Saturday, November 8, 2008

'My name is Simon and I am a gardener. I have been clean for three weeks...'

For some reason I don't seem to be able to stay away from the seedling section at my local gardening store, every time I go past I just seem to find more and more plants that need to come home with me. Not that I have been gardening for long, only 2 months at this stage, but once I get stuck in to something, it just seems like I cant stop. ADD, anyone?
Anyway, a bit about me. I am in my late 20's, have been travelling the world for the last few years, and have finally found love and settled down. We have an 18 month old daughter together, and for the first time are actually staying in the one spot long enough for me to grow a garden, a completely foreign situation for me. It took me a while to realise that I could grow 'things' now, but since then I haven't looked back. My wife, I'm sure, cant wait for me to stop buying things, especially seeing as how we are rapidly running out of room in our small courtyard, but she also knows that she gets to eat what I grow, so doesn't mind too much.
We are living in Perth, Western Australia, out near the sea somewhere. We have a Mediterranean climate here, wet cool winters, hot (mostly) dry summers, with temps getting to 40 degrees at their worst, but never below freezing. Hopefully this means that I will be able to keep my chilli collection alive over winter next year, time will tell.
So far I have half a dozen grosse lisse and cherry tomatoes each, eight different varieties of chillies, some capsicum, lots of basil, some carrots, and have just planted some beans, peas, and spring onions, with some pumpkin and cucumber about to get their third leaves soon. Fingers crossed, they wont get eaten, by ligers, small crazy men, or other dangerous beasts before I get a chance to prove that I can actually grow something!
Because of my spectacularly bad timing (I just found out about the bhut jolokia, but now I have to wait until next year to grow it, ferchrissakes), I have no idea where my garden will go from here, Im not even sure what will get planted over winter yet. Suggestions, anyone? Im thinking that I want to grow more and more hot and superhot chillies, time will tell! I recently read about this guys story, and thought hydroponics sounded like a good idea. Then I remembered I am trying to go to university, and I have no money, I live in a small apartment, and my better half would castrate me if I did it. Would be fun though!

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