Third Time Lucky?

I have tried several times now with watermelon.

With zero success.
But something in me just keeps on trying.
Maybe this time?
Hang on to your hats little watermelons... I'm feeling lucky.

My Big Fat Zucchini

I really wanted to call this post My Big Fat Zucchini and If You Want it to Rain Have an Outdoor Party, but really, if I set that sort of precedent, who knows the lengths my post titles will eventually reach?

Possibly much like my sentences - way too long.

So yes, it has rained, and not because I washed the car or left my washing on the line, oh no, that wasn't quite enough. What I had to do was to throw a party - you know the kind, the kind where you all sit around outside so as to enjoy the great outdoors. Until it starts sprinkling just that little too hard. Possibly not hard enough to penetrate the soil to any great depth, but most certainly enough to drive everyone upstairs.

Call me the Rain Party God.

Anyway, back to matters more vegetal.

I have zucchini. Or indeed courgette, if you prefer. And this is my Biggest Zucchini Ever.

Finally, after fussing over the plants for months, I have cracked a size larger than my little finger. How did I do it?

I stopped fussing and left them alone.

The Zucchini Rain Party God I am thinking.

Please Rain

It doesn't look very promising, does it?

But it hasn't rained properly in months... the tank is dry and everything is going to pot. Corn, tomatoes, beans and eggplant - everything.

The Bureau of Meteorology have promised rain for this afternoon, and I am holding them to it.

I've even left two full loads of washing on the line for extra encouragement.

More Glass Noodle Than Spaghetti Squash

After my spaghetti squash post last week, I knew I was going to crack and pick it fairly soon. Exactly when I wasn't sure, but the squash took the decision out of my hands by turning yellow overnight.

Like a small oval beacon in the garden, signalling its readiness. I like that attribute in a vegetable.
I really like when bloggers show their produce next to a ruler or a pair of scissors for scale, and thought I might try to do similar.

Looking around for an appropriate oval object, I soon found Felix's head.

I was quite uncertain how on earth spaghetti-like strands come out of a squash, but after boiling it for thirty minutes before cracking it open, it soon became apparent. I don't know how clear it is for you in the photo below, but the inside is like a tightly packed pack of spaghetti, just waiting to be teased out.

And so tease them out I did.
And found a whole new favourite for the garden.

The spaghetti squash had a lovely, subtle flavour, much like a zucchini. As I was not convinced that the family would like it, I served it with a heavy bolognaise sauce, which was completely the wrong thing to do. The squash, which to me resembled the texture of glass noodles rather than pasta, deserved a far more delicate topping.

I have two more squash ready for the picking, and I am dreaming of a prawn and Thai basil accompaniment...

Spaghetti squash, you earned your right to the teepees you grew over.

They Chopped Off Their Heads!

Six of them!

I love sunflowers. I never plant any flowers, apart from sunflowers. They are fabulous - showy and cheery and just plain beautiful. I just love them.

So I thought I'd plant a whole lot along our front fence and share them with passersby.

Well we shared them alright. Someone reached in over our fence and chopped off their heads! I am a victim of flower theft! And if you think that is terribly terrible, well, my poor neighbours lost more than just one rose...

To be honest though, I'm a little torn between being peeved that someone stole my flowers, and being chuffed that someone thought them worth stealing.

I have steal worthy garden goods.

Sweet Success

Perhaps not the greatest photo I have ever taken, but I was all very excited about my fabulously sweet sweet corn. Excited enough to post this photo that makes my hand look like I am an 80 year old woman. Oh well, you know what they say.

Wrinkly hands, large brain.

Oh that's funny.

So this is not quite my first corn for a while, but it's most certainly been the tastiest. This variety is called Golden Bantam, an heirloom variety from Eden Seeds. Only 7 weeks ago it was just a little tacker, in the second photo here, so it's really grown quite quickly. These two are the best cobs I've had so far, the ears are sweet and fresh, and really lovely and light to eat.

In my humble opinion, freshly picked corn doesn't seem to fill you up as much as supermarket corn. I have read that the moment sweet corn is picked, the sugars start transforming into starch, so you should set the water onto the boil before you trundle out to the garden.

Which is exactly what we did.

Squash that Spaghetti

Well it hasn't rained in weeks and I have squeezed out the last drops from the water tank. There is no rain on the horizon and it is HOT. Burning hot, the sun is scorching - you can feel it toasting the top of your head after only minutes outside. Because water here now costs a fortune, when the tank runs out, I let things go... so the sunflowers are drooping, the celery tops are burning, and all my leafy greens have practically disintegrated.

But the spaghetti squash are thriving!
Ha!

Not because they are some sort of hardy drought resistant type, but because they are my favourite things in the garden at the moment, and for my favourite plants I will lug a bucket of water around the backyard.

So as the lugging of buckets indicates, I am quite chuffed with our spaghetti squash. It's fabulously decorative and is rivalling the broccoletti for fast growing produce. We have around five plants climbing up our wonky teepees, and around three decent sized fruit so far, but more teeny tiny fruits are popping up everywhere.

With my track record for harvesting things before they are ripe, I am of course already dying to pick the biggest one. I don't have a photos of it that I want to post, as all the photos I took managed to feature my diagonal next door neighbour's very ugly shed. But the largest one is of course bigger, and it's starting to turn yellow. The vine of the larger on is also starting to wither, which doesn't look brilliant on its teepee, but does bode well for its ripeness.

I'm so going to pick it this week coming.

The Young Ones

One year in the waiting, the youngberry is youngberrying...

I have no idea how long it will take, I've no idea what they taste like or look like, but presumably berry like, and hopefully something I'll like.

Goodness me there's nothing like taking a few photos to realise you have some weeds to take care of in the garden.

Apparently They Grow on Trees

Tomatoes that is.

This is my lovely Tamarillo - or tree tomato as I think it is quite commonly known. It is only tiny now, but according to Gardenworld, it is going to grow rapidly up to around two metres high, and then branch out and produce tons of delicious, slightly spicy fruit for us to eat fresh or stew.

Somewhere else on the web I read that they were not self pollinating, so I have planted two out, and I have sowed another eight seeds. I have plenty of space for fast growing, scrumptious fruit :D.

Not that I have tasted a tamarillo, but what sort of gardener would I be if I did not throw myself into the unknown realms of the fruit and vegetable world.

I am quite excited about these little tamarillos, I actually saw a fully grown fruiting tree on the weekend, and they are really quite a fabulous looking little tree. The fruit looks quite dramatic too - it kind of hangs down in clusters looking a bit like a red passionfruit.

Enough of trying to follow my descriptive blathering - you can see one here at Inhabitat's flick page and here at Victoriana Nursery Gardens.

I seriously hope that mine grows up to look like that.

ps the chicken is Not Dead Yet.

Sick Chicken

I realised the other day, when one of my hens started acting off colour, that none of my chickens have died a natural death. By natural death I mean death from another thing other than the dog down the road. Or that crow that time. Oops.

So I have a sick chicken. She's been off for days now. Listless, not reacting, eating very little, and very bizarrely, throwing up. Every time I pick her up to examine her (I have no idea what I am looking for), liquid comes out of her mouth. Kind of like I am squeezing it out. Sorry, gross.

I don't really think I can take her to the vet, unless she needs to be put down. I have googled "chickens throwing up" and have read everything from massaging the croup to get the gunk out, to syringing her with a garlic infusion. I am very squeamish and am not sure how I might go at either of these things, unless I really knew it was the right thing to do.

Do any of you have any ideas?