Bounty from my garden

Against all odds we managed to have our first meal from my square foot garden.  In spite of the army of green worms, the colourful 'Jiminy Crickets' and the vervet monkeys, I was able to harvest a handful of baby sweet corn, egg plant, peppadews, spring onions, garlic chive, baby tomatoes, basil and wild rocket.
We had boiled sweet corn on the cobb, a rataouille of egg plant, onion, peppers, chives and tomatoes and a green salad with a few lettuce leaves, bite sized tomatoes, shredded red cabbage leaves, basil and rocket.

I have also been able to pickle and bottle three lots of peppadews.  There's definitely some genetic satisfaction in growing and harvesting your own food, even in such small quantities.  We savoured every mouthfull having nutured, protected, rescued, harvested and prepared these little miracles from a 1.5m X 1.5m garden. 
The cucmbers are growing fatter and longer, the gemsquash have shot up the makeshift trellis like Jack-and-the-beanstalks and the green peppers have little green lantern bells on them. 

I made three little jars of basil and rocket pesto using two cups of basil and wild rocket, a handful of garlic chives, a cup of chopped walnuts, olive oil and some grated parmesan cheese.  On Friday night we had gnocchi and pesto with a salad from the garden - Yum!  And I was able to give Tammy and Patty each a jar of home made pesto.

Heat, caterpillars and vervet monkeys!

 

Its not only farmers who have to battle the elements and nature.  Many challenges face a Square Foot Gardener.  After spraying the cabbages and brinjals (egg plants) with Margaret Robert's magic muti, the worms disappeared and new leaves started to sprout from the centre of the cabbage plants. 

The sweet corn stalks grew taller and taller and after displaying a bushel of seedy flowers at the top, little bearded corn cobs started poking through the base of the leaves on the stalks.  The Gem squash looked all but dead and then after one heavy day of rain, new green leaves miraculously appeared and tiny tendrills started searching for something to cling to.  I erected a trellis from the other half of the wrought-iron arch (the rest of it is now holding up the cucumbers) and strung twine across it so that they have something to climb up. 

The brinjal plants all produced large lavender, bell like flowers.  All looked good in my 1.5m X 1.5m Garden of Eden.

But then ....  disaster.  Another onslaught of green worms attacked the new cabbage leaves and once again they have lacey centers. I've had to spray again.

Grasshoppers landed on the brinjal leaves chomped through huge holes, resulting in some of the leaves curling up and drooping.

But, worst of all, a troop of hungry vervet monkeys found the sweet corn and stripped all but four of the almost ready to harvest corn cobs. 

Some they ate, some they partially ate and the rest were discarded on the front lawn and in our courtyard. 

I don't really know what to do.  Should I abandon growing anything that monkeys like to eat?  Should I erect a large cage over the garden?  I saw a fence that had been erected over a SFG to keep out rabbits on another blog and this person erected an electric fence around his garden to keep out the squirrels but I don't think it will help with monkeys!  http://timssquarefootgarden.com/gardentips.htm

There might be a second crop of sweet corn on the stalks so I'll leave them in for a while but I can see that I'm going to have to do something to protect my vegetables from the onslaught of large and small invaders!  Its all out war in the Sqaure Foot Garden!

Battling an army of baby caterpillars!

I had to help babysit my little grand-daughter this week and although my dear husband did his best to water and tend to my veg patch, an army of little green caterpillars hatched and have almost devoured all the plants! 
The cabbages have gosamar, skeletonised leaves and when I examined them today I could see clusters of bright green, tiny worms chomping away on whatever is left.  There were some on the brinjal plants, a few of the corn leaves  looked a bit ragged and there were even a few on

the cucumber vines.  I've got two hairy baby cucmbers clinging to life on the vines.

The lettuces have been totally wiped out so I'll start from scratch once I've managed to wage war on this army. I didn't want to bring out the Agent Orange but if I don't do something, there'll be nothing left to harvest. So - I bought a bottle of Margaret Roberts biological caterpillar insecticide for the control of leaf-eating caterpillar larvae on various edible crops, ornamentals, roses, bulbs and lawns.

The blurb says that it "targets destructive leaf-eating larvae of Lepidopterous spp. No harmful toxic residues. No secondary poisoning. Harmless to bees, birds, fish, pets, wildlife, beneficial insects and natural predators. Can cause harm to young larvae of butterfly species, has no effect on adults. Avoid spraying onto plants visited by adult butterflies. Harvesting of edible crops directly after application."

Finn measured out 5ml into our 5lt spray bottle, pumped it up and sprayed the whole vegetable garden with it.  An hour later I went back to have a look at the results, fearful of finding a killing field, and there were a few determined, stubborn green wrigglys still clinging to the undersides of the cabbage leaves!  I then took over the spray bottle and gave the cabbages another going over with the spray.

I've had a nice crop of bite size tomatoes and the peppadew bush is groaning under the weight of the fruit (vegetables?).  This website says that it is a fruit and that "Peppers are a fruit—a fruit is defined as a vegetable that holds its seeds internally (avocados and cucumbers are fruits too, as are all of the chili peppers)." The Peppadew is being "touted as “the first truly new fruit to be launched on the world market since the kiwi 26 years ago."

Well, let's hope Margaret Roberts will help me to wage biological warfare on the pesky larvae and that I can soon get working on my 2nd square foot garden box.
PS:  Only the Basil seeds grew in the 'Herb-in-a-can' gardens on my window sill.  The Oregano and Thyme didn't sprout at all so I might gro something else in them.  The Reel-garden beans, beetroot and corn have all grown but the carrots never really got going.  I think I'll stick to the square foot gardens in future.

Hot+Rain+Sun = Fast growing seedlings

I can't believe how fast everything in the SFG box is growing!
Those sweet corn plants - especially those that get the most sun - have doubled in size in 10 days.
The gem squash is starting to go on walk-abouts and I'm not sure what I'm going to do about them.
The basil started bursting into flower but I've nipped them all off in the bud and new shoots have sprouted all over the bush. 
The packet of mixed herbs I sowed in a trough of Mel's Mix has exploded and all the little plants are crammed together.  The packet didn't specify what herb seeds were in the packet but I can make out coriander, fennel, dill, thyme and a couple of mystery plants coming up!

Something has been eating my tomatoes.  They crawl in from the bottom and the fruit turns black.  I'm picking the spoiled ones off and leaving them close by on the ground - hoping that the little pests will enjoy the free buffet instead of grazing on the plants.

The Peppadew bush is pregnant with minature green bell peppers.  Some have a red blush on them and when they turn deep red, I'll start bottling them.
On the other side of the garden patch, the cucumber plants have also got flowers.   I've erected a makeshift climbing trellis using an old wrought-iron

arch and nylon string. 

All the little seedlings in the seed trays are bursting out and I don't know where I'm going to plant them.  Methinks I'm going to have to start another SFG box.  We've got some old facia boards that I can use and I've asked Finn if he can make them for me next week. 

I think he's getting worried that I might want to erect SFG boxes all over his lawn!

Happy gardening!