Trapped

The Final Harvest

My broad beans are no more. After many a fine bucket load of beans, the small forest of broad bean bushes began to wilt under the increasingly hot days. In addition, their leaves were developing something that looked like rust. The chances of these leaves spreading disease was too great, so the whole lot was dug up and removed from the vegetable area. However, I managed to harvest one last time, and the results can be seen above. Three large containers stuffed full of beans. Delicious!  I am going to plant carrots in the vacant garden bed left behind. I was raking the topsoil and applying potash  to the bed this morning (root crops prefer extra potassium, which stimulates root growth,  rather that extra nitrogen, which stimulates leave growth). I'll plant three rows of carrot seed and lay some newspaper on top, keeping the paper moist, and wait (carrot seeds take a relatively long time to germinate). More photos to follow!!

Beanz Meanz Sharkz



My son took this photo this morning, before work. Although the beans have been heavily pruned back - they were getting out of control - they are still almost as tall as me!



Five weeks ago we went to Sydney for a couple of days. The pic above was taken from the balcony of our room. The "curvy'' look is a camera effect which enables me to get the whole scene in the shot.  It shows Darling Harbour - Sydney Aquarium in the foreground, the pedestrian walkway over the harbour to the Maritime Museum in the background.





The Sydney Aquarium is really special. Visitors can navigate walkways through enormous fish tanks, with sharks and rays swimming underfoot and overhead. See the pic above. The shark was about two feet away from me when I took the photo. Cool.

Hope you like these. Remember to click on each pic for an enlargement. 



It's Getting Warmer

Ok, the days are getting warmer now. It's been a while since I last blogged. The primary reason for my indolence is that I like to post pics with my writings, but often forget to take the iphone/photo - computer connection to work. So I'm going to write something anyway, and maybe supply the photos later.

Like I said, it's getting warmer now. The air conditioning isn't working properly at work, so work is a drag. Hope they get it fixed soon. It's ok at home, though.

My vegetable garden:

1. The broad beans are cropping magnificently. I've had 4 or 5 buckets of beans already! The crop is slowing now, though. Broad beans don't like warm weather. I'm going to pull them all up, put them aside, empty my compost bin and spread the compost around, and then start composting the broad bean stems and leaves. Plenty of those!

2. Tomatoes. I have 9 tomato plants in my garden, all varieties. I've dusted them, they are flowering, and the first fruit is now showing. On track for a good crop this year! I've also companion planted basil between the tomato plants.

3. Spinach. Bit slow, these boys. I gave them a dose of seaweed extract this morning so that should help. They've been growing in the shade of the broad beans (the 2 metre tall broad beans!) but since I've pruned the beans back a bit the spinach is receiving more consistent sunshine.  They are growing next to my radishes which began well but are now slowing a bit. The weather again, I suspect.

4. Lettuce. Last season I grew Cos, a pretty safe variety, and the crop was superb. This year I have Cos, but also a couple of other varieties. They all look good, although need a lot of water all the time. Shallow roots. Very thirsty. I might organise a bit of shadecloth to cover them during peak heat stress hours if the weather gets any hotter.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll try to get some pics posted soon.

Adieu.