Feeding the rabbits
Yesterday I planted my vegetable garden. It's very small but nevertheless I managed to pack in tomatoes, snow and sugar snap peas, kale, lettuce, rainbow chard, parsley and tarragon. This year I have decided to pack things in, in the hope that they will shelter each other. I have also decided not to try for zucchini, or beans or any root vegetables. They are all just as cheap to buy and they never do any good anyway. Zucchini takes over the entire plot and produces just one or two zucchini. Yes I know it's supposed to be absolutely prolific and you would have so many you wouldn't know what to do with them - but not in my garden. I think it's a problem of pollination. Last year I think I got three zucchini.
Anyway here are two photos I took just now to show how pathetic it is.
Every year I tell myself I'll try just one more time. I start out with hope in my heart, but then get gradually more depressed as they die or get eaten, or simply don't produce. And yes there is compost, food and manure in there. And yes I will be mulching, but I ran out of energy yesterday, and it's been raining ever since. Which is really good of course. I have protected a very few things with those basket kind of things, but I really have to persuade David to build me a cage.
I forgot to mention the birds as well, let alone any slugs and snails and insects that might descend. Or disease. I think I was a better gardener when I was little. If I have to survive after an apocalypse I shall die.
I delivered a few more of those little Woolworths collectible garden things today to the grandchildren. They have quite a few and are growing them in their tiny garden. I have to say it's a pretty good move by Woolworths. Ticks everybody's boxes you would think - Woolworths because of the urge to spend on our part to get the seeds, and everybody else because it's not plastic and moreover is potentially food. Gruen had a go at it and said they didn't grow, but I think my son said they were going OK.
Bunnings of course is absolutely full of plants of every variety at the moment, but they don't seem to have any easy way of protecting your gardens. On my walks around Eltham I see that some have made cages with posts on the top of which they put plastic piping to form an arch with a post on the opposite side. Then they drape netting over the top. I reckon I could manage that without David's help.
So far though, the only thing that is flourishing is my mint - which I really ought to dig out and put in a big pot - now that does take over.
Crossing fingers.
