Veggie Garden Update

Things are taking shape for Summer in the Veggie Garden.  I finally finished clearing the top bed in the new area of the garden, and have taken a break from that in favour of clearing beds in The Hexes.  It is all a question of the most effective use of my limited energy – its quicker to clear Hex beds than to clear Kikuyu from new areas.

Most of the seed-trays are showing signs of life.  The quickest of the Tomatoes are almost ready for setting out: a locally-common variety called Red Kaki – an ordinary-ish, red, medium-large Tomato, but selectively bred over the years by yours-truly for improved flavour, so I guess I could start thinking of a new name for it one of these years.  Always good to have a hardy backup in case disaster strikes with the Brandywines or any of the other exotics.  Perhaps in another ten years or so I will have selected decent strains of all those imports to be better adapted to the local soils and climate (whatever climate we may have a decade from now!)


I keep intending to plant more Basil seed.  I've had rather poor germination this year – perhaps I used particularly old seed, or maybe I was just too optimistic in my timing.  Either way, its one of those cases where I keep looking at the spotty little seedlings in their tray, and think, "I must plant more," but somehow haven't got around to it yet.  Could be my "disaster-of-neglect" for this year :-O


The Big Happy Surprise is the appearance of some Sweet Banana Chilli seedlings.  The seed is really old, and I failed to produce any of them last year.  Barring Slug, Snail or Cutworm disaster I shall cherish the few plants carefully to ensure fresh seed for the future.


I'm way behind on planting dried-beans and Squashes, and there's heavy rain forecast for the next few days...  Oh well, we need the rain!