Growing things

I haven’t written about my latest gardening feats or should I say lack thereof. It’s not all doom and gloom but the cucumbers that were looking so well aren’t so well. The plants are still alive but any fruit seems to be eaten by creatures of the earth. At least something is gaining from the growth. I did harvest an odd looking fruit once about a week ago because it wasn’t really growing any longer and I decided I didn’t want it to rot. I took a bite and it was quite bitter.

I had two large pots with tomatoes growing. One of the pots has heaps of fruit and they all have tough skins. I guess we don’t water it enough. Maybe they need watering morning and night but we are just scraping along once a day. The fruit is reasonably flavorful so that’s something to appreciate. I’ve managed to get two fruit from the other plant and they were incredibly flavorful. Unfortunately other creatures agree with me because they seem to attack the bottom side of the fruit and it’s rendered inedible by the time they are mature. I’d really like to grow another one of these but I suspect it’s a bit late in the season now. I wonder how well they would last into the winter months if they were sheltered a bit. With a bit of research I should be able to figure out ways to repel some of the creatures without poisoning the earth any more. I’ll add it to my list.

I’ve had more success with the cherry tomatoes. I never managed to get the overgrown ones out of the pots and into the ground but they are still doing reasonably well. Some of the fruit went bad due to excessive explosure to the excessive heat but much of it has been quite good and it’s made for some good snacking over the last few weeks. The three plants along the back wall have done extremely well and are sprawling all over the place. Two have a  treillis of sorts for support and that’s made a huge difference there. I might try to move others to the back wall too but probably won’t ever  get a round tuit. :)

My coriander has all gone to seed but the leaves were wonderful. I’m going to attempt to reseed into the ground after I get hold of some soil improver. The sandy soil is annoying. Im also going to try growing some mint and plant a new crop of basil. The last time I planted basil, we had a jungle of it in the backyard. I think mint will do equally well. My intention is to have heaps of mint so that I can make fattoush more regularly. I might even try for some Italian parsley.