Behind my house there is a dead-end laneway. Abandoned and unloved- who could resist the temptation of taking over for a bit of guerrilla gardening. I have been growing plants there for a number of years now- I have been using old tyres (no one will steal them) but the jury is out if they are safe to use due to potential toxic leachate so I currently re-thinking this strategy. Over past summers I planted zucchini (with limited success), pumpkin (with no success- not enough morning sun?) beans, capsicums and feral tomatoes. Very early in the spring I planted out surplus raspberry runners.Following my bumper seed saving and sowing I was left with some surplus capsicum which I chucked in the tyres. Its also worth noting that I had previously topped up the tyre garden with some newly composted chook poo -so I was secretly chuffed when the plants not only grew and survived but out- budded and fruited the plants actually growing in my garden. Sadly when I popped out last weekend - ALL of the dozen or so baby caps were gone- extra sadly was they weren't even ripe. I am convinced it wasn't kids or vandals (they would have just chucked them on the ground)- and I have had a sneaking suspicion its not the first time- tomatoes and raspberries have also gone but it was hard to pin the blame on a human with those- there's always birds and rats an an escaped guinea pig (who happily ran the gauntlet of the local cats and survived out there for a week or so before we reunited him with his owners)- but anyway the capsicums were well and truly picked and taken. I have a put a sign up suggesting that who ever it (I have my suspicions) might like to join the cause by helping to water an nurture the plants. There's still more baby caps so will be interesting to see how it goes!
Sorry for the old post but I just came across your blog - love the kitchen garden challenge! But I know what you mean about veg theft! I had both pumpkins and tomatoes stolen from my front yard garden last year. The worst thing was the pumpkin - it was a massive thing about 30cms across and it was obviously cut from the vine, which to me shows it was premeditated!! But now I have a new fence up so hopefully there will be no such issues, but it is so sad that these things happen. I'd love to hear if the request for contribution to caring for the plants worked.
ReplyDeleteHi Bek, I am pleased to say it seemed to have worked a treat! I managed to grow the remaining caps up to size and harvest them. Currently I have a huge planter of potatoes growing- (see my post 'Expansion Plans' in May). I figure you need to much more motivated to bring your spade or fork and dig them up! And I am planning on installing a new planter to grow Japanese Burdock in the Spring- if any one can figure out what it is and how to harvest- good luck to them!Its the perfect plant to out there as it takes up a heap of space and the chooks go seriously nuts for it.
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