Tis a confusing place to live is Auckland. They tell me it's winter, it does feel a bit chilly in the mornings and we celebrated our midwinter solstice (with a very lovely roast pork and roast veggies, followed by trifle, fire in the garden and mulled wine), but my garden is clearly confused.
The growing has certainly slowed and I've noticed the change in seasons in that way, the carrots are growing at slow speed as opposed to springing up everywhere during the spring and summer. The raspberries have shrivelled, and I've cut them down (thinking about moving them round the corner to the sunnier spot very soon).
The squash I tried to grow failed early in it's life (going the same way as my courgettes I fear). The celery I planted hoping for a summer crop is just about ready now and rather tasty _ we had our first harvest - and a very good celery, mint, feta and tomato salad. This was especially good, as apart from the feta, everything came from the garden, grown and picked by my our fair hand. Helped on my a squeeze of lemon- my first picking from the tree!
The tomatoes are the odd ball, why, despite the death look of the plant are they still producing, ripening and tasting lovely. This is my no means a complaint, just a confusion to add to my strawberries!
The strawberries did great in the hanging basket, but I got greedy and when we moved in this house and I dug (well, that's a lie, Adam did the digging) a vegetable patch, I planted a whole host of strawberry plants. We got strawberries, but I'm not sure if the bugs got more than us. They were tasty but not as clear a success as the hanging basket the previous year. The joy of subtropical Auckland is that they still flower and I see a strawberry from time to time, always eaten by bugs at the moment I have to say. So a decision was made and a small shopping spree saw four hanging baskets and a bag of strawberry mix (you see why are the garden centres selling strawberry plants and strawberry mix) sitting happily in the garden where I had a great time replanting the plants and with Adams help of course, hanging them up. All looking rather great, and should be much easier in terms of picking (standing up instead of bending down).
And who would know that this is lemon season, my tree has at least 5 lemons looking great, I'm so delighted I'm off to buy another one.
As for other winter veg, carrots continue but I clearly need to ensure I plant seeds regularly if I want a constant crop - it pains me to buy a carrot having grown and tasted my own. Parsnips look more promising than last year, I had a dig and a peak to see if any where ready to go with out midwinter roast, they are there...they are small......so the way my garden seems to produce should be having them spring time I guess.
The rhubarb looks set to keep going forever, the blueberry plant has been re-homed in a half wine barrel, so hoping for a bigger crop next year
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