Balmain High Veggie Garden IV

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Balmain High Veggie Garden IV

Mark Morrison - Monday, September 20, 2010

The warmer weather has certainly had a noticeable effect on the veggies and herbs in the garden resulting in a huge spurt of new growth especially on all the leafy greens which make up most of the plants. So much so in fact that we will have to harvest a considerable amount and offload some veggies to the teaching staff.

The Cavello Nero is showing signs of caterpillar damage so we will have to be vigilant and perhaps make up a low toxic garlic spray to use. Something had taken a shine to the cos lettuce recently and caused quite a bit of damage chewing the young plants back by two thirds at least. When I visited today however the cos had almost completely recovered so the unknown culprit has either moved on or become tired of cos.

We planted some giant garlic last time I was there and it will be interesting to see how big the plants get and also to see the lovely pink, rounded flower heads when they appear later as they can be quite spectacular on their long stems.

When I first began work on the garden there were many requests for tomatoes so now the weather has warmed up I think we will have a tomato planting day. As some of the students are in wheel chairs and the garden is already raised I will be looking at some of the lower growing varieties like Pot Tom, Tumbling Tom and I believe there is a lower growing Roma variety.

We have been able to get away with the plentiful rainfall we've been experiencing lately and some hand-watering but now with the approach of warm weather it will be time to install some irrigation

The head teacher of the Support Unit, Rob Riley, has been organising to have the garden included in a book to be published on veggie gardens in Sydney schools so it is now a much photographed garden with plenty of before, during and after shots.

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