So many vegetables to pick!!!

This is just a sample image of what has been coming out of the garden. The cucumbers are a definite winner this year in the output for effort competition- we can't keep up with eating the amount the vines are producing. If I have a day out of the garden, I come back to seemingly instant giant cucumbers that need immediate picking! I think the sheer numbers are a testament to the success of companion planting- the cosmos and lavender nearby have attracted plenty of pollinators. All I have to do is turn on the watering system on hot days and try to remember to pick the cucumbers regularly!

The tomatoes are also going great guns, and like the cucumbers, just keep coming- it seems the more I pick the more we get. There have also been plenty of beans and a few artichokes. The zucchini is not my friend this year- I have planted it in a "too shady" spot, and the powdery mildew is winning. I keep having to cut back the effected leaves, and this means fewer flowers and limited fruit.

I have high hopes for my capsicum plants- I had a failure with them last summer (not enough sun? irregular watering?) that resulted in blossom end rot. This year they are in a different position in a new garden bed and I am trying to water them as consistently as possible. There are a few babies growing on them already, and I'm hoping that if I keep paying attention to them we might actually get some edible veggies from the this year.

I am just a little bit in love with the backyard farm at the moment.

Everything is growing beautifully- the tomatoes are setting their first fruit, the zucchini and beetroots are already producing crops, the leafy greens are still producing and the first crop of corn is starting to show flowers. We have had a few weeks of rain showers and thunderstorms after a long dry spell, and the plants are absolutely loving it. The border flowers (nasturtiums, lavender, cosmos, sunflowers and salvia) are well and truly established, and are starting to bloom.

There is a whole universe of insect activity, including bees (both European and native), hoverflies, wasps, butterflies and ladybugs. And of course, birds and lizards to eat the insects and caterpillars.

I can just stand in the garden for whole stretches of time watching what is happening, using chopsticks to pluck the destructive caterpillars off my plants or "assisting" my zucchini to pollinate each other.

I also love that this blog allows me to look back at the first photos of the freshly dug plot - just this winter- and see how much everything has grown and changed. The contrast between this latest photo and the first is pretty satisfying!

Today is the day- the first beetroot is ready to be pulled from the soil!

They are getting to a pretty good size, and it is sad in a way to pull them out of the ground. But, sacrifices need to be made in the name of cooking. The first crop is going to a good home, where my friend makes delish dishes like this beetroot, pumpkin and kale salad. Perfect cooking to make use of the produce from he backyard farm!

The last few days have been all about things coming in and going out of the Backyard Farm! Mainly, it has been about giving away surplus harvests. This is one of my favourite things about gardening- getting to share the bounty with friends! At the moment I am up to my ears in kale and rocket, and have provided several 'care packages' to friends and family including these leafy greens. There are also plenty of herbs up for offer, including mint, rosemary, bay leaves, coriander and chives.

Luckily it isn't all about produce leaving! Yesterday morning I was pleasantly surprised by a package at my door. Well, slightly surprised given that it was something I had ordered online a few weeks ago! In keeping with the move towards a permaculture garden, I want to dedicate the far corner in the backyard to native plants, including flowering shrubs that attract bees and native birds. It is also a way for me to assuage my guilt at petitioning to have the sunlight-blocking giant gum tree next door removed. I figure that I can compensate by providing an alternate habitat for native species- and one that is well planned and unlikely to drop branches or stop surrounding plants from growing!

Being impatient, I couldn't wait until these guys had more mature leaves before planting them out! The cucumber seedlings are going up the back of the eggplant and capsicum plantings. The cucumber are spaced about 30 cm apart, and are going to climb up the chicken wire fence. This is great, as it will cover the fairly unattractive wire, save ground space and keep the cucumber fruit off the ground and prevent them from rotting. It should also make the cucumbers easier to spot for harvesting.

I grew the cucumber seedlings in the same way I did the zucchini- in peat pots that can be planted whole into the ground. This makes it so easy to get a head start on germinating the seeds, and allows you to plant them out without disturbing the plants. The eggplant and capsicum were grown in punnets in the greenhouse. A couple of the capsicum seedlings had leaves that mysteriously disappeared. I moved the trays onto our back deck and went to inspect them one night- it was a baby slug. He was chopsticked off and thrown in the bushes- hopefully never to return.

The capsicum and eggplant are being spaced out as much as possible. Last year I had pretty rubbish crop of capsicum, and I am keen to improve them this year. I think I planted them too closely together last year, and I think I watered them too inconsistently, and potentially didn't feed them enough. I ended up with really small fruit, and towards the end of the season a few of them got blossom end rot (gross). So fingers crossed things go better this year!

The seedlings are loving the hot weather we have been having- the tomatoes and zucchini are ready to go into the ground. I've also cheated and bought 3 artichoke seedlings (as I failed at propagating these at the last attempt!).

So first things first- I had planted the zucchini into peat pots that can be directly transplanted into the soil. This prevents disruption to the root system with plants that you're supposed to sow directly into the ground. I had to thin out the seedlings as I planted 2 seeds to a pot- the idea is to gently pull out the weaker of the two if both seeds germinate. I'm growing 4 zucchini plants- they take up lots of space, but they also mean plenty of produce so they will be worth it. To attract pollinators (insects like bees) I am companion planting with purple alyssium, which will look pretty as an added bonus.

I used a similar planting process for both the tomato seedlings and the artichokes- mounding up soil enriched with compost to provide lots of nutrients and good drainage. I had already put in stakes for structural support for the tomatoes to climb. I mulched around the seedlings, making sure to leave plenty of breathing space so the mulch doesn't inhibit their growth or cause the stems to rot. I companion planted some marigold seeds with the tomatoes, this time to keep insects away. Once the basil seedlings are ready, I'll plant them nearby for similar reasons.