Sunday 30 June 2013

Nowhere near self sufficient ...

In the last post, things were looking promising in the veggie garden with everything having the beginnings of a decent crop.

I'm not sure what happened but those two cucumbers were the only two to grow past the swollen flower stage.  They tasted good but they were nowhere enough to feed the family for even one meal :-(

The corn plants all died within days of each other without producing a single 'proper' ear of corn between them.  I think the dogs may have had something to do with that but without proof, Peter won't accept that his precious princess Xena can do any wrong :-P

Speaking of Xena, she ended up at the emergency vet in the middle of the night recently.  She had been sick all over the house from both ends (lovely clean up job for yours truly 'cos everyone else in this house is a wuss) and when we took her into the vet, they thought she was having a allergic reaction to something.  We couldn't work out what it might have been but after everything was all over and they had taken the kidneys of our first born to sell on the black market to cover part of the cost she was home safe and sound, I caught her carrying baby green tomatoes off the plants into the house to hide for later.  Made me wonder if that was what had made her sick and when I caught her trying to bring leaves in as well, I figured it was time to give up and just pull the plants out. (For those who don't know, tomato plant leaves are toxic to humans and many animals, including silly little white dogs named Xena).

So, all in all, our crop of two cucumbers, a multitude of minuscule inedible carrots, no corn, no tomatoes, no watermelons, dead herbs and one single solitary apple can be deemed a failure in the 'feeding ourselves' stakes.

The solitary yummy apple from this first 'crop'

The first of many more apples ... I hope!

I do have plans for another apple tree to hopefully increase our crop of apples (via cross pollination) for next season but am still trying to find one that won't grow to triffid proportions.

Here's to next season .....