Hey guys, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. My garden's doing okay - got eggplant growing now, and it's coming along nicely; leaves nice and green, and broad. My okra got badly mashed up by a combination of white-fly, grasshopper and powdery mildew! The 'hoppers stripped the leaves leaving just the veins but i nailed two of them and haven't had any problems since. I didn't quite expect 'hoppers to do so much damage; It came as quite a surprise! However we did manage to get about a kg or two of Okra.

I was also able to find a nursery close by that sold Urea (30/0/0) and it came just in time for the eggplant which are flowering. I however, haven't noticed any fruit formation. My Dad had tossed some Pumpkin seeds in the compost bin and that's grown into a huge plant. I have been hand pollinating the female flowers and 2 tiny pumpkins have formed :). I tied the male flowers shut with string to prevent them from opening (the ants steal all the pollen) and when the females had opened, just yanked the string loose and with a brush transfered the pollen :).

All in all the year hasn't been too shabby though i'm going to have a tough next year with exams and Subject GRE's coming up! I expect to do horribly, barring Math, which is similar to my regular course work. Not much else to report from my end. Hopefully aussie-land will get more rain the next year, got a friend there who could use the extra water.

I suppose most of your gardening has slowed down with winter, it's cold here but not too bad and i can still plant stuff though they do come out a wee bit spindly owing to the poor soil and lack of light. Best wishes for the New Year and a Merry Merry Christmas to all of you :).