Day 65 - The Effect of Rain

We all know that without water our crops will die. However, I would much prefer that when rain comes it is accompanied by at least a few hours of sunshine each day. The effect that rain without sunshine has is striking: last week I cut 12g of spring onions. This week - 5g.

In other news, the jalapeno has come out of its stupor and is now producing flowers like there's no tomorrow. I think it's liking the sub-30 degree top temperatures that we've been having.

That's it for this post - expect about two per week during school terms and a bit more during holidays.

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 44 - Hot Deck: Part 1

It turns out that life on my back deck is a lot hotter than I thought. The days following my last observation have all recorded temperatures above 45 degrees, with the hottest day showing 54.2 degrees. This on a day when the shade temperature did not exceed 33.

Knowing this, I am not at all surprised that my coriander has gone to seed. I also have great respect for the hardiness of my other plants!

The first of the habaneros and the last of the jalapenos ended up in a very nice chili con carne. Despite turning reddish at the base, the jalapeno provided very little heat. No such problems with the habanero!

Day 39 - Why My Coriander Bolted: Part 1

The picture says it all. While the shade temperature may be 35 at the moment, this figure means nothing to my poor kitchen garden which sits on a concrete deck in full sun. I put my mercury thermometer out with the plants, but got alarmed when the mercury rose rapidly towards 50, which is the top of the thermometer! I've been in a science class when a thermometer exploded and am not keen to repeat the experience. Instead, I substituted my digital thermometer, which has now hovered in the 46 - 47 degree area for about an hour.

My chillies are loving the heat with the jalapeno thriving. Coriander, on the other hand, is not a fan of heat. According to http://www.tropicalpermaculture.com extreme heat causes a flower stem to grow and leaf production to cease. That's exactly what's happened here as you can see to the right of the thermometer. The good news is that coriander seed is edible (and tasty). The bad news is that I have heaps of coriander seed that I bought from the shops a while ago. I don't have any fresh coriander!

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!

Day 27 - What's Stopping My Chillies?

Lack of sun (I think). The jalapeno had fruit on it when I bought it, but the habanero didn't. A couple of days of sun and I had lots of flowers, culminating in three chillies which are still maturing. For the last three weeks, however, we have had a heap of cloudy days and not that much sun. I guess that I'll know for sure when I pick the habaneros and jalapeno. I should get a flourish of buds, flowers and chillies - if I don't then I'm in a bit of trouble with these crops!

Day 26 - Different Starts for Different Plants

I've been thinking about the different ways that I could start some plants off. So far I've come up with four ways:

1. Buying seedlings / mature plants
2. Growing from seed
3. Making cuttings
4. Growing from supermarket root stock

There has to be a better way to describe number four! What it means is to buy food from the supermarket with the roots attached, cut off the top and plant the roots. Yesterday I tried that with spring onions. The tops were cut off with the roots and about 3cm of stalk remaining. These were placed in a glass of water until they were planted. So far the spring onions have grown out from the middle - that is that the centre of the stalk has grown faster than the exterior. In a day they have grown about 5mm. I've planted 11 spring onions and I'll be keeping a close eye on them.

My jalapeno seeds are going well, ranging from 4cm to 7cm tall. I'm not going to thin them out, rather I will see which ones take over, if any. The best thing is that if they don't work, I can pull them up and start again!

I plan to work on some basil cuttings later to create a type of basil 'hedge' in my 40x10 planter box. Much more research to be done on that!

On a technological note, I will be adding photos to The Australian Kitchen Garden shortly. Not only do they illustrate some of my points (much more succinctly than I can), but they will show the growth rates of plants. Fun times ahead.

Day 23 - Chilli Harvest Update

So I picked my second jalapeno, two weeks after the first. It had the corkage marks running down the side which the first did not have, however it was still not hot. As all three jalapenos came with the plant when I bought it three weeks ago, I've no idea how old they are. I guess I'll just have to wait until the habaneros turn orange.

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 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!