Garden update: three months later

We’ve been in the possession of our garden for three months now, so we’ve had a fair amount of time to get to know our patch of land and to see what thrives, what flounders and what gets devoured by little nasties!

The harvest is in full swing this August with the regular picking of silverbeet, tomatoes, cucumbers, nasturtium, herbs, radishes and plums. This is in addition to the cherries and josta berries which we have already picked. Best of all, there remains plenty more veggies and fruit yet to be reaped in their due time!

Here’s an update of how our first attempt at organic gardening has panned out so far.

Tomatoes

Having only begun pre-planting seeds in the middle of April – in anticipation of taking possession of our garden in May – I was already a couple of months late in getting our tomatoes underway.

The directions on my tomato seed packet said they could be planted in pots from January to March, so that by the time the northern European winter frost was well past and the warmer spring temperatures were here in May, one would have decent-sized seedlings ready to plant out in the free earth.

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite transplanting out significantly smaller seedlings than our gardening neighbours, our plants have grown dramatically and are producing a pleasing amount of fruit, albeit the ripe tomatoes are quite small, about the size of snooker balls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plants are now living under a shelter built by Erik, to protect them from too much rain. Our fellow gardeners strongly urged us to protect the tomatoes, citing anecdotes from previous years.

Apparently in this region, when there are several days of rain in a row, the tomato plants develop a fungus inside which turns the tomatoes black, and the whole plant is ruined.

As a prevention, most of the gardeners have plastic canopies over their tomatoes such as this.

 

Pumpkin

Our single pumpkin plant has two pumpkins growing, both of which are larger than a baseball. The pumpkin harvest is not usually ready until September/October so they still have a lot of growing to do.

 

Radishes

Radishes only take five weeks to mature from being planted as seed to being ready to pick. I like to plant a few rows every couple of weeks so we have a ready supply of spicy radishes to add to our salads.

 

 

Cucumbers

Our two cucumber plants are exponential growers, spreading out horizontally in all directions. The variety I planted are called ‘Chinese Snake Cucumbers’ and they definitely look like snakes hanging over the terrace or hiding under the big leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
These particular cucumbers grow very big, quite a bit larger than the regular telegraph cucumbers sold in the supermarket. The last one I picked weighed almost one kilo.

Unfortunately the skin is a bit bitter-tasting so they taste better when I peel the skin. We’re not sure whether this is because of the particular variety of cucumber or because they’re not receiving enough sunlight or nutrients from the ground.

They start out as a yellow flower, which once fertilised, develops a dull-coloured spiky sausage-like growth. As they mature the skin becomes shiny and smooth, and the little spikes dry and fall off.

 

 

Potatoes

We have about 10 potato plants that I planted using egg-sized red skin potatoes that grew sprouts.  Unfortunately the ground they were planted in was a newly dug patch that was very hard, dense and didn’t look too fertile.

While they have grown plenty of foliage, we don’t expect the potatoes to be very big. Next year we will look to improve this patch of soil with a lot of compost and loosening of the earth beforehand.

Silverbeet, onions, leeks and carrots

This particular garden bed is dominated by the thriving silverbeet – a green leafy vegetable similar to spinach – while the onions, leeks and carrots slowly go about their business.

The silverbeet grows fast and individual outer leaves can be immediately plucked once they get to a certain size (about the size of a hand), as new leaves continually grow from the inside out. It is a great addition to curries, soups and stews.

Just like the tomatoes, leeks and onions should be planted a lot earlier than late-April, hence they are still very small and will need another couple of months before they are of a size worth eating.

I planted two or three rows of carrots in this patch and had all but given up on them, until a handful popped out of the soil several weeks later. As there are so few of them that sprouted, I transplanted my silverbeet seedlings into the patch in between the carrots, leeks and onions to make good use of the garden bed which receives a lot of sunlight.

Nasturtium

This edible flowering plant requires no care at all and expands so fast – it really seems that the more I cut the leaves the more it grows!

As a result we’ve had a steady supply of peppery-flavoured salad greens available which I’ve made into several chickpea or rice salads, as well as thrown into soups and other hot dishes.

Pears and apples

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On our land we have three small apple trees and one young pear tree. The apple and pear harvest begins in September, so hopefully we will have a good bounty of fruit to enjoy, if the birds don’t get them first!

Capsicum, zucchini, kohlrabi, lettuce and cauliflower

Unfortunately, these are the failures of our garden. I planted a capsicum and also a zucchini seedling, which I had bought from a store. However, the snails in our garden liked them too much and only a few evenings had passed before both plants were no more, except for tiny stubs sticking out of the ground.

Kohlrabi is a vegetable that I hadn’t previously come across until I came to Germany. It is a member of the cabbage family, and has a strong taste of cabbage, however grows as a large bulb and has the texture of a potato. It is also very hard and dense and so needs to be cooked for a long time like a potato to become edible (although you can also eat it raw). My seeds never sprouted or perhaps they did, but the snails ate them before they grew any bigger.

The same with my lettuce and cauliflower seeds, I never saw them sprout so either the soil wasn’t ideal for them or they were greedily consumed by our raiding slimy nightly visitors.

Anyway, we are very pleased with what has been growing in our garden and what tasty organic produce we’ve been able to enjoy as a result of our labour. Of course, we have also learned so much about different vegetables, dealing with pests and the local growing conditions which we can implement next season to improve the quantity and quality of our yield.

Related posts:

* Nasturtium: the edible flower and gardener’s friend
* Josta berries – a mix between black currants and gooseberries
* The harvest begins: Cherry picking time!
* The colours and shapes of spring
* Let the gardening begin!
* Inspiration from my Dad’s organic vegetable garden

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