Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Greenhouse Growing

A few months ago I built a greenhouse out of an old crate frame, some lengths of timber, a plastic liner and I laid down a floor using old pavers I had laying around.


You can see the Facebook post here

We are halfway through Autumn here in New Zealand and I am still getting plenty of produce from a selection of plants that have been in my greenhouse all summer. After harvesting loads of chillies the plant is still putting out blossoms and a chillies are ripening, my eggplant is doing the same.

This evening I picked these beauties, Tsakoniki Eggplant.  I'm thinking we'll have baked eggplant with a vegetable risotto for dinner - with other veges and herbs from the garden.



I love having a good sized garden and look forward to getting my winter crops in now that we have cleared out all of the old summer plants.  We did a massive clean up at the weekend and a few of my feathered friends have been finishing up during the week.

Before - weeds, vegetables gone to seed and dying tomato plants


After
You may notice weird green stalks behind my chicken wire climbing frame, they are kale stalks.  All of my kale plants have been overrun with whitefly.  Over time I have snapped off the infected leafy tops for my chickens to feast on and new leaves are starting to form.  I hoping the established roots and stalks will give us a plentiful supply over winter.