The Moment Arrives

Yesterday was a momentuous day indeed. It started in a normal enough way. My boyfriend and I went to a couple of nurseries to buy vegetable seedlings. We ended up with tomatoes (Grosse Lisse), eggplant (Supreme), cucumber (Lebanese), parsley (Italian and Afro) and coriander.

We couldn't resist trying out the local markets as well, and ended up buying some bigger plants, among them were a couple of mulberry and passionfruit (Panama Red). But the big buys (or boys?) were the Indian Guava and Banana! I already have a small guava, but couldn't resist this 1.5m guava for only ten bucks!

MULBERRY AND PASSIONFRUIT

INDIAN GUAVA

BANANA AND MARIGOLDS

Finally... the day came when I put the first of the veggies into the awaiting bed. I chose to start with the middle bed as it is a good size and does not receive as much sun as the biggest one. In this dry, hot weather, I figured the seedlings would not need as much sun at this stage.

It took me about half an hour to plan where things would go in the bed. Then another two hours or so to measure and put the plants in the soil.

The first plants to go in were the Cherry Tomato. Six of them create the border on the left and right sides of the bed. I figured this would make staking them easier.

CHERRY TOMATO

Next were two marigolds in the centres of the bed (if divided into left & right). I learnt marigold make good companion plants for tomato, basil, garlic chives and parsley. Their bright colour attracts bees and the plant itself supposedly deters nematode pests.

MARIGOLD

CORN

Next came seven corn stalks. Apparently they should be planted in blocks, as this encourages the pollen from the tassels to fall on the silks of other corn plants. Then I planted the sole zucchini plant in the entire bed, followed by three Lebanese cucumber. I read in Norrington's book to create a 'tripod teepee' so that air can circulate freely in between. Apparently cucumbers hate humidity and grow best in the Dry.

Last but not least were the six eggplants. Apparently they do not transplant well, so hopefully this will not spell the end of them.

EGGPLANT

All in all a good evening's work. There are now 25 new plants in the middle garden bed. With more to come...

THE END RESULT