The Garden Share Collective { December }

A monthly (and my second), post for the Garden Share Collective. Started by the lovely Liz from The Strayed Table to encourage more people to grow their own organic food at home. A blogging community, who share a garden update about their own vegetable patches, big or small. What is growing, what has been harvested and what has made it onto the do-list. 

While not unexpected in this part of the country, I can't help but mention that we have been experiencing some hot weather lately. Everyday is around 40 degrees. A cool day for us now is in the low 30's. It seems I have started to acclimatise to this weather, as a 30 degree day, now sees me feeling cold and wanting to wear trousers and a long sleeve top. Despite all this, our vegetable garden has continued to thrive in the heat, even if we are slowly wilting beside it. And most importantly, our daughters are enjoying helping us look after the vegetable garden. This is as much a garden for children, as it for us to be able to grow a small amount of vegetables for us to eat.

This month, we planted a few additional vegetables. Some spring onions, zucchini, and even though it was a little late to be planting them, some carrots. We had the room, and I thought it would be worth the try. Maybe I might regret it! The corn is looking very tall indeed, the Sunflowers (of which I've decided we planted too many) are looking very sunny and happy, the Lebanese cucumber plants have been gently thinned out and are also growing nicely. Alongside that, are some chilli plants, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, purple runner beans, coriander (which sadly seems to have gone to seed) and some parsley.

We have continued to harvest yellow and red cherry tomatoes, and also lettuce. A slow, but steady amount for a garden that is 3 months old. Though I can't help but wish, that we had made a larger vegetable bed for ourselves.

The to do list continues to grow. But mostly concerning restructuring of the garden and what we have planted, to make the most use of the space that we do have. We have too many sunflowers and chilli plants. And I'm considering removing the coriander and parsley, and planting it in pots, beneath the lemon and orange plants. This will leave me with a lot more space to grow vegetables. From there, it will be choosing plants that will be best to grow in this dry heat, keeping in mind it will only continue to get hotter for the next three months.

Thank you to this monthly share collective, which gives me the initiative to go out and weed the vegetable garden in readiness for its photos! Enjoying sharing in other's journeys with their vegetable gardens also.