We visited the garden again yesterday, and Jason grabbed a couple of update photos for me.
The passionfruit are at the top of the arches. I've kept a few plants from the summer garden for now (a couple of basil plants, and nasturtiums - plus parsley and thyme), but most of this is only a few weeks old. I have broad beans and kale (which I've been dreaming about planting since I first signed up for the garden - so much so that I planted two kinds of kale, russian red and cavolo nero), plus carrots (orange and purple), beets, and spinach:
In other news... See the lonely patch next to my one below?
..well it needs a name. If you can think of something more creative than "J-Dub 2" please let me know!
I made the mistake of going for a walk to see what everyone else had planted after mine was done... and I decided I wanted peas, but I didn't have room for them... and now I have room for them, and a few other things too.
Will post some pics once the second garden gets a bit of growth (looks a bit like dirt at the moment, still waiting for the seeds to sprout). Then maybe we'll have a naming ceremony!
I have been a little slack with updates. Since my last two posts, the inside of my Weber Q has gotten very dirty, and my garden has grown, been harvested, and planted again!
While I was away doing other stuff and forgetting to keep you in the loop, this happened:
The other gardens in the Pop-up Patch grew too. Our boxes of dirt have evolved to a small urban jungle. Each patch is different, some with flowers amongst the vegetables, some filled with salad greens, others with herbs:
With a bit more space on our new balcony - and no 28th-floor "breeze" to contend with - I've been able to grow a few things at home to supplement our summer BBQ-and-salad diet. Lots of mint, for mojitos, and salad greens, and a few veggies (beans, eggplant):
Eventually (with a little staking and tying back) the tomatoes formed a canopy, and provided shade for basil and lettuce underneath. I went home each weekend with a belly full of tacos (the taco truck parked at the garden every Sunday over summer) and bag full of vine ripened cherry tomatoes. All was well.
The garden is staffed, and I have a little white flag in my patch which is code for "I surrender, please help me to water this" - so it is well cared for during the week. Just as well, as it was a hot summer!
By early March, the weather was starting to turn. After the last few warm weeks, I gave up and cleared the garden for autumn. The tomatoes had started to look tired, and had finally slowed down in terms of fruit production. I made approximately 40 tonnes of basil pesto (actually, about two litres, then I stopped - but I had enough basil to keep going!) and we had cherry tomato pasta sauce almost every night for a week to finish the last of it.
Next post: what I've planted for autumn!
