Thursday 19 March 2015

This is What Happens When You Neglect Your Vegie Patch

Busy much? I don't know about you, but around my neck of the woods, it's been flat-chat lately. All the stuff that makes up life, both good and bad, piling up on top of us like a scene from The Cat in the Hat.

When life gets like that, something has to give. Apart from an unplanned delay in blog posts, it's been our yard and in particular our vegie patch, that's suffered the most.

In the middle of summer, we had the most amazing crop of tomatoes. It was so lovely being able to pick and eat our own, especially for Miss 5 and me as we're both lovers of the red fruit. We saved money (between $40 and $50 a month for  2 - 3 months) and got a taste for what tomatoes SHOULD taste like. It was gutting when I had to start buying them again, especially when they taste like furry cardboard.

This is the vegie patch in it's prime:


Now, between the dog and the grubs and the tenacity of self-sown tomatoes, the garden is a total mess. We have two carrots, a pea, 4 zucchinis that you can't get to and 3 kale leaves that look like they've been shot at with a semi-automatic rifle. (Is that the right gun reference? I'm not much of an arms expert, so maybe not....but I'm sure you get my drift.)

The dog has decided the broccoli makes a good bed. The citrus trees are diseased, the capsicum plant looks like it has radiation poisoning and there are unwanted tomato plants growing in every freaking direction. As much as I'd love to grow tomatoes, it's not the best season for them, they're devouring the seeds we did plant and they weren't invited.



We didn't plant a single tomato seed. Geoff Goldblum called it.

Digressing a little, I heard Gerry Harvey on TV last night talking about how he grows all his own fruit and veg. I both admired him and loathed him for his smug organic ways. I suspect his vegie patch is much like ours, except for COMPLETELY BLOODY DIFFERENT.

Anyway, husband and I have agreed it's time to prioritise and get this garden back to the productive, life sustaining, plate filling, health promoting plot that it used to be. Or at least get one of those cute little zucchinis out.....

So within the next week or so, I'll be back with an update on the garden and hopefully it will look noticeably different to it's current state. Commitment.

Do you grow stuff? What's your favourite?



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