Garden Share Collective: The Summer Garden

Another month gone, and it's time for the Garden Share Collective once again. Thanks as always to Lizzie of Strayed from the Table for putting on this show and getting a lot of bloggers on board for this little link up.

My trusty garden helper examining the tomatoes.

Well I'm finally seeing the results of my work in the new garden. Summer is here, and we're harvesting almost daily from the small but abundant garden I've been toiling at for months. There are, as always, winners and losers in the garden, but despite some plants not thriving, most are doing well. And the truth is in the harvesting. 

My one surviving zucchini plant is doing a wonderful job of feeding us. Granted I don't have quite the zucchini glut that I've come to love [zucchini chocolate cake is the answer], but we've got enough zucchini's coming in when we want them, and they are delicious. And my baby loves zucchini, so it's all the better for me. The lettuce has been going strong for weeks now, and the rainbow chard has picked up after a slow start. The beetroots are wonderful and small fresh leeks cooked up with fresh zucchini is just divine.

We've had plenty of these little beauties.

Colours of the rainbow chard.

Beetroot and lettuce have done very well.

Tomatoes are slow to develop, I'm only just seeing small fruit set now, after what feels like weeks of flowering. I've got some little capsicums in the ground, growing well but a way off flowering. They went in quite late so I'm hoping for some capsicums before the summer is over. I've also got celery doing not very much. It's there, growing ever so slowly, but I would have hoped for more from it by now. I had the same thing happen last summer - is there a trick to celery that I'm not aware of? Apart from better soil perhaps.

Finally, a tomato has appeared.

Me, the leeks, some weeds and a basil that's just hanging on.

Celery doing not very much and some little capsicums that need to grow big and strong.

Beans have been a source of disappointment for me. I've had two attempts now, once with seeds straight in the ground, which sprouted and promptly got eaten, and then with some seedlings I grew in punnets, only to see them whither and fade in the not-very-improved soil. Blah to that. So I've given up on them for now and instead put seed potatoes in that patch of soil, if nothing else, to help condition it for next season. I also lost a couple of zucchini plants and a cucumber to bugs, snails I think. I must put out some beer for them to have a drink but it's not something that gets purchased much these days, so it hasn't happened yet.

A surprisingly happy little basil over in the herb garden.

My herb garden is ticking along, the sage is taking hold nicely and I'm surprised to see some basil looking quite healthy out there. Not huge, but growing happily all the same. Oregano and thyme are slowly growing, as is the rocket. I must say again the soil quality is ok but not great over there so I guess I'll just have to condition it over time. When I get time! My poor little chamomile didn't make it. I'm a bit disappointed about that, I guess it wasn't happy where it was, and before I had a chance to do anything much about it, it was too late. 

So all in all, I'm happy with where the garden is at right now. You win some, you lose some and if all else fails, rely on the good old zucchini and silverbeet [rainbow chard]. Head on over to the Garden Share Collective page to check out what other bloggers have been up to, both in Australia and around the world. Happy gardening to you!