'Down Under'?????.....

[Nicos]

It just stuck me that all our Southern Hemisphere Grapes must be coming to the end of your growing season!!!

So peeps..how has this year been for you so far??
Any piccies????

[Glutton4...]

LOL - they're all asleep Nicos - Ssshhh!

[mcsee]

Hi Nicos & Glutton,

We never sleep here. lol.

My tomato season finished prematurely with a 44C day mid January which took out half the crop and the remainder just lingered before all being pulled last week, with the exception of one Black Russian.

Here are some of what I grew here this season in the way of tomatoes. Knowing just when to stop posting. lol. Photos are of Siberian Cherry, Paradicsom, Slovenian Black, Village Red (My Own) and Konig Humbert.

[Nicos]

Cor- they look great!!

That one on the scales is half the weight of one of my dressed bantam cockerels!!!!

[mcsee]

You need to grow bigger Cockerels lol.

Here's another one of my 'Village Red'.

[Nicos]

you certainly know how to grow a tomato!!!!
Well done!..is that your heaviest yet????

[mcsee]

Yes, for this season, as most were about 300g size..

[binley100]

No blight down under then ......

[mcsee]

Yes, we do get Blight here, I've been lucky the past couple of years and have missed it.

This season, the heat was my biggest problem.

[poly]

They all look so good, gorgeous. Definite envy here

Wow 44C, that is warm! What temps do you average during winter?

[mcsee]

Poly - I'd like to say we get about 11-14C on average, but it can go either way at times.

[Nicos]

Are there some crops you can grow through the winter then which we get killed off by frost??- or does the day length stop them growing??

[mcsee]

I like to grow Carrots, Parsnip, Swede and Garlic over the Winter. If we get a frost it helps with the flavour, especially Swede. Most frosts we get here will drop the temperature from 4C - 0C or sometimes colder, but they usually only last two or three days at a time, warming during the day though.

[Nicos]

I've just been having an interesting read of your blog!
How much area do you have for rowing all those toms and peppers?
Are they in greenhouses- or outdoors?

..one more nosy question...how have you been getting on with the water shortages- or are you in one of the luckier areas???

[mcsee]

I have a very small growing area for tomatoes and the peppers and chillies are often grown in pots and some smaller tomatoes get grown in a small poly house. I seem to manage what I grow, a lot of the varieties, I bag the blossom and save the seed.

We are on water restrictions here and can water the garden with a hand held trigger nozzle, but only for two hours twice a week. We also catch some rain water for the vegetable garden as we can't rely on Summer rains being there when we need it.