Monday, April 01, 2013

Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday #20

Sometimes I wonder what the point is of my growing certain vegetables on the balcony. Some herbs tend to work really well for me (sage, thyme, rosemary, parsley and coriander - sort of) as I grow them, pick a bit here and there and the plant seems to last for eons.


Other things like my beans and peas were "one crop wonders". They grew, produced a small amount of fruit and then keeled over and died. It seems like a loft of effort and expense for a small handful of something.



Although my cucumbers started off so promising I only ended up getting two cucumbers off the vine. There were another two growing - but there were quite small and a funny shape and I waited for so long for them to become "big" that I missed my chance and they started to turn yellow and rot on the vine.

It's quite amazing that no matter how large the cucumbers grew the vine could support their weight. I'd expect them to drop off the vine due to their weight.
I probably needed to be hand-pollinating these guys too, but the flowers were SO small I just couldn't be bothered.


I think at the end of the day the cucumbers just could not handle the crazy crazy weather we've had of late. Super hot days followed by days of rain and cold conditions. Heck, I could barely cope with it.

It's very exciting to see the tendrils grasp on to the make shift cucumber trellis we'd rigged up for these guys.
As was the case with the bean and peas, the cucumbers started to slowly die from the bottom up, until all I was left with was a crunchy brown twig with nothing on it bar two rotting cucumbers. Fail.


But I did get two cucumbers...and I did have some minor success with my tomatoes after a few false starts. Cucumbers + tomatoes + some other stuff = GREEK SALAD!

 
 

Of course The Boy cannot live on Greek Salad alone so we threw a couple of steaks into the pan after rubbing them with this AWESOME bold beef rub that our mate Tim from Smokey O's makes.  We were given this bottle to sample and sample we did....it's good stuff. Tim sells his rubs and BBQ sauces and if you want to get your hands on some I'd suggest dropping him a line - smokeyosbbq@gmail.com.  Follow him on twitter as well as he often does a pop-up BBQ event that is WELL worth taking part in (check our Ramen's mouth-watering post here).



You can view more Harvest Monday posts on Daphne's Dandelions blog.

10 comments:

  1. Love a greek salad, so simple but so tasty. Shame that the cucumber plant didn't give you more crops though! :(

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    Replies
    1. I'm going to try again next year with the cucumbers...I probably planted them too late.

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  2. My cucumbers were the same this year Mel; I picked a few small cucumbers early in the season and then the whole vine died. Your salad looks yummy. I love your photos and your persistence with vegetable gardening! What have you got planned for your autumn/winter balcony crop?

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    Replies
    1. I wonder what went wrong? Celia (Figjam) has a whole bunch growing! Not fair. I'm posting my autumn plantings tomorrow - watch this space.

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  3. I made Greek salad last night for dinner. The tomatoes and cukes were both from my Mum's garden and the olives from my Mother in-law's olive grove. I love it when I eat like that!

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    Replies
    1. Wow - I'd love to get my hands on homegrown olives...what a treat!

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  4. Aww, a paint brush goes a long way when it comes to cucumbers! OR try parthenocarpic. They set fruit with no pollenator. Perfect for porches. Expensive for a few seeds, but seriously worth it!

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    1. I shouldn't have been so lazy....but thanks for the tip on the other type of seeds...I'll look into it.

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  5. Yah for the 2 cucumbers. My cucumber plant died from all the rain we had at the beginning of summer. Your balcony 1, my garden 0.
    Im not sure if I have reccomended you you- the diggers club. They have every seem with heirloom varities.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, diggers club! Do you use them? I've got their brochure, but not yet ordered from them.

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