PunkAs.com

those courgettes are cool - eaten them before?

pattypan squash! make sure you pick it when it's small

I have pumpkin jealousy! My plants keep dropping their flowers before they set. And our neighbour has a beehive, so I know that's not the problem!!! Lack of water maybe? The hose doesn't reach them so they only get intermittent watering.

My tomatoes took forever to ripen too. But they have now been cranking for about 2 weeks. Next year I swear I'm only going to have 6 plants, because this overabundance is just rediculous. I've cooked up one batch with onion and paprika and bottled it, but it's just too freakin hot to stand over a stove!

i lost quite a few pumpkins but it was these little bugs eating them from the inside out. the bugs seem to only be able to get into the pumpkin when they're very small, once they're about the size of a tennis ball (bit smaller) they seem too big and take off.

got fucking mother ass fucking caterpillars eating my tomatos. fuckers.

looks to be -> http://www.vegedge.umn.edu/vegpest/hornworm.htm

not impressed.

going to squish them. bastards.

ive pretty much given up on 6 of my cauliflowers cause of little green pillas. finally got some corn cranking tho...

i'm keeping my cauliflower ones under control with a daily squishing. the tomatoes are a pain, though, given the size of the plants. it's only about 4 plants out of 15~ or so that have caterpillars so it's not a huge deal but it's annoying knowing the fuckers are rampaging freely.

was doing some weeding just now (had to retreat from the sun for now, though) and one of my strawberrys has sent out a runner that has grown into another plant. was pretty exciting. haha. i'd heard of them sending out runners but never seen it so didn't know what to look for.

all action in the vegie patch

Got STURTEVANTS EDIBLE PLANTS OF THE WORLD for $5 in a second-hand bookshop in Westport last week. It's fucken cool, got the origins of pretty much every food plant. Online version here: http://www.swsbm.com/Ephemera/Sturtevan ... Plants.pdf

Jealous! been looking for that for years!

On the vege front, autumn has arrived, with sleet, hail, etc. Was 6 degrees last night, due 4 degrees tonight. My tomatoes and basil are now wearing plastic coats to keep them toasty.

Ellerslie flower show was a sea of old ladies in those white disposable raincoats that make one look like a giant walking condom.
Good times.

Oh, and there were some awesome garden displys too, esp edible garden designs.

turns out, after further investigation, the caterpillars on my tomatos are actually soybean loopers -> http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/resea ... ?Bu_ID=145

still unimpressed.

storm destroy half the corn the other day. leaving it lying down in the hope it might be strong enough to finish off what it has started

Bamboo stake it maybe?

Planted my first veggie garden in a couple of years the other day, went a bit mad and planted: 2 kinds of lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, silver beat, leaks, snow peas, baby carrots. I imagine it will get stupidly overcrowded in a month or so and have to do some culling.

Also got a nice little herb garden going, everything getting a bit overcrowded in there too...

The same thing that ate my tomatoes last year got them again this year, but worse. Whatever it is it eats little bits of the fruit and they go black. I just cut out the bad parts and they were fine. Mostly attacked my Roma. Of the smaller tomatoes, only a few got infested. I think my garden is suffering from too much monoculture when it comes to tomatoes. I always end up with way too many plants. So next year I'm only going to buy plants instead of seeds, so I will be garrnteed to have 6 or less. Once I've sown seeds, I just can't bring myself to let the un-needed ones die!
Might plant more courgettes instead, and cucumber. I made 2 batches of bread and butter pickle from my gherkin plants before they started going brown before they got to a decent size. Maybe lack of water or something? Seriously considering forking out $140 or something for one of those big plastic tanks off trademe for storing rainwater next year.