Gardening karma?

Hello everyone!

Yep, today I am kinda breaking my no-technology Sunday because.... I didn't use any technology yesterday (Saturday). So I figure I've got "credits" owing to me.

Speaking of credits, I (kinda/sorta) believe in "pop karma" - that's the sort of urban credit/debit system that many people seem to believe in - you know where if you give to the op shops, then you will find treasures at the op shops; or if you decide to volunteer to (say) Meals on Wheels, then the next time you are in the supermarket, you will stumble upon a red light special and get a truckload of organic veges for 90c (okay that one hasn't happened to me yet, but I think its only because I have been a bit slack on the volunteer front the last few years).

(getting back on topic)

So it was a HUGE surprise to me that my garden is suddenly giving me food...for free. Yep, they were not vegetables that I planted or cultivated...or hell, even watered!

First, there was my lemon tree. After almost 10 years of only bearing one or two lemons, it suddenly went "berko" and gave me HUGE amounts of lemons.

My homemade lemonade and check out the basketfull of lemons in the background.

Then, I find PARSLEY growing near my fence line - this is the fence line that backs on to the road - so I have no idea how the parsley got there. I find so much parsley that I had to give some away to friends. The coriander which I planted next to the parsley is also doing well.

Then last Friday night, as I was pulling what I thought are weeds in my vege garden, I pull out a particularly big one and... POTATOES!! I have heaps and heaps of potatoes in my vege garden. The only thing I can attribute it to is that they sprouted from my compost as I had applied a layer of my compost to my lasagna bed.

Potato which I accidentally harvested because I thought it was a weed. Since I harvested this before the vine died, the Google gods tell me that I have to cook and eat this soon as the skin has not "set" and will decay very quickly.

Then yesterday, I had one of my garden savy friends over and she identified CARROTS and STRAWBERRIES growing very happily in a part of my garden that is probably the "crappiest" in terms of soil.

Carrot! Photo by me.

The only thing I can attribute it to is that I chucked some very old vege seeds into my compost bin and while I was preparing my vege garden, I chucked one spadeful of the compost on to the crappy soil part of the garden.

Oh and going back to the potatoes, I have to admit, I don't buy organic potatoes regularly so what's sprouted are probably the commercial ones. My garden-savy friend (I must start calling her "GSF") told me that the commercial ones are more prone to disease and bad yields but even if they don't yield much they appparently do wonders for the soil so I still win out.

So where is all this garden karma coming from? I haven't even started in my garden. The only thing I've done is to severely prune back some ivy that had creeped over from next door's backyard, to uncover a fig tree and to prepare a vege garden plot. But surely that's not enough gardening karma yet to make up for all this food?

Incidentally, the fig tree (which I had thought was killed by the ivy) is now sprouting little leaves, so I may have figs in... um...when do figs grow? Oh the Google gods tell me they should bear crops in Spring and Autumn. Since its already too late for Spring (or is it?), then maybe Autumn.

In the meantime, the plants that I did purposely plant are not going too well. Something is eating the pak choy but I've now planted marigolds all around and in between them so hopefully that would stop. My onions haven't grown at all (or am I being too impatient?) and I've killed my tomato seedlings.

The guy in the shop told me not to plant my tomato seedlings when I bought it and to just store it in a place in my house that has an "even" temperature. So I did... but he didn't tell me that seedlings needed to be watered. (Yes, I admit that I am totally lacking in basic gardening common sense).

Now I'm afraid to buy more tomato seedlings in case my "debt" to the garden has not been balanced yet.

Today, I mowed the lawns with my push mower, watered all my newfound food plants and started to make fertiliser using weeds. How much more do I have to do, do you think, before I can buy those tomato seedlings?