I have no time for gardening today with kids end of year events and sport after school today, but I did manage to plant out the rest of the spring onions yesterday afternoon.
Last night I had a look back on previous years blogs. My garden is behind this year which comes to no surprise, I got seed planted later than usual and the weather has been so inconsistent, not to mention late frosts!! But that's OK, I know everything will be ready in its own time. A positive though is that so far I haven't had many problems with pests - just a few aphids on my peppers which I have been squashing and hosing off. And no disease so far either.
As well as late frosts, the wind has been a nightmare this spring too. We always get spring winds early on, but it feels like it hasn't stopped - which hasn't done my climbing beans or corn many favours. Going forward, I'm going to have to think of how I can create some wind breaks as our property doesn't have any large mature trees or hedges around the garden to help.
2021, going by my blogs was a pretty good year in the garden, tomatoes were huge and we were eating lots of goodies out of our garden. If I remember correctly, I had some summer crops planted really early, if we had any late frosts it would have been a completely different story. After losing a few plants the other day to frost, it has made me realise how lucky I was that year, and I'd rather plant later and be eating crops later, than risk losing all my hard work.
My grapes have me stumped this year, I don't have any fruit on the vines. Every other year there's been plenty - the vines been watered, fed, and pruned back in winter. I'm wondering if I over pruned it, as I can't think of any other reason why. I'm going to have to research how to prune those, up until now I've just pruned with no idea what I'm doing!
There's plenty to be excited about in the garden too, most crops are growing well! Planting out in the paddock has given me a lot more space to do succession planting, other years I've filled up the garden, then struggle to find room to plant autumn seedlings, as many summer crops are still producing. The clotches (plastic and insect netting) I bought have been the best investment. I can protect tender seedlings when first planted out, create a microclimate and protect them in colder months, as well as protect my babies from insect damage.
I am so grateful we have the means to grow our own food as many people don't have that luxury.
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