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 51 - The Spring Onion Experiment: Part 1

Folks, it's a piece of cake. Get some pots and potting mix, add roots of onions you've already eaten and watch them come up. But how much room do they need? I did a little experiment using 4 sizes of spacing to see if the extra room resulted in extra growth. I've labeled the pot sizes A (26 square cm each), B, C & D (largest 157 square cm each). All pots had more than one plant in, so I've given them numbers.

A1: Day 23 = 26cm, Day 26 = 30cm
A2: Day 23 = 22cm, Day 26 = 26cm

B1: Day 23 = 37cm, Day 26 = 38cm
B2: Day 23 = 27cm, Day 26 = 30cm
B3: Day 23 = 33cm, Day 26 = 35cm
B4: Day 23 = 12cm, Day 26 = 14cm

C1: Day 23 = 19cm, Day 26 = 23cm
C2: Day 23 = 19cm, Day 26 = 24cm
C3: Day 23 = 39cm, Day 26 = 43cm

D1: Day 23 = 29cm, Day 26 = 35cm
D2: Day 23 = 38cm, Day 26 = 43cm

So, for day 23, the size averages were 24cm, 27cm, 26cm & 34cm. In day 26 they were 28cm, 29cm, 30cm & 39cm. So it's pretty clear, if you want bigger onions, give them more space. However, the smallest onions only had one sixth of the space of the largest, so I wouldn't hesitate to plant them in tightly. At the density of pot A you can fit 385 plants in one square metre, but at the growing rate of 1cm / day, who needs close to 4 metres of spring onions every day?

Day 50 - Why My Coriander Bolted: Part 2

I've been reading up about coriander recently, as it's been my only failure as a crop so far. At the beginning it wouldn't stand up and when it did it went to seed almost straight away. It now appears that three things contrubuted to this:

1. Coriander hates heat. Soil heat over 25 degrees Celsius will speed up bolting.
2. Coriander hates transplanting.
3. Even if you take perfect care of your plant, it still won't last long.

So, what do you do? Well, the easiest option is to plant the seeds. The folks at Gardening Know How have some tips that I may follow if I have the time. Basically, if you want a plentiful supply of coriander, you're going to be doing a lot of planting - in the shade.

Day 49 - Hot Deck: Part 2

Below is the graph of temperature over time on the 26th of January. The red line is the shade temperature and the blue line is the temperature on my deck. I knew that it got hot out there, but what surprised me the most was the tenacity of the heat - it was over 40 degrees for 5 hours, and over 50 degrees for 3 1/2 hours.

This day wasn't chosen because it was particularly hot - it just happened to be a day when I wasn't going out, and was able to measure the temperature every half hour! The maximum was 57.5, which was quite a bit short of this year's maximum of 58.8 degrees (137.8 in the old scale). I'm convinced that I'll see 65 (150) before the end of February.

Day 47 - Self-Sufficiency Sizing Stuff

It's a question that is posed all over the internet: how big will my garden need to be to provide vegetables for my family? Unfortunately, no two families have the same appetites, so the answers can vary wildly. According to one of my gardening books ("Your Vegetable Garden in Australia" by George Seddon) 335 square meters are required for a family of four.

At the moment, my total possible gardening area (including window sills, edges of steps etc.) is about 2 square metres. Luckily, my wife and I are buying our first house at the end of this year, which means I will have much more room. However, the garden will not be just a food-producing facility. We have to take into consideration the dog that we will be rescuing from the RSPCA, the kids that we will be having and the flowers that I will be growing for the Sunday table!

At the moment I've got no idea of how much area would keep us in fruit and vegetables. The good thing is that I have a cunning plan. Since January 18th, I've been maintaining a document containing details of all fruit and vegetables purchased. After keeping this record for a year, I'll know how much we go through annually. Then it's just a matter of finding average yields for these plants and their areas required and I'll have a total figure.

My guess is 200 square metres considering that we don't eat a lot of potatoes. Reader guesses are very welcome! The closest guess wins my congratulations!

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 40 - Extreme Weather: Part 1

It wasn't the extreme weather that I was expecting, however. Yesterday we experienced our biggest drop in temperature (this year) from the hottest part of the day to the coolest part of the night. The peak temperature was 35.1 and the low point was 17.4 (only 0.4 higher than the 2000 - 2009 record).

During this month so far, the discrepancy from peak to low point has averaged 6 degrees, with a record of 10.3 degrees. Compare that with yesterday's 17.7 and you can see why my plants are looking quizzical (either that or I'm going a little loopy).