A week-long heatwave decimated the zucchini…

… withered the spinach…

… and finished off the rocket.

Rest in peace, valiant plants. Make yourselves into rich, fertile, water-retaining soil for the terrified plants who will come after you.

The rain that fell on us while camping sadly failed to visit our little veggie patch this week.

There is virtually nothing left of the rocket, and we lost a spinach plant to withering heat and lack of water.

Three valiant zucchini plants remain – Ben rewarded them with leftover water we had hauled to the campsite and back. Will any of the surviving zucchini plants make it the remaining five or six weeks before harvest?

Spinach will be ready to harvest again soon. The rocket I’m not sure whether to leave or remove. My main reason for leaving it is that perhaps it is serving as a decoy for earthbound marauders or extraterrestrial invaders who helped themselves to zucchini and cilantro last week.

I was relieved to see that all six remaining zucchini plants were present and accounted for this morning.

Harvesting the spinach seems to have been good for it. This week I see a new crop of small dark-green leaves sprouting up underneath the original light-green leaves.

I am starting to wonder if I should harvest any rocket leaf I find, but on the other hand I am concerned about the plants’ ability to sustain photosynthesis if left with only their stalks.

Two of the eight zucchini plants and all of the cilantro mysteriously disappeared since last week’s garden update. The remaining six zucchini plants look strong and happy, probably due to several rain showers this past week.

Vi investigates a new zucchini plant

Last week we planted zucchini, beetroot, and Swan River daisy seeds in our garden. I also planted a few garlic cloves mid-week, just to see if they’d sprout. Nothing from the other seeds, but the zucchini shot up and at one week old was already big and strong enough to separate.

zucchini sprouts prior to separation

I wonder if this success has anything to do with the song we’ve been singing from The Runaway Squash, a book oft-requested even before we planted our own squash.

eight squash seedlings and the cilantro (front center)

Squash, squash
grow, grow, grow!
You’re the greatest treat I know!

spinach (left) and rocket (right)

It looks like we’re raising a crop of tall rocket flowers. Sneaky visitors keep denuding the plants of their peppery leaves.

fresh-picked spinach leaves tossed with feta cheese

I did manage to gather a few spinach leaves this past week and incorporated them in a salmon, spinach and feta risotto that the whole family enjoyed. It was a great way to celebrate our first harvest.

my helpers, watering in the replanted zucchini

We’ll be looking for another harvest… this time of zucchini when it matures in the next six to eight weeks!

 

On Saturday, Nikki and Michael helped me plant zucchini, beetroot, and Swan River daisies in our veggie patch. We’ll be watching to see if anything sprouts from seeds so happily settled.

spinach and rocket

new spinach leaves

unsightly spinach blight

some perfectly round nibbles and a tell-tale trail

happy cilantro

I rushed out the door this morning with the camera, determined to catch a final glimpse of the one last remaining tomato plant… it had 8 leaves yesterday!! But today, it was as if no tomatoes had ever been planted. Ariverderci, Roma!

The man who took the cacti in order to clear this veggie patch, and who warned me about snails being quicker than I think, suggested I grow vegetables by hanging them in baskets to protect them from slime-trail intruders. That might be my next experiment.

The spinach and rocket are both doing well (see top picture), and the cilantro is also thriving (above).

These remaining plants likely benefited from yesterday’s drenching, soaked-right-down-to-the-bone rain (can you tell I was walking home from the library with the kids when it started to pour?).

Since last week, I have watered the garden once – immediately before taking these photos. I think next time I will water immediately after taking photos because I rather flattened the cilantro, which made photography more difficult.

There is no sign of the last capsicum plant, nor of three of the five tomato seedlings I was so excited about last week.

The two remaining tomato seedlings are doing well, having six leaves apiece now (up from two apiece last week).

I’m excited that the cilantro is starting to look like cilantro, with some jagged-edged leaves emerging.

Our hearty rocket plants are bouncing back nicely from the recent caterpillar invasion (I didn’t see any caterpillars this week) with new leaves aplenty. Even if I don’t manage to harvest any rocket, I think I would grow it again just for the lovely scent.

In order to provide an accurate assessment of how we’re doing with Ruth Stout’s method of Gardening Without Work I am starting a series of weekly updates with pictures and a report of any work done on our vegetable garden.

this week, our garden received its first watering since planting

Ben’s response to my idea of a weekly gardening update:

Ben: So, what, it’s going to pictures of plants among hay?

 

Elisa: Are you making fun of my garden?

 

Ben: Not at all. Stuff grows and you’re not doing anything. What can I say?

I am delighted to report that despite all odds some plants are alive.

five tomato seedlings have appeared

the spinach is thriving

cilantro has sprouted

a row of unruly rocket

only the strongest capsicum seedling survived

Of the seedlings we planted, all the rocket seedlings and one of six capsicum seedlings (above) survived. The jalapeno plant and all the basil seedlings died. I have seen no sign of life from the green onion seed tape I planted.

I have noticed some garden pests taking advantage of the plants that have made it this far.

a very hungry caterpillar

mysterious black dots

yellow spots that I suspect are caterpillar eggs

a tiny snail that I wouldn’t have seen if I hadn’t been photographing the cilantro seedlings

Due to sandy soil and dry conditions, I plan to water occasionally to keep the remaining capsicum, as well as the tomato and cilantro plants alive. As the mulch rots and is incorporated into the soil, watering requirements should be reduced, but these early days seem tenuous.

Garden work will include light watering, convincing hungry caterpillars to save some rocket for me, removing leaves afflicted with black dots and yellow spots, and keeping a sharp eye out for snails.

Before we bought this house, I double-checked with my mom that the front garden would be suitable for growing veggies. She thought it would provide sufficient sunlight and space, so I’ve been excited to try my hand at growing something useful for a while now.

My first step was to clear out the cacti and succulents a former owner had planted there. I offered them on Freecycle and the prickles were a thing of the past. The Freecycler who took them even sent an update several months later about how well the trailer-load of plants were settling in next to his house.

Next I needed to transform the sandy wasteland into a fertile, moist haven for flowers and vegetables. A farmer delivered 20 bales of organic hay and set them in place on my patch. The hay bales have been mouldering there all winter, much to the amusement of guests who inevitably ask why we have so much hay.

Mulch is the answer, as I have decided to test Ruth Stout’s method of Gardening Without Work. Basically, she claims that if you keep eight inches (20cm) of organic matter on your garden year-round you don’t need to water, weed, till the soil, or spray. She makes gardening sound so easy, but does it really work?

I had the kids help me plant some capsicum, jalapeño, and rocket seedlings this afternoon. We pushed aside the mulch, dug tiny holes big enough for the little root systems, put the plants in place, watered (sorry, Ruth Stout, the kids insisted!), and snugged the hay right back around the plants.

I have no idea if this will actually work. The man who took the cacti away warned me to watch out for snails, “you think they’re slow, but they can move right quick!” I do remember that snails ate some of our mail, and I can only assume they find veggie plants tastier. Will mounds of hay foil their plans? Can our fledgling garden really survive without water?

Here’s hoping the lazy method works!