Spoils of the downpour
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday March 20, 2010
Too much of a good thing can ruin a bumper crop. I RECENTLY turned my vegetable garden into Fort Knox by having a timber and wire cage built around it. Because it is now completely protected from marauding birds and possums, I boasted to friends that this was going to be my best vegie year ever. But like many other gardeners, I didn't count on the torrential summer rain.I'm not complaining about the much-needed downpour but it has certainly taken its toll on the vegetables. My zucchini leaves look like they are producing spores for a laboratory. And instead of the usual glut of zucchini at this time of year, there is more rotting than fresh fruit. My silverbeet has developed beet rust on the older leaves and my corn is struggling to cope somewhere among the feral cucumber vines.Quite a few of my tomatoes have split as a result of the excessive rain and because I forgot to protect my lettuce seedlings, they vanished overnight as snail food. In fact, there were so many, it looked like a snail farm.Although my thyme is planted in the sunniest, driest position available, it has finally given up the ghost from excessive water. To top it off, the plant thriving best in my vegetable garden is the dreadful weed, pink oxalis (Oxalis latifolia), which arrived with some mulch I bought.On the fruit front, my quince leaves have developed rust. To add insult to injury, hungry parrots demolished the fruit before it was ripe. Then the fruit on my nashi pear trees split open and became covered in European wasps, so I had to keep my distance. This year, I only managed to savour one nashi pear.A concept all gardeners are familiar with, however, is that of resilience so I tried to see the glass as half full rather than half empty. At least my cucumbers seemed to be in heaven after the rain, producing lots of fruit. My basil has also been superb, providing me with plenty of leaves for pesto.So while repeating the mantra "resilience, resilience", I harvested the remaining good zucchini and removed the plants. After digging in some compost, I planted seeds of oriental mikado and baby leaf spinach for salads. Oriental mikado grows well during autumn and winter and the large leaves are great for stir-fries. They have the advantage of being resistant to mildew if the rain continues.I removed the silverbeet, fertilised the soil and planted some broccoli seedlings. I then sowed Australian yellow seeds, a loose-leaf lettuce heirloom variety, and will diligently protect it with environmentally friendly Multiguard slug and snail pellets when it emerges.I added blood and bone to the soil before planting manchester table carrot seeds and I also planted climbing peas that will twine on the wire that's around my vegie cage.I have begun the tedious task of removing the oxalis by digging it up and making sure I get all the small bulbils. And I'll treat the quince tree with copper oxychloride in late winter just before bud burst.Despite the bad start, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there will be a great harvest in a couple of months when my friends come around to see the promised "best crop ever".It's time to ...Visit Our Suburban Sanctuary, 28 and 30 Third Avenue, Port Kembla, this weekend as part of Australia's Open Garden Scheme. Built on permaculture principles, these two small gardens are filled with edible plants. Adjoining the gardens are a community garden and laneway where a native rainforest and community food forest have been planted. Entry is $6 for the two gardens, which are open from 10am to 4.30pm.
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