notes - February 2021

There's been many changes in the garden in the past month, most of which haven't been documented here. It may be nice to backtrack, but from experience, the time taken to backtrack means there's a perpetual backlog, and I've already probably forgotten which of the small details I had wanted to note down (hopefully, I've already absorbed the small details in my subconscious so that they'd make themselves useful when the time comes again).<-- more--="">  

So, a fresh thought for today: eggplants can be perennial. In fact, many plants grown in the food garden as annuals, in the right (micro)climate, can (and, in fact, are in nature) perennials. The only catch is that they may become less productive after a few years. On this list include capsicum, peppers, eggplants and kale. For the nightshades at least, they originated from warmer climates, so of course in a temperate climate, they'd die in a frosty winter. Winter in the subtropics might be just fine. I will leave these plants to continue growing through the next season to see how happy they are. 

Brown bean bug. Bizarre-looking insect, chiselled body, yellow stripe down its side, fast and loud buzz sound. They have sucked the life out of the snake beans, leaving behind a flimsy rod of a bean. They have a sucking pipe (looks a bit the a mosquito's) that the insert into the vein of a bean to take its nutrients for itself. These guys have marked the end of our bean season. Next year, the plan is to start the first batch of bean seedlings early in a shade house setup, then plant another batch every few weeks, to have an ongoing harvest. The quantity harvested would probably be like a bell curve, I'm guessing. It also means there'll be more beans from Sept-Nov, before the brown bean bugs come (this year, they only started appearing around December). Last year, beans were germinated in early Aug.