Gardening has taken centre stage at many of the houses this year and recently the residents at Discover decided to dip their thumbs in the soil. After a stop-start couple of months, everyone got behind the idea of a new garden and entering the second summer, the house now has a very abundant and productive little garden.
Last winter the veggie patch gave us a good crop of kale, carrots and spinach and an OK crop of broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. Our attempts to grow garlic was less successful but we managed to salvage and use as seeds for the next growing season. Our tomato crop felt the heat last summer and we didn’t produce the quantity we were hoping for. On the plus side, they tasted wonderful and everyone enjoyed tomato with everything throughout the season.
Our biggest surprise so far has been our rock melon crop which was planted with little expectation. In fact, one of the residents put some seeds in the garden without much hope they would take and a few weeks later we could see the start of rock melon crop. We now have 11 rock melons ready to be harvested. Other surprises have included; birds eye chillies (that pack a big punch), a new crop of tomato’s, capsicums, dwarf snake beans and golden nugget pumpkins. We also planted 3 fruit trees that we have mixed results with, the peach tree didn’t quite make it, a dwarf golden apple which produced fruit and a cherry tree that has more than tripled in size.
This is the joy of gardening, you never quite know what is going to take and produce a harvest. We can’t wait for summer to see what our gardens will produce for us this season.
If you have green fingers and looking for a shared house, contact our NDIS today on 1300 527 464.