It's hot
It's so freaking hot that not many plants stand a chance in the direct beaming sun. You can check my list of plants that I try to stick to in summer time over here. It's hit and miss really, as to what gets fried and what doesn't. Then it rains too much or it doesn't rain enough. For a successful harvest it's really hard to be left to it's own devices!
Top left my attempt to 'save' my lettuce from scorching heatIt's humid
Storms are great to cool off the scorching heat, but the humidity that follows just brings in so much disease to my patch. My beans get rust, my potatoes get blight (yes I probably shouldn't try to grow potatoes), some kind of spotty fungus on my swiss chard and all the squash get mildew (zucchini, pumpkins, melons). It feels like a losing battle.
Some kind of fungus has moved into my swiss chardThe bugs
Fruit fly find your own god damned fruit, or at least leave me one capsicum so it can turn red. I have 7 capsicum plants that I planted in early spring, all have had a ridiculous amount of fruit on them, all of which have been stung by fruit fly and none have ended up in our kitchen. The caterpillars come in droves and in a day or so an entire cabbage has been annihilated. Oh and the freaking mozzies. It's best to just walk away. yeah yeah, ideally you want to have some companion or decoy plants, but when space is limited it is difficult to have enough room for yourself!
Here's a fun counting game, how many caterpillars are destroying my sugarloaf cabbage?
