It will be cloudy here today with a minimal chance of rain so I'll be out in the garden planting up geranium Rozanne, a Lillipop Soda Pop gaura and a rosea, the final plants in our newish cottage garden. Before that though I want to write about the last legs of our vegetable garden - a thriving collection of common and not-so-common vegetables and fruits we started growing here in 1998.
It all ended with our final crops of garlic and potatoes being dug up in early September. We always grew the garlic variety Glen Large, one suited very well to our sub-tropical conditions. It's a purple garlic, with a good garlic taste and one crop per year gave us enough garlic for an entire year. They were planted up in March and harvested in August/September. If you want to grow garlic, it's best to know which garlic to grow in your area and when you have your garlic, break up the heads, select the largest cloves for planting and that will give you the best harvest. If you've chosen good quality organic heads, you can eat the smaller inside cloves. Planting small cloves will give you small heads at harvest time.
When you harvest the garlic, allow them to lay in the sun for the first day, then brush off all the soil, and lay them under shelter for a few days before you clean them properly. Trim the bottom roots, cut off any bent or broken bits and hang them to dry for a few weeks. Then you can cut off the green tops and bring them inside to use. It's a good idea to put aside enough cloves to plant the following year. Don't forget to choose the largest cloves, wrap them in a brown paper bag and leave them in a dark cupboard or if you're in a hot climate, in the bottom of the fridge until you're ready to plant them.
Our other final crop was Rudy Lou potatoes. It was the first time we'd grown that variety and the harvest was dismal - small potatoes, only 5 kg in total and very bland. We planted them in April and harvested in September and I'm pretty sure the lack of rain during that time, coupled with not enough hand watering gave us such a disappointing crop. Potatoes are usually a good vegetable for the backyard gardener. We had great success with Dutch Creams over the years but whatever your choice, if you look after them, they'll generally reward you with potatoes much tastier than those from the supermarket.
So now the cottage garden is growing well. It's mainly flowers, herbs, cucumbers, a few leafy greens and tomatoes. I picked four White Crystal cucumbers yesterday and had a cucumber sandwich for tea last night. This variety is the cucumber that was commonly available when I was growing up in Sydney in the 1950s. They have an excellent taste and is far superior to those watery, plastic wrapped cucumbers. If you're looking for a good cucumber that will add a lot of flavour to your salads, this is the one to go for.
In the next couple of weeks I'll take a few photos of the cottage garden as it is now. Hanno and I were sitting out there the other day and we are both very pleased with it. It won't be the hard work the vegetable garden used to be but it will give this old lady something to fuss over every day, as well as a few things to eat and flowers for the house. Happy gardening everyone!
