Day 2 - Fruit & Veges

Well what would you know,  I am now a little behind with my 365 posts after power outages again. No worries though, we will stay positive and do a 'catch up'.

So Day 2 I am happy about our little vege patch and our fruit trees in the garden. I have plans for our veges in the future, but as a start we planted a few plants of a few different crops to see how they will fare.

We have had varying weather patterns from plenty of rain in spring to very little in summer. The spinach developed rust and we decided to start over by planting more, then it righted itself and started looking good. The spinach is great for salads, in quiches and for the birds.

We had a few peas and next time I will plant a lot more bushes because they don't produce huge crops. We used the very young ones in salads and the older peas in stews.

The chives have been brilliant for the fillings of my savoury muffins.... and if they are not inside they are on top for decoration with cream cheese.

The tomato plants haven't been as successful, except the baby ones which again we used in salads.

The couple of green chillie bushes have done well, producing more and more with time.... wonderful for soups and curries.

The brinjal plants battled with the drought but managed to produce 5 fruit. If they survive the winter I have no doubt they will do even better next year and I am glad to see they are flowering again at the moment which is a good sign.

The lettuces grew well and were wonderful for our salads. I would go to the garden and just pick a few leaves at a time so the plants could continue growing. We have left them to bolt and seed now and I hope from the seeds we will have many more plants growing.

The green peppers also produced a few fruit.... we will definitely plant more next season.

We have cabbages, cauliflour and brocolli growing now and I am excited to see four well developed heads of cauliflour, four smaller heads of brocolli and four tight heads of cabbage.

The spring onions have also done well and been used in both salads and soups.

We planted beetroot but it hasn't done that well... maybe because we planted them in the wrong area. We live and learn from our mistakes.

I am not sure the potatoes have survived as I see the plants have now wilted.... we will have to see what transpires there.

Then we have butternut, self grown from pips thrown on our compost. There are still a few growing and we have already picked and enjoyed some.

In summer we had guavas, chinese guavas and figs.... although the birds enjoyed the figs before we did. We are wiser now and next year will be more pro active about reaping the crop.

Now we have the pecan nuts, avocado pears and all the citrus trees. The grapefruit are the ruby reds and delicious for breakfast. The oranges are a mix, one tree has ready to eat sweet and juicy oranges and the others are smaller, less sweet and better for marmalade.. the lemons are knobbly but still useful for both baking and marmalade. The naartjies are still ripening which is good because when the oranges are finished they should be ready to eat.

So Day 2 I am happy and grateful for the wonderful fruits and veges we have enjoyed and will still enjoy.... next year I pray for bigger crops and more variety as we expand our garden.