Thursday 7 March 2013

Winging it

The ceaseless string of rainy days has meant that the soil has become waterlogged and is pooling in parts of the yard.  The chickens are enjoying the high life as they now have a small private lake in part of their run.  Too bad they aren't all that partial to being out in the rain or boating in lakes.

The wet weather has also meant that planting and seed sowing have been put on hold for a few weeks now and I've been reduced to relying on what crops are already in.  Fortunately I've been slowly converting us to more tropical varieties of the usual fruit and veg that aren't so put out by having a prolonged foot soak.

A few months back I was trawling through my seed box looking for seeds to sow and came across some winged bean seeds that I'd got from a garden visit/seed swap day a couple of years ago.  Taking my chances, I decided to plant two of the old seeds in the hope that I'd get something out of it.  It took a fortnight or so but the seeds eventually turned into seedlings and slowly but surely the vines grew up the string on the fence.  They've loved the recent rainfall and are now long enough to grow along the fence and have started to produce masses of soft blue flowers and pretty little corrugated seed pods.  They'll soon be big enough to eat - fingers crossed they're tasty!  I've also read that all parts of the plant are edible, including the root.  I think I'll start with the beans and then see how we go from there.


It seems to be the year for vines - or perhaps I've had a thing for vertical gardening recently.  The choko barely survived the long dry spell but is now enjoying the prolonged precipitation and clawing its way up the fence.  I'm not sure it'll have the time to mature and reach its purportedly prolific production before the cooler weather knocks it back.  I suppose time will tell.  Until then it's helping to cover the fence and provide a little more greenery.  Not that that's in short supply considering the currently 5 foot lawn (read marsh).

The loofah (luffa) has taken off again.  I didn't even have to plant it - it simply grew from some seeds left over in the soil.  I've been giving away some of the dried sponges so I let them grow this year to replenish my supply.  This one is a beautiful long and cylindrical specimen.



The pineapple is growing well.  For some reason only one of the plants from the twin top has flowered.  It's not too much of a problem; however, because I'm not sure we could get through two pineapples simultaneously.  Hopefully the excessive rain hasn't washed out the flavour.  In the meantime, the tubular purple flowers are quite lovely and provides me a foreground distraction from the disappointment of my dragonfruit that remains devoid of fruit while my parents send me photos of their dinner-plate sized flowers on their's.  Not that I can complain really as I've been rather neglectful of the prickly specimen which is shoved up the back of the block.  Overall, despite my absence the garden seems to be quite happily developing and producing on its own.  I guess I shouldn't be so concerned about having to wing it in the future.


12 comments:

  1. My garden is soggy too, here in northern NSW. But mine too is still bearing well, just headed for a skinny spot down the track when what I would have been planting would have been bearing. Climbers are great insurance for this kind of weather. My beans, cucumbers, and tromboncino are all loving it.

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    1. I agree Linda, I'll be feeling the loss in a few weeks' time. The last couple of days have been dry so hopefully I'll be able to get some seeds out soon. I do seem to have lettuce popping up everywhere from when I left some go to seed so I think it'll be nothing but salad soon.

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  2. I think we are all dealing with soggy gardens at the moment lol. I was eyeing my snowpea seedlings this morning. They'd usually be in the ground by now, but there's no point at the moment, the ground is so wet. So they are sitting in their pots getting bigger and bigger!

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    1. Jeni, I wish I could be putting in peas too but it's just too wet. If they didn't get waterlogged it'd be the powdery mildew that got them. They're well worth the effort though. Nothing beats home grown peas.

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    2. Thought you might like to know we finally got those Snowpea seedlings into our veggie patch over Easter. Untangling their roots was pretty tricky lol but the seedlings survived their extra long time in small pots rather well :)

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    3. Yum!! Glad the seedlings survived. The soil is just starting to get dry enough here for peas. Can't wait for those sweet green pearls and crunchy snow peas.

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    4. And then we ate them LOL - a photo just for you:

      http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=455762424513132&set=a.329531200469589.76191.321272667962109&type=1&theater

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    5. So sweet and crunchy. My mouth is watering at the sight of that great looking meal.

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  3. We can grow pineapple? Oooh.. I'm having a fruitgasm now! You've done it now...I shall be searching for a variety to grow next year here in NZ! As for the loofah I've never seen anything like it! Again, another for my wish list, lol. Thanks for sharing! Still no rain here in the North Island, so no foot spas for my lot, they're still under the sunlamp I'm afraid :(

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    1. Not sure how pineapple would go in NZ but always worth a shot I guess. Here if I ever buy one I just stick the top in the ground and away it goes. Beware, it's a long term investment because they take 2 years to fruit.

      The loofah you can eat when they're small but there's better things to grow for food. I'll put up a post about how to process them for use as sponges once they're finished.

      Thinking of getting some chickens from the pound/RSPCA for my girls - the two big ones are sleeping in the same box at night practically on top of each other since Wheelie died.

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  4. Really ~ sigh ~ you have ALL of these lovely things growing ~and to think we had a Nore Easter snow storm just yesterday ... oh I dream of Spring!

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    1. Snow! Bit late in the year for that, isn't it? Don't worry Willow, it works both ways and you always want what you don't have. I don't like mangoes and yet they grow here but I'd loooove to grow some decent stone fruit or apples here and I can't.

      Spring in the US would be so beautiful. We get a little hint of one here but nothing exciting and not nearly so many flowers.

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