Harvest, Harvest, Harvest - that seems to be the theme for February, in the vegetable patch. From zucchinis to corn, beans to greens - it seems like everything starts coming in ready for picking in February.
Harvest and Watering!
Our corn is nearly all picked by the end of February. I planted it in stages, one row a fortnight, and so I have been picking it in the same order, one row left for early March. The kids have loved it, and been eating it straight from the stalk, raw - super juicy this way! What we haven't been eating either fresh or cooked, I've been freezing, so we can eat it later in the year. To do this I just peal the cobs, and cut them either in half or thirds, then straight into a freezer bag. The left over stalks are slowly drying out, but I have been breaking them off at ground level and feeding them to Marmalade, our house cow! She LOOOOOVES them!
I have been picking the zucchinis, almost, since the start of January. They are prolific, as zucchinis usually are! Similar to the corn, I freeze the excess. With the zucchinis I wait until I have quite a few, then I grate them using my food processor, and again, straight into freezer bags, and into the freezer. I flatten the bags out and try to square them off, so they stack well in the freezer and don't take up too much room.
My beans weren't great this year. We did get some very hot days in late January, and they got scorched quite badly, so I didn't have the excess for freezing that I've had in previous years, but we have had quite a few additions of beans to our evening meals.
The Swiss chard has been great. It almost seems like the more I pick the more it grows. I haven't frozen any yet, but before long I will pick all of what is left, and slice it and freeze it in flat, squarish bags, similar to the zucchini.
I also have quite a few spring onions that I planted in early January, that I am picking at the moment, in fact they are a great way to keep my stash of stored bulb onions going a bit longer, as I'm finding that I'm using the spring onions in salads and other dishes where I might have otherwise been using bulb onions.
My first flush of capsicums were not very large, but they are exceptionally tasty all the same. I have been waiting until they turn red to pick them, and oooh - so sweet! The ones on the bushes now are quite big and round but still green, so unless I really need one for a recipe, I'm leaving them to redden up.
The rockmelon and strawberries are still ongoing. We have picked a couple of rockmelon, they weren't overly large, but deliciously sweet. With the strawberries, its a race to get them before our resident stumpy tail lizard. I did have a wire cage over them for a while, but it made it too hard for us to get in too, so I've decided we'll just share with the wild life!
The tomatoes and pumpkins are still not quite ready. I have picked the odd tomato, and I have a huge amount of green ones, so I really hope we get some warm weather in March, so they ripen! And similarly with the pumpkins. The butternuts are almost ripe, a few more warm days and they should be ready to pick, but the larger varieties I'm a bit worried about. They are very green still. Fingers crossed for them!
As I mentioned at the start of this post - watering has been a big task this month. We have had no rain during Feb, so its been up to me! I have a good dripper system set up, and each row can be turned on or off as needed, so it is actually pretty easy, I just need to remember to do it!
And of course with hot weather and lots of water, weeds are ever present. I have tried to mulch as much as possible. As well as keeping the water in, to a certain extent it smothers the weeds too - but the stronger grasses tend to grow through. By digging them out when I see them, I have tended to keep them fairly under control, but some are getting away from me now - I need to have a concerted effort in the next week or so, before they go to seed.
Well thats pretty much it for February in the patch. How is your patch looking?
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