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!

Everything is Growing, and growing, and growing...!!

Two things have happened since I set up the square foot garden 12 days ago.  We had the house painted and the roof pressure cleaned.  Nothing to do with gardening except that the garage roof slopes down to below head height and almost overlaps the vegetable garden.  If you've ever seen a high pressure cleaner in full stream you'll know that the force of the water can destroy anything in its path.  So, we rigged a high plastic canopy over the garden to project the new seedlings from the water spray and from the debris flying off the roof.  It worked and the garden is no worse for wear! 

The second thing that happened is that everything is shooting off - all above the grid.  The lettuce have  large, floppy leaves and look as though the stems are not strong enough to hold them up. And, the gem squash, although still small plants with only a few leaves, have all sprouted flowers.  How can they develop fruit when they are still like pubescent girls - small and under-developed?  The sweet corn especially look like Jack-and-the-beanstalks!  

I had enough of the Mel's Mix to fill a few seed trays and a trough where I planted a packet of mixed herbs.  They have all emerged but the packet doesn't say what they are so I guess when they get bigger I'll have to do a smell-and-taste test on them.  Just hope there aren't any noxious weeds hiding out amongst them!