Day 18 - More Rain

It's been a week of rain, rain and more rain. The last seven days have seen rain of some sort, for a total of 70mm. Brisbane more commonly experiences quick flashes of rain, whereas this weather reminds me more of my time in England.

I have learned that it is not good to leave the chilli plants in saucers, as the roots can rot. I'm sure that the saucers will be useful for something later. Something else that I hadn't thought about is the quality of water used. Apparently the chlorine in water isn't good for plants so any tap water should be allowed to sit overnight to allow the chlorine to evaporate. Brisbane drinking water is fluoridated, but I'm unsure how that affects plants. I'm using my planters as water storage at the moment because it's raining!

When I picked my first jalapeno I planted some of the seeds. About five of them have poked their heads above the top of the soil, so I have high hopes for them.

My hints have been answered! I have been given a couple of planters 40cm x 10cm x 10cm and later on today I'm being taken to Bunnings to pick out some herbs.

Finally, some websites that I've found useful recently:

http://www.thechilliking.com/
http://kitchengardenblog.com/

And, to see the weather in my neck of the woods:

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/station.jsp?lt=site&lc=40913&list=ob

Day 21 - Monthly Roundup

I've been interested in the weather from before I started this kitchen garden. Back when I was working at a shop, I noticed that rain meant that there were few customers (always a positive in my eyes as I could use the time for organising the stock). I use Weatherzone for my weather needs, and will continue to until I get one of those fancy $500 weather stations that I've got my eye on!

Weatherzone keeps weather information from 1950 to 2000, and there was one record set this month. The monthly average minimum was 21.6, 0.2 above the record and a quite substantial 1.8 above the average. Must have been all of those wet nights that we've had. The monthly average maximum was 30.2, which was only 0.7 off the record. Apart from that - nothing, although we did receive 172.2mm of rain, which was 140% of the average.

My garden now measures 0.184sqm. I'm now growing six varieties of plants with differing levels of success. The sweet basil plants are going gangbusters - from a 40cm x 10cm plot with three plants I'm picking four or five leaves every day. On the other hand, the coriander is lying down and refusing to get up (I know the feeling well). If the sun that we've been promised next week doesn't fix it, I'm going to think about some stakes to keep it up.

Next month I hope to pick my jalapenos and habaneros and get another lot of flowers blooming. Eleven of my jalapeno seeds have sprouted and I hope to have some success with them. The big issue is the rain. Historically January, February and March are the rainiest months of the year, and my plants don't seem to like the rain that much. We will see what the weather brings.

My predictions for the year ahead: we will receive at least 2000mm of rain as it has always come when I wanted it the least. We will have more than 10 days of 40 degree temperatures even though we didn't receive any from 1950 - 2000. At least one day will get down to freezing, even though it didn't from 1950 - 2000 at all. In short, I'm predicting extreme weather for 2010. Let's see how it turns out!

Day 14 - Wet & Wild

We've been having our typical Summer weather in Brisbane: hot, humid days interspersed with intense wind and rain. The habaneros loved it, growing three fruit very quickly. Since then, however, flower production has come to a standstill on the habanero. I believe that this is due to the fact that the plant's energy is going into the current fruit. Hopefully when I pick them I will get another bunch of fruit.

Something that I neglected to mention before is that I plan for this garden to be profitable. I have spent about $13 to get this garden started and until it has produced $13 of produce, I will not be buying any more plants. Of course my local supermarket doesn't stock habaneros but I'll go off the generic chilli price, which is about $11 / kg.

Of course, I won't turn away plants as presents from family! (hint, hint)

Day 8 - First Crop!

Well the chillies both settled down well (as far as I can tell). At least they didn't wither and die within the week! I picked my first jalapeno today, but it was probably a little early. For one, the seeds didn't appear to be fully formed and also there wasn't a lot of heat. There were three jalapenos on the plant when I bought it, so the other two will stay on the plant for a few more weeks. The habaneros will turn orange when they're ready, so that will stop me picking them too early.

On a mathematical note, my jalapeno weighed 8 grams - which puts the cost of crop at $1710 / kg. Pricey!

Day 1 - Starting It All

Welcome to my weblog! I plan for it to be a record of how I built up a fully self-sufficient garden from scratch. Hopefully my readers can learn from my many inevitable mistakes but also see what things worked. I have no practical experience of gardening, so what I do should work for anyone - with the proviso that my climatic conditions may not match yours.

At the moment my garden space is limited to the balcony of my apartment - about 2 square metres (20 square feet). So, no fruit trees for me at the moment. However, I plan to buy a house in the next year, so my gardening can take off then!

So, what have I started off with? My first plants had to be:

1. Expensive enough in the shops to make growing worth my while
2. Easy to grow
3. Cheap to buy

After a little consideration, I came up with chillies. I've always loved these plants, and they look good to boot! I went up the road to Bunnings and came back with 5L of potting mix, two pots, a jalapeno plant and an orange habanero plant. Jalapenos and habaneros are two of the more popular chillies, so if I run into trouble I should be able to search the internet for plenty of answers!