Our organic vegetable patch

I have a little bit of time left before picking up Miss H from daycare; I thought I'd fit in one last post today. I wanted to introduce you to my veggie patch. It's not very big, at about 1 x 4 metres, but plenty big enough when it comes to pulling weeds and harvesting the yummy veggies. This garden bed has been hidden under a mass of weeds for several years. I either wasn't fit enough, or had time enough, to attack it. And I mean attack, because I'm at war with one particular weed - couch grass. It's the weed that has the potential to grow shoots and roots from every single inch of runner. If you don't get all the roots/runners out it will keep coming back, quickly. I tried a no-dig garden method of preparing the garden patch a year or so ago, but the couch grass loved all the organic goodness I had added (chook manure, newspaper, pea straw, dynamic lifter, normal straw) and went even crazier than ever.

So ... late last year I spent about a month weeding this little patch; digging out the runners/roots, waiting for the runners I missed to grow new shoots, then digging them out again. I continued until the patch stayed clear, or relatively clear, for a while. I still didn't get it all. But it was good enough. So for the first time in such a long time I've been able to grow some veggies - tomatoes, chillies, green beans and butter beans, summer squash, zucchinis and pumpkins. My little inner gardener is very happy. My only concern is that many of the plants have been hit hard by the cabbage moth. I don't like spraying so I've just put up with it; the plants are still doing okay. I've never seen the moths so abundant before - they must like the warm, humid/wet weather.

Of all the plants in the garden, the summer squash seem to be the most prolific producers, though the tomatoes and beans are also going well. Below is a picture of the summer squash harvest from just a few days of picking. We get about 1-2 squash a day. It's crazy. James requested the squash, and he's trying valiantly to use them all up, but even when he puts a squash in every dish he makes (he's the cook of the family) we still end up with heaps left over. Crazy, crazy. And how many squash plants do we have? Two. One would have been enough - something for me to remember for next year! Normally it's the zucchinis that I have way too many of, but the plants have not been producing well this year. Maybe it's too cold or wet. I'm not sure. I think I'll try adding some fish emulsion and seaweed extract once it stops raining, IF it stops raining. Anyway, I'm proud of my little patch of yummy, healthy goodness. Thanks for looking :)