Day 83 - Monthly Roundup

Hello everybody! It's been a busy time around here. On top of all of my work and study, it's been a strange month weatherwise.

No temperature records were set, but we did receive a lot of rainfall. The month's total 272.4mm broke the 2000s record of 244mm set in 2003. In addition, the 121.4mm received up to 9am on the 17th was also a record.

Some plants, such as afro parsley and garlic chives, seem to love every drop of rain they receive. Others, such as spring onions just get soggy!

Considering that my deck is soaked with water, I don't spend a lot of time out there. I'll report more when I'm out there more!

Day 72 - More Rain, Less Spring Onions

If you live around Brisbane, you will have experienced the torrential downpour that we had on Tuesday. It was the most rain in a 24 hour period since 2001, and caused mayhem. In my experience, when we have extreme weather it usually affects suburbs or the surrounding countryside. This time, however, the city copped the whole lot of it. Living 8km from the city centre, my apartment (and therefore plants) took a hammering. The force of the rain was so strong that it ripped most of the leaves from my chillies. The other, smaller leaved plants fared better.

It was another bad week for the spring onions. Even with the addition of seven new plants, the yield was a paltry 5 grams for the week.

I've decided to take a new approach to the harvest of my garlic chives, spring onions and afro parsley. Instead of harvesting all that I have available, I will only take one gram each of afro parsley and garlic chives and five grams of spring onions each week (parsley and spring onion day is Saturday, chive day is Thursday). This will continue until either a) I run out of crops,  b) they grow to an optimum height (spring onions and chives) or c) the afro parsley starts going white (which it does if I leave it too long).

The amounts harvested per week are intentionally below the weekly average so far, as I hope to have some fuller looking plants. I'll keep you informed!

Day 52 - Monthly Roundup

Weatherwise, not much happened this month. In contrast to my predictions of rain, rain and more rain it's been quite dry with only 47.8mm of rain (compared with a 2000 - 2009 average of 118.9mm). No temperature records were set, and the averages were only slightly higher than usual.

I had a mixed bag with the crops, although I'm pretty happy with the results so far. January concludes with the garden being $27 in deficit. For details on individual plants, read on:

Jalapeno - The last of the original three fruits was picked as late as possible, just before turning red. Unfortunately, it still didn't have that much heat, although the taste was good. One baby chili and two flowers point to a continuing crop.

Habanero - The three fruits ripened in quick succesion, but have not been replaced with flowers. The leaves have curled up, which may be an aphid problem.

Sweet Basil - The crop that grows itself - my basil plants are doing very well. One plant in particular is growing exceptionally (10cm taller than all of the others with strong leaf growth). I'll have to look up how to save the seeds from this one!

Afro Parsley - This crop is still growing - I've left it to thicken up for a while. I'm aiming to have a dense hedge of parsley, but I reaslise that will take time. So time I will give it!

Garlic Chives - Growing slowly! This is another one that needs time to thicken up.

Coriander - See previous entries... it's all too depressing to repeat!

Spring Onions - Doing very well, with each plant growing on average 1cm per day. The second crop that grows itself.

And finally for the blog itself: I've written about 2500 words this month and have had about 150 page hits. Thank you for reading!

Day 33 - What Price A Good Crop?

Way back on Day 1 I said that I wanted to grow crops that would normally cost a lot to buy in a supermarket. Herbs ended up being a good choice, as the price per kilo is quite high (although I don't know many people who buy herbs by the kilo). Just in case you were wondering, here are the prices that I got from my local supermarket for the herbs in my garden (prices are for fresh, not dried produce).

Garlic Chives - $98.00 / kg
Coriander - $54.00 / kg
Sweet Basil - $43.78 / kg
Afro Parsley - $30.30 / kg

Spring Onions are really cheap, coming in at $6.30 / kg. However, mine were free i.e. we ate them and I planted the roots, so anything I get out of them is a bonus. They're going very well, with one of them doubling its size in the last eight days.

Day 29 - First Photos!

As promised, here are some photos of my kitchen garden:

Chillies: (from left to right) - habanero, jalapeno seedlings, jalapeno

Spring onions - the green sections have grown since planting

Garlic chives (left) and the newly healthy coriander

Afro parsley (top) and sweet basil

They aren't normally set out like this!