Are Home Grown Vegies Making a Comeback?

Image by cogdogblog via FlickrIt seems that everyone I talk to these days is growing their own vegetables in the backyard. Makes me wonder if the humble backyard vegie garden is making a comeback? It certainly seems to be around these parts. I know many people are frustrated with the lack of fresh vegies available locally and the price we pay for what seems to be second grade quality fruit and veg.

Has anyone else noticed an increase in people growing their own gardens again or is it just out here in the country?

Garden Progress

Sorry, no updated photographs just yet. But I did want to fill you in on what's happening in the garden.

COMPOST - looks to be a dud. Well, not a total dud but not as good as the last lot we got (from the same place). So much for a "no dig" garden. I'm getting heaps of weeds coming up, it doesn't seem to be holding water the way you'd expect compost to and it's full of slater bugs which keep eating my seedlings. :(

TOMATOES - All 8 of the seedlings have survived so far despite a few looking rather sick. One is booming away and the others are just taking their time.

CUCUMBERS - I have 1 left out of the 4 I planted. Bugs ate the others! Grrrrr!!!!!

SWEET CORN - After a slow start and a few casualties, the sweetcorn seems to be booming away.

GREEN SQUASH - Are booming away. Looking promising.

PUMPKIN - One plant got eaten, the other is surviving. We'll see if that remains to be the case.

BEANS - These came up beautifully from seed and got chomped down by bugs. There are 2 plants still surviving so far and I've planted another set of seeds in the hope that they might do a better job of surviving.

STRAWBERRIES - Are growing well. Only 1 plant is fruiting right now but I'm happy that the others are putting their energies into growing as bigger plants should bear more fruit right?

ZUCCHINI - I found a packet of zucchini seeds (I thought I'd bought some) and planted a couple of seeds. Nothing showing yet - hopefully they'll come up soon.

PARSLEY - I've read that parsley is hard to grow from seed but threw some more seeds in the pot (given the last lot came up alright). They seem to be coming up fine (although I did chuck plenty in there). This should give me parsley at alternating years. I'm hoping from here on in it will self seed and keep me in a supply of parsley. Assuming, of course, I don't forget to water it at some point and it dies.

GARLIC CHIVES - Are booming away, multiplying nicely. Do you need to thin garlic chives? I should look that up I guess.

All in all, despite some setbacks, I'm pretty happy with how things are looking. Another couple of weeks and the garden beds should be starting to look nicely filled out. At least, I hope so.

Preparing the Garden When You're Going Away

As a child, I remember my grandparents being restricted on when they could come and visit us, based on their garden. There were times of the year when they couldn't come at all or would only come for a few days because their garden simply couldn't survive without them.

These days I guess there are a few more options in terms of technology. Things like timers that can be set up to automatically water the garden. That's if you have them.

When we planned to go away, I hadn't prepared myself for the early onset of summer. This time of year is supposed to be spring. Mild weather and enough rain to keep the garden moist. Mmmm....not so much around here lately.

I'm not so attached to my garden that I'm not prepared to leave it. But it has occured to me that I would be a little upset if we get back and find my garden has all shrivelled up and died.

So we're giving it a good soaking and hoping the elements are not too unkind to it while we're away.

Anyone have any hints for caring for a garden when you're not going to be there to care for it?