Garden Journal October 2024: Week 1

It's that time of the year for me to attempt my garden again. Last year I left it to grow wild for a while, as I was taking care of my ailing pet rat Cupcake at the time and once she was gone, I didn't have the heart to do anything.

As seen above, my self-watering container saw tomatoes and cucumbers grow wild and I didn't bother picking up any dropped fruit. Instead, I let it rot into the soil and thought I'd just turn it at a later stage. There was no later stage until late September when I stopped by the gardening store and thought it was time to get my butt in gear.

While the cucumbers didn't magically pop up, the tomatoes had no problem "self-propagating" and took over two of my square-foot containers. As they had grown through out terribly cold and wet winter, I figured I'd let them continue to grow. I believe there are about seven odd cherry tomatoes in there, and that was after considerable thinning.

Spaced in between are some radishes, which I love to pickle as they are delicious. I am currently growing the Sparkler radishes and they should be ready to harvest in as little as 21 days!

While they were just making an appearance in the image, the back row is for a new cultivar of cucumber I am trying, Crystal Apple. It's a round cucumber, and since I can't find seeds for Curcumelons, I'm going to give these guys a try.

I'm glad they're coming up because when I planted them, the weather dipped terribly, and these seeds needed 15 degrees C to germinate correctly. Luckily, a few warm days later, they popped up.

Next, we have my stunning Rosemary which is still going strong and flowered earlier this year. I didn't bother collecting the seeds, as it's far easier to propagate from cuttings than seeds. Hard to believe this was a garnish on my breakfast plate.

Last year I planted some wild flowers close to my strawberries and they flourished. The two clay pots on either side of the wildflowers are my strawberries while those in the white buckets are going to be handed over to a family friend and @zakludick when he gets his garden ready. The pot on the far left also has strawberries and a cape gooseberry that is now about three years old. it does need some pruning.

After I lost Cupcake, I got involved in a rat adoption charity known as Purple Moon, more on them later, and one of the members loves strawberries, so here is here little strawberry that will go once I'm sure it's growing well. Strawberries are easy to propagate thanks to their runners. I was lazy last year and missed an opportunity to make many more. But one is going to a good home.

Despite being three years old, the gooseberry is still making delicious fruit. Just a pit its fruit never ripens at the same time as my blueberry. And talking of blueberries...

Last year I made the mistake of burying my old rat Ghost at its roots and fertilizing at the same time. The nitrogen and carbon overload caused the blueberry to put more energy into growing and not producing flowers, so there wasn't much fruit. However, this year, the plant is flourishing with so many flowers that when I walk outside, all I smell are blueberry blossoms. Once again, I forgot to prune, but maybe next winter I will remember.

Finally, we have my winter friend, thyme. I was horribly ill during winter and nothing seemed to work on my sore throat until I started adding a few sprigs of thyme to hot water with some mint, and that really did the trick. The thyme is in the middle of a haircut, as I'm going for a bushier herb, but it's been so wet, that I couldn't dry the leaves but didn't want to waste them.

So that's my garden right now. Hopefully, I will maintain the drive I have now to keep it going. I'm really looking forward to those new cucumbers!

See you all next week!
May your gardens be green and the beneficial insects many!