Compost Pot Luck

We all know how wonderful compost is right? A great way to add nutrient to the soil via your vegetable off cuts and the like. But compost can be more than this  - it can make your vegetable patch for you!

In spring I dug in the compost that was in my tumbling compost bin in preparation for planting the usual summer crops. To my great surprise a load of seedlings from the compost came up.

I have no idea what they are -  cucurbits of some sort are particularly evident but what sort of cucurbit are they? I have about 5 of these large leaved things starting to take over... I wonder if they are a watermelon or a pumpkin? In any case they are doing very well.

Then I have about 5 of these little fellas doing very well - I suspect a cucumber or a rockmelon?

Then there are the tomatoes that have popped up.

Very delicate little plants that seem to be forming  cherry tomatoes in a Mini Roma type form. There are about 5 of these too.

It is fantastic to have these surprise plants for free coming up thru the garden. I cant wait to see what they will yield. Next spring I will devote a whole bed to these random compost pot luck vegetables, just to see what happens. Yay, free plants!

Have you had a vegetable surprise lately? From your compost heap or a self seeded surprise?

Whip tail, shade and cute veggies

Picked

• 2 cauliflowers
• side shoots of broccoli
• snow peas
• 1 cabbage
• long cayenne and small chillies
• half a basket of lemons

Planted

• 3 celery plants
• 4 broccoli plants
• 3 cauli plants
• 2 punnets violas
• 1 punnet of Italian parsley

Other

• weeded
• spread a big pile of compost around
• limed

Finally a sunny day!  We have had lots of rain in Sydney and it's been hard to get into the garden. Today I made up for it. There were a few patches in the garden that needed filling and, as I had been away for so long, I didn't have any hand raised seedlings to go in so I picked up a few seedlings from the local nursery.

I also did a lot of picking, the pick of lemons will turn into cordial later today.

But take a look at the picture at the beginning of this post,  is something wrong? Looks a bit weird right? Either the snow peas and some of the chillies are massive or  the brassicas are tiny. Well the chillies are massive -  they are my long cayenne which are still producing, and the broccoli heads are tiny, but they are the side shoots that come up after the main head has been removed.

But the other brassica are tiny.... but aren't they cute?

Cute they may be but the result of two different problems in the patch  this season.... too much shade for some of the veggies and not enough lime.

My patch isn't huge and the soil over a number of years has built up quite nicely  so in general I can get away with packing the bed pretty full, that is provided everything gets a little sun. But unfortunately most of my savoy cabbages didn't get enough and the plants are all pretty small.

This little fella above is of the smallest of the plants.  I figured it wasn't going to come to much so it got picked.

And what of the caulis? Too much shade too?  Well some of the plants got a little less light than I would have liked, but the main problem was a case of whip tail. Whip tail is a molybdenum deficiency that apparently is exacerbated by insufficient liming of the soil.  I read somewhere one day that Australian soils a pretty deficient in this micro-nutrient anyway, but not enough liming makes it harder for the plant to utilise what there is in the soil. As a result the plants don't grow strongly, they get a twist in their leaves and sometimes the leaves get thin and whip like (not my problem).  A bad case results in no heads at all.

I guess I am lucky I have these two little babies.There are a few  more plants in the garden but I think I will be lucky if I get anything more than heads this size from them.

But they might be cute steamed whole? They'd look cute on the plate?  I could of course just say that it was all deliberate and that I am cultivating cute baby veggies!

How are your brassicas?

Compost crisis and pizza triumph

Picked

today's eggplant and chilli pick

• pile of eggplant
• big bunch of basil
• 3 yellow-green chillies 
• 3 zucchinis
• chillies

Help! I have a compost crisis. What is the best thing to do when you have a maggot invasion? Is it a problem or not? Or is it just yucky?

To add or not to add lime?  To add or not to add more carbon? Relax and let them munch and squirm? Turn the bin out and hope the birds pick thru it? I never put meat or dairy in the bin.

Roasted cherry tomatoes, eggplant, fetta and oregano pizza

Tonight is Friday night pizza night - all homemade and garden focussed! David did the honours including home made yeasty bases. Yum.

One pizza with roasted cherry tomatoes*, eggplant*, fetta and oregano*. Another with a  basil* pesto base, zucchinis*, mushrooms and black olives. 

pesto, zucchini, mushroom and olive pizza

* from the garden