Vege garden update : July 2012

We've had lots of really cool temps this winter (well, cool for the Gold Coast anyway).  Couple this with the fact I planted the veges about 6 weeks earlier this year, and this pretty much explains why I haven't quite seen the growth explosion we've seen in previous years.  But nevertheless, my little babies are growing well, and I'm sure once the weather warms slightly (or at least stops getting below 5 degrees at night!) we'll have more veges than we can handle!

But for now, here's the update.  Apologies for the pictures, but I quickly took them right on dusk yesterday as I knew we were in for a few wet days and I wouldn't get any photos.

Here is the long shot before:

And now:

And another view without the peas in the way - loving that little sea of green!

And speaking of peas, those are sugar snap and snow peas on the trellises in the long shot.  The sugar snaps are looking very scraggly but they have started flowering (and flowers mean peas) so I'm hopeful!

Meanwhile the snow peas are looking a little more lush and bushy, but no flowers (so no peas yet)...

As for everything else, it is all definitely underway..... the coriander I cannot grow in warmer months (it just goes straight to seed!)

Continental parsley looking very yummy:

Mini cabbages are well under way:

And the bok choy is ready to start harvesting already (my first success with Asian greens):

The iceberg lettuce is looking promising and we will probably start taking bits off this to encourage new growth soon:

And my first attempt at baby spinach is proving successful so far too!

The miniature broccoli is all leaves for now and not looking so miniature - and (for now) we seem to have eradicated the big fat green caterpillars that were feasting on it!  (Those white spots are water droplets caught in the flash - nothing sinister):

And my accidental fennel purchase - I picked up dill, put it back and thought I'd picked up the same container again - is going great guns also (stick around for a recipe with fennel probably later this week!)

I know it all looks too good to be true.... so in the interests of full disclosure, allow me to show you my failings... oh, the horror!!!

The transplanted chilli is not super happy... but I spy a couple of teeny little flowers, so maybe its just not his season (I don't know much about chillis) and he'll burst back into life when I least expect it!

I STILL cannot seem to grow cherry tomatoes to save myself - this seedling remains pitifully small and diseased.... and the others have mostly disappeared into the earth...

And my 'patio zucchini' seems to have developed powdery mildew (even though Don Burke assures me this happens in humid, summery conditions..... pffft!  He just lost a bit of credibility in my eyes because its cold here and only about 60% humidity - which those who live here know, might as well be zero humidity!)  I plan to try his suggested milk spray to see if I can get rid of it - if that doesn't work, Burkes Backyard will be permanently off my reading list!  Consider yourself warned, Don (I'm sure he'll have trouble sleeping tonight after that dressing down.... not!  LOL)

To calm you down after that little shot of garden carnage and me shattering your (I'm sure) high opinion of Don Burke, let me leave you with an image of one of the pretty little marigold plants that have recently blossomed all over the garden - offering their own little ray of sunshine on our gloomy winter days....

Bye for now :)