My garden - a work in progress (and constant battle with the possums)

I have been a bit quiet on the blog front lately. I have still been cooking (and obviouly the eating never stops) but all my spare time at the moment is being taken up with my garden.

The unplanted garden...

A moment of insanity in an unnamed supermarket led me to declare to my husband that i just HAD to start growing my own food NOW. Never mind that we need to renovate the bathroom rather urgently, or paint, or a million other things.

And as my husband always does, a 'little garden' became a massive undertaking. We are still not quite done but we are getting there!

levelling out ground for a water tank

We have plenty of room in our yard, but we have one massive problem - possums. Possums who have now had a nibble on my vine cutting, my strawberries, by lemon and lime tree and some seedlings. Thank god they have left my front herb garden mostly alone as I have been gorging myself on parsley, rocket, corriander, dill, rosemary and mint for a few months now. Some of these are going to seed now but I cant complain.

The herb garden

So, this leads to the construction of an electric fence. And also the installation of a water tank. Both are not quite done yet, and i am growing the pumpkin, zucchini and jute out of the fenced area (as they need room to grow everywhere), but we are getting there...

We are also having some bug problems. I think they are little grasshoppers but I am trying to be organic so not sure what to do here. I am growing some marigold and poppy and the garden is surrounded by lavender and rosemary to attract the 'good' bugs, but at the moment, the bad are outnumbering the good...

And this photo is of an unexpected guest we had last week - an echidna! Hoepfully he has been eating some of the ants that seem to be everywhere in the garden at the moment...

We will have to do some netting when the tomatos start flowering to stop the birds but we are getting there slowly. Most of my plants have been grown from seed bought from the Diggers club.

An interesting point - I have planted some seeds that I got from my uncle - molkeyah as it is known in Arabic. In english, this is known as Jute - used to make hessian. Arabs use the leaves in a stew with lamb and lemon and spices for a pretty amazing dish (also called molkeyah) and as I havent been able to find any of this in melbourne's markets, I am going to try growing my own. Apparently it grows as easily as hemp so I am hoping to get a good harvest that I can freeze for the entire year.

Planted - tomatos, capsicums, eggplants, rocket, pak choy, chinese brocolli, corn, beans, beetroot, potatos, carrots (having issues with these), fennel (not doing well), silverbeet (only one plant has survived the possums), beans (climbing), zucchini, pumpkin and jute.

Hopefully in a couple of months, my posts will be about using copious amounts of tomatos! If the possums, birds and wallabies dont get it first of course!!!