urban vegetable patch

Spring plan 2010

So this is my big plan for Spring. As you can see, I’ve got a good selection of my summer favourites; Ha-ogen melon, Beetroot, Tomatoes & Pok Choy! I am also trying out new crops such as capsicum, turnips and pumpkins. On top of just growing vegetable, I am also going to try out some growing technics I have read over winter.

Tomatoes – Quality not quantity

With all the problems and troubles I had last year with my tomatoes, this year I am going to be super duper disciple with them. That means picking out lateral growth and only keeping 4 truss of tomatoes per plant. The theory is that this will encourage bigger fruits, which is what I want.

Deep watering

I am guilty of that sporadic watering, which I find is doing more harm than good. Deep watering mean water last often but for a longer period of time. With deeper watering what I want achieve is a deeper root system that helps my plants to cope with the hash summer heat.

Seaweed application fortnightly.

Seaweed is just a general good guy to have around. It is a tonic food for plants and encourages root growth (and many other things). Together with the practice of deep watering, what I hope to see is a overall healthier crop for the season.

Lovely seeds from our friends at "Voted with our forks"

Since my post on ha-ogen melon, I have been contacted by a couple of readers about seed swapping. I am really pumped up about it; I get to swap some of my extra seeds for something new and exciting, like a mystery box! I thought I will continue this effort with this post, and maybe even start a trend. So after sorting through my box of seeds, these are the seeds available for exchange:

• Ha-ogen melon
• Butternut Pumpkin
• Jalapeno
• Edamame (soya bean)
• Tigerella Tomato
• Sweet corn (Honey & cream)
• Sunflower yellow pollenless
• Chinese forget-me-not (blue)

If you are reading this and would like to be part of the action, please leave me a comment and I will get back to you. If you have got no seeds to swap but would still like to join in the fun, do also leave me a comment. Let’s get some seed swapping action happening people!

Hmm...... sweet melons. Quick! Lick your screen.

From a range of 1-5, I give halogen melon a 4.5. Why you ask? Firstly, the melon is mind-blowingly sweet. In fact, I have never eaten any as sweet as the ones I’ve grown. Secondly, it’s the smell from the fruit – it fills the kitchen up with a nice, light scent of melon-ly goodness, ever so lightly reminding me of summer. And the flora fragrant continues to carry through to the fruit – it leaves a nice after taste in the mouth!

Lastly, I really like it because it such a compact melon plant. In urban vegetable gardening, space is a very valuable resource. You really don’t want to grow a crop that slow to grow and takes up a mammoth about of space. In Melon terms, you really don’t want one with lots of runners and produce a few pieces of fruit. Halogen melons are compact and produce quite a good crop of melons. I have 2 main melon growing, producing 9 melons all in different sizes. Xavier is already asking my how many melon plants am I planning to grow next season. And I think it sums up how good the melons are, issn’t it!

P.S: I have seeds to give out for the next season! If you want some just leave a comment and I will get back you.

Took 118 days to ripen

The Rockmelon finally ripens. Took 118 days, coming in at 200 grams at about 20cm in circumference. The smell that fills the the kitchen is, oh, just divine – light, sweet and fruity. Before Xavier (my partner) left for this holidays, I promised to wait for him to enjoy the melon. This is going to prove to be more difficult than I anticipated. Must . Be . Strong.

About 3 months old - 1 of 10 expected melons

Fun fact: The skin of a young rockmelon is smooth. As it matures, the skin roughens with brown scar-like markings until it eventually looks like what you see in the supermarket!