On a day in August the boys reminisced on the hey days of Man versus Carrot. Of course, this was after a few beers and having forgot the hardship that they previously endured. So, it was on again for the first week in 2022 - same garden space, same rules.
For Paul planting started in the first week of September. Knowing how hard it was last time detailed planning went into this - spacing of the 4 plots, meal planning and planting times all detailed on a spreadsheet.
Plot 1: Corn, Zucchini, pumpkin and beans
Plot 2: Tomatoes, Eggplant, Peppers, Basil and Parsley.
Plot 3: Potatoes, Carrots, Beetroot, Parsnip, Cabbage, Celery, Fennel, Cucumber
Plot 4: Swiss chard (self sown), spring onions, Pac and Boc Choy, Lettuces.
Lessons learnt:
I am not as good as a yates man - add 2 to 4 weeks to their timelines for production. Buy seed potato and give them lots of space. Provide proper spacing for my plants and do no shade them out. Improve the soil before planting, mulch well - especially for greens.
Fails - potatoes - never looked like happening (Luckily I had my perennial feral patch and a Pontiac volunteer in the corn patch - that I almost pulled out.
Corn - out by a couple of weeks. Plus when the did come on only a few nubs per cob. Massive fail!
Could have done better - carrots shaded out and needed much longer; similar with beets. Silverbeet - plant a different variety (Fordhook Giant) and didn't need so much (only used it in curry).
Successes - Hash Browns, borlotti beans (only used in soup, but would have been good in a pasta dish (done like Tony's Fazool), nutri-bullet. Best tomato season for well over 7 years.
Challenges - Ferals - mice and rats eating my climbing beans - so a huge dent to production.
Breakfast - either tomato and basil on toast or hash browns with tomato, or V4 (tomato, celery, carrot and beetroot).
Lunch - quinoa or cous cous salad (tomato, cucumber, rocket and basil) salad, hash browns, V4.
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| Cous cous salad |
 |
| V4 |
 |
| hash browns |
Dinner:
Night 1: alcohol - 7 drinks - beer, champagne and red wine. Not a healthy start!
Night 2: Stir fry vegies - Pac and Boc Choy, Broccoli, Beans, shallots and Rice.
Night 3: Tomatoes, Basil and Chick Pea Pasta
Night 4: Vegetable Soup - potato, carrots, celery, zucchini with Borlotti Beans and Pasta with Basil and parsley
Night 5: Roast vegies and Rice - parsnip, potato, pumpkin, carrots and beets.
Night 6: Vegie Curry and Brown Rice
Night 7: Red lentil pasta with tomato, eggplant celery, peppers, baby zucchini sauce
Didn't need 200g - especially with hash browns. only used around 750 mls of olive oil for the week. Moderate alcohol intake for a holiday week - nothing before 5pm.
