More vegetable garden enthusiams

Every year the vege garden gets better. The caulis and broccoli have been so healthy this year that they grow enormous and don't suffer any disease. Beans are climbing to the sky and when we get home we expect to climb the beanstalk and meet the ogre and his wife.

Today I mulched the corn, peppers, lettuces, leeks and of course the potatoes with a mixture of grass clippings and wood mulch mixed with a compost activator and some magic liquid (water from comfrey, nettles, chicken manure and human urine). There are potatoes growing everywhere and only the Maori potatoes were planted by me this year. The others all popped up unannounced. Carrots are good. The pumpkins the same except for four heritage pumpkins which I nurtured. Tomatoes look good on the west side of the house this year. I only have a few in the glasshouse as I am building up the soil there this summer instead. It is hard to keep moist and gets quite powdery.

I have planted radish and more beetroot. The latter are something I have yet to master growing.

Looks as though it is going to be a good apple season and I have had to thin them quite a bit.

I wasn't much good at growing peas though so I have fed them for the first time and then we will see. I thought they could do without feeding.

Growing kumeras, harvesting broad beans and dealing with passionfruit moth

I have decided to grow quite a few kumeras. I have now harvested nearly all the broad beans and the theory of rotation is that I should start again by adding nutrients and growing greens again.

But we have enough greens and to grow kumeras will save more money. So I have planted kumeras in one patch to which I had added compost and all liquid feeds and wonder what will happen. Apparently they should be planted only in poor soil so will they grow all top and little root? So today I will put 20 more plants in without the extra nutrients right next door and see the experiment emerge.

As for broad beans I have learned you don't need to blanch them before freezing and have frozen heaps. Poor Malcolm is so sick of helping shell them. Then I learnt you don't even need to shell them to have them in a stirfry. Admittedly they repeated on me and I might try again with what is left in the garden.

The darned passionfruit has a moth. I have taken off a lot of leaves and will do some more research. It might need garlic spray.