permaculture

Success!

A very pleasing result from the Canberra Show. Bruce actually did better with his fruit (3 awards out of 4 entries!) than I did with my veggies (4 awards out of 9 entries) - but then, he's a lot older than me, and I'm sure age and experience counts for a lot in gardening.
Not surprisingly, we cleaned up on the Asian vegetables (1st prize for the mizuna, 2nd for the Chinese cabbage) and the runner beans (1st prize), as mine were the only entries. However, my '6 chats less than 5cm' came second against stiff competition. Here they are in all their glory ...

... and here are Bruce's prize winning apples and plums (we put all our entries in on one form, so I got my name on all the certificates, even though the fruit was grown by Bruce) ...

Showtime!

Great excitement this week as we put our first-ever entries into the Canberra Show. The chooks haven't been laying much recently because of the extreme heat, so sadly we weren't able to put in any eggs (we had rashly entered both the '1 dozen hen eggs - white' and the '1 dozen hen eggs - cream or light brown' sections). However, we did manage to produce some nice fruit and veggies.

Here is my entry in the 'Collection of 4 salad vegetables' category (including one pretty impressive cucumber) ...

... and here are Bruce's plums (his are the dark, shiny, obviously prize-winning quality ones at the back on the right) ...

I'm hoping to clean up in the Asian vegetable and the climbing bean categories, as I was the only entrant in both those sections! Here are my Asian veggies - a mizun and a Chinese cabbage ...

Weather stops play

No photos today - I've been trying for a couple of weeks to get out into the garden to photograph my two beautiful sunflowers (planted in the compost heaps at the entrance to the mandala, where I'm growing zucchinis), but it has just been too hot. We've had temperatures in the 30s for 3 weeks now, and yesterday was the worst day so far, with blisteringly hot winds that sadly tore the sunflowers to shreds, so they now look extremely bedraggled.
Happily, today has been cold and wet - wonderful weather! The chooks and the plants have survived the extreme heat (although the chooks haven't been laying much, and many of the plants look a bit sad), and the garden continues to produce large quantities of tomatoes, zucchinis, potatoes and Asian greens - enough to feed the family and friends (including my niece, who has a very healthy appetite, and being unable to eat gluten, is happy to devour huge quantities of veggies).
Bruce and I are busy preparing for the Canberra Show, which starts next Friday - we have applied to put about 15 entries into the horticulture and produce division. Bruce is entering fruit, pumpkins and watermelons, and I'm putting in eggs and veggies, so watch this space!