation somehow… 🙂
Southpaw's Kitchen 