It was a bit of a weird season this year. Things didn’t really go to plan. But they never really do, do they?
Since time was scarce having to run around after an almost one-year-old, I decided to work smart this year. I started early with the radishes in a small free standing garden bed to reduce the amount of weeding. I watered them and I remembered to put the lid on every night. Except one night.
And then this happened. Snow.
But I soldiered on. I cleared out part of the garden and I started planting. And while the snow peas thrived, everything else just… waited. Maybe there wasn’t enough sun, or enough rain, but things just didn’t want to grow.
I got some tomatoes from a friend and I planted those too, and even though it was getting late in the season I was still hopeful.
And then we got all the rain. Like… all of it.
I doubt anyone’s tomatoes survived. Mine certainly didn’t. Even the two I had potted undercover got some weird disease and had to be put down.
It did get hot… for a bit. The pumpkins were slow but sure. The beans at least picked themselves up and made a good effort. Zero beetroots. One silverbeet. One straggly cucumber plant which did ok and a smallish zucchini that delivered enough. The sweetcorn grew but seemed to go from unripe to overripe overnight. In the end I only ate one cob and it was tough. The broccoli mocked me with its tiny florets.
And then this happened. Hail.
So we lost some pumpkins and everything else that was exposed at the time.
The pumpkin harvest is small but sufficient for us. I froze quite a lot of green beans, and I was always able to make a good veggie mix for Sam along the way. It definitely wasn’t a bumper year, but I did what I could manage, with the time I had, and the weather that was thrown at us. So… until next year!
an aussie in austria 