Africanaussie

I have been waiting for the  Harlequin carrots from MrFothergills  to raise their shoulders above the ground,  and then the other day I thought I would take a peek.... wow!  huge carrots, and so straight!   Funnily enough all the purple ones seem stunted and I seem to have lost the straight rows - even though the regular carrots were planted evenly with carrot tape.  This is a great time in the garden - cucumbers are struggling with downy mildew, but there are four different kinds of lettuces - plenty for a daily salad.   I thought the white carrots looked a bit insipid but they have the nicest flavour.  I haven't cooked any -  they make great snacks to munch on - even hubby has been known to do that.  He commented the other day (after I cooked the pumpkin vines) that as long as it grows in the garden I will eat it.  I  said  "well honey I don't eat the grass", but then I thought about the f...

I received an e-mail from Mr Fothergills  asking how my seeds were faring.  So I guess it is time for an update. I was hoping to have huge flourishing leafy plants to show, but the weather has been a bit strange this year. These are the seeds I originally received: Climbing snow pea - climbing up the back fence and looking quite healthy - I have successive sown some more seeds about a week ago. Basil seed mat  - doing really well in my herb spiral. Carrot seed tape - I have put these tapes in different areas - alongside the harlequin carrots, and between the tomatoes as they are good companion plants. They look very neat in their evenly spaced rows and are very easy to plant - great for children. Carrot Harlequin - these look very robust and are doing very well - I keep assigning more space to them - in fact all the seeds are now planted out! Parsnip Gladiator - sent to Sunny corner farm Radish beauty heart - I need to figure...

Slowly I have found herbs that grow easily here in the tropics and can be used to replace the more common ones that find this hot humid climate quite tiresome. I thought oregano would have no trouble growing here, but every time I have bought a little pot from the nursery it has stayed the same size and then eventually wilted and died.  then a friend gave me a slip of this; growing off to the left,( against the fence is the comfrey) .Now I know it looks nothing like oregano, but it tastes like a little oregano, a little thyme, and my gosh! it grows here!  never stops - you have to keep cutting it back :)   It is called mother of herbs, or Cuban oregano - I reckon you could also call it tropical bouquet garni, but folks are not that fancy round here!  Once that took over the entire back of my herb spiral, and I flattened it out I decided that my other favorite herb could have the front new section.  It i...