It has surprised me that the path to growing all of our own food has been more difficult than we’d imagined when we arrived. The existing vegetable garden is only small, and when we arrived it was newly planted by the previous owners.  An entire half of the vegetable garden is still taken up with potato plants. This meant we needed to watch, water and wait for a long time before we could plant any of the seeds we had hoped to sow.  The greenhouse is on hold – partly because we have had a busy lead-up to Christmas and partly because of the very hot weather which required us to refocus our attention onto being fire ready.

I’m pleased to report that the wait is coming to an end.

We were extremely happy to dig up the first of our potatoes this week, and ate them roasted with chicken two nights ago. As far as we know, all of the potatoes in the garden are Desiree potatoes, so they are both versatile and tasty. Two more potato plants are beginning to die back, so we’ll have more to eat next week, and a couple of spots in the garden can be re-planted.

We were able to plant a tomato vine, 3 zucchini plants and a capsicum.  Our zucchini are starting to produce a heap of flowers, and tiny zucchini are beginning to show, and we picked the first handful of cherry tomatoes this week as well.  The capsicum has not grown very much, so although it is starting to produce, the green capsicums are so very tiny. We’re leaving them to see if they grow any larger.

This week, having harvested the last of our shallots, and cut down the old broad bean stalks, we cleared enough space to plant some new vegetables:  Baby beetroot, The Diggers Club Heirloom Beetroot mix (assorted beetroot colours),  The Diggers Club Hellfire Chilli mix and some Sweet Basil to start with.  Tomorrow we’ll plant some assorted lettuce seeds along with radishes and spring onions.

It feels good to finally begin to plant the seeds we have had in a box, waiting for space.

If all goes to plan, we hope to recommence work on the greenhouse within the next two weeks.