HANGING IN THE PATCH – Seasons Harvest

G’day everyone,

 I am very sorry for not updating the ‘Hanging in the Patch’ series sooner! My vegetable patch has been booming over the last few weeks! The season started off very slow and a lot vegetables were not forming or ripening due to the cold weather we were experiencing in December and early January. But with summer almost over the weather has been more consistent in temperature, allowing all those green tomatoes to finally ripen to a rich red.

This year I have noticed my plum trees have been fruiting profusely! This is their second year producing fruit since I planted them back in 2013. I originally bought these trees in the bare root season as sticks. Over the last two years I have been shaping them to allow for a healthy branching network, which seems to have paid off this year. I have picked kilos upon kilos of fruit. I must admit they do not get fertilised throughout the year. They are planted in the chicken coop where they are exposed to full day sun. The soil is very heavy clay so it is rich in nutrients but it seems the chickens have been providing enough manure to keep these trees happy.

Throughout the summer season I have been making an effort to fertilise the vegetable patch each week. Due to the inconstant weather I have noticed a lot of my vegetables have been hungrier compared to previous years. This season I have been using two different fertilisers, which I have been rotating from one to the other each week. I have also noticed fast results with both products. Powerfeed and Aquasol are both soluble fertilisers, which allows the plant’s roots to absorb and access the nutrients faster compared to pallets or granular fertilisers.

A double apple? I Found this funky apple (or apples) growing on my 10 year old apple tree. It is always fascinating when you stumble upon a fruit or vegetable that has merged with another.

This was the result of my time spent out in the veggie patch this evening. This is my first big harvest of all my tomatoes that I have been growing. I also managed to harvest a few zucchinis, cucumbers, passionfruit, apples and pears that were ready for picking.

By Bonnie-Marie Hibbs

©BMHPhotographyTheGardener’sNotebook2015