Spring Planting 1-2 November 2010

Finally got around to pulling out all the crap, layering up the beds with peastraw and cowpoo, and planting.  I have missed the mark a bit, planting should have been done at least a month ago, better late than never hey.
I've also sprayed the grass to extend the garden from the current beds 1-4, Herbs, Flowers and T, to add beds 5-7.  I'll also be spraying the grass around the fruit trees, couch really is a nightmare!  Any grass in future will be buffalo, it stops where it is told.

Planting done, all seeds from Diggers unless otherwise specified.  I chose lots of Heirloom mixes because that will give us more interesting discoveries, as well as variety without having to buy one packet of every single variety.

Bed One: Mia and Mum The middle is still compost, but I've chucked last years sawdust paths on it, and soon it will be ready to plant. It's currently inhabited by some kind of weird fly.  Around the edges we planted Bunnings Bok Choi seedlings, Heirloom Carrot Mix, and Heirloom Beetroot Mix seeds.

Bed Two: Connor. Still home to rather an impressive crop of garlic, some onions, leeks and self sown potatoes.  The half that was empty has had a number of Heirloom Zucchini Mix sown, on the basis that by the time they take over the bed, the garlic will be at the point of harvest.

Bed Three: Connor.  Golden Bantam Corn (35 seeds) planted, and 3 Lebanese Mini Muncher Cucumber seeds at the edge.

Bed Four: Mia. 2 of each of the following, Delice de la Table and Minnesota Midget Rockmelon, Moon and Stars and Sugar Baby Watermelon.  Around the edge we planted some Bunnings Iceberg Lettuce seedlings, and a few Bunnings red Petunia seedlings

Bed T(rellis): Mia.  Russian Giant and Yellow Pollenless Sunflowers and some Bunnings red Petunias.

Punnets sown:
Temptation Strawberries, Baby Cos Lettuce, Green Sprouting Brocolli, Evergreen Spring Onion,  Sweet Basil.

Peat Pots sown:
10 pots of Heirloom 5 Colour Mix Tomatoes, 5 pots of Heirloom Mix Eggplant, 5 pots of Heirloom Mix Pumpkin, 5 pots of Decorative Mix Gourds.

Herb Bed: Continental parsley sown
Flower Beds: Cream California Poppies, Ladybird Poppies and Eden Seeds Cosmos Temptation Mix.

Spring has Sprung in the Garden

The herb garden has burst into life, the parsley is going to seed and everything else has taken off.  Except the lemongrass, which did not survive the winter.

This is the only bed that has had action all winter, but again, suddenly it has burst to life, the garlic is huge, onions are growing, we've been harvesting brocolli and lettuce and the brussel sprouts are nearly ready.  Apparantly everything has been asleep over winter, I'll take that as evidence not to bother trying next year, but to plant about July-August in preperation for spring.

This stunning sight is the kale which I never did pick, but it went to seed and burst into beautiful bloom that I have not had the heart to pull up.

So summer is coming and planning for it is to begin in earnest, this weekend we will kill grass and plant seedlings.  In a couple of weeks we will build up existing beds, make new ones and start planting out.  The kids are taking charge of whole garden sections this year and planting what they want.  Should be fun!

Winter 2010

It is SO wet in the garden, and cold, very little is growing.  

The herb garden has parsley going wild, lemon grass dying and pretty much everything else is dormant.

Bed One: Unbelievably the capsicums and chillies have fruited all winter, although the fruit has got smaller as winter has gone on. The enormous plants in the front are beetroot, no idea what they are like under the soil, woody is my guess.

Bed Three: Current compost heap, a couple of self sown garlic plants, some silverbeet, beetroot and stunted celery.

Bed Four, previous compost heap, composting nicely, some overblown kale... pretty flowers though.

Bed Two: The one respectable bed in the garden, broccolli and brussel sprouts, lettuce, garlic, leek and onions.

The lemons were huge and dry, the apricot flowered before we pruned and sprayed it so I don't have high hopes for a good fruiting season.

April/May Garden Update

A couple of weeks ago I went and pulled out the last of the zucchini.
The pumpkins grew four really good sized pumpkins. I don't know the variety, but they are the ones with a high moisture content. Next year I'll try planting something like a butternut that has more solid flesh.  I've pulled the pumpkin plant out now, so we can actually mow around the garden.
Capsicums still producing, as are lettuces, silverbeet, beetroot and the bok choi? is nearly ready.

The celery got overwhelmed by the zucchini (note to self, next year put zucchini in it's own bed!)  But now it seems to be sprouting out the side

The melon is still fruiting, the large one in the picture was rotten inside because I left it too long, after picking the last one too early.   I think it's too cold now for the rest to mature.

Herbs:
The basil is going to seed, everything else is doing well. The mint is taking over the garden, I knew I should have listened to the little voice telling me to put it elsewhere!

Fruit trees:
Something ate the leaves off of the apricot.  The lemon is laden with fruit that is turning yellow.  I've fertilised both.

Seedlings:
Mia and I planted a bunch into punnets.  We left them too long and the slugs and portugese millipedes ate them.  So we dealt with those pests:

And replanted right into the garden:

I'm not so flash at planting seeds, I neeeeeeed a greenhouse or cloche.

So this is what the garden looks like right now:

Basil Harvest

We had heaps, mid April, I picked it and made lots of pesto to freeze. 

Oh dear. Picked too early

It had been munched by damn portugese millipedes a bit on the outside. But they didn't get past the skin. Perhaps that ought to have been a sign that it was not ready for picking.



Still a bit green but the orange bit was tasty. Post From Sandra's iPhone

Rockmelon?

It was hosting a massive number of portugese millipedes underneath, who I'm sure were eyeing it up for dinner.  Well I'm working right now on how to trap the little beasties, meantime I've lifted the melon up off the soil.

-- Post From Sandra's iPhone

Bean Harvest

I've been leaving them too long. They need to be picked before the beans can be seen in the pods, otherwise they are stringy and chewy, and everything that put me off beans as a child.
They are fruiting really well now, probably 10-15 beans a day.

6 March. Other growings.

Two this size!

One mystery fruit

Heaps of ripening peppers

Also...heaps of beans growing, beetroot still doing well. Bok Choy being eaten by caterpillars. Iceberg ok but being swamped by pumpkin. Celery coming along.
Herb garden growing well.



And this... Ok not garden but still pretty. Don't know why it's volcanoesque though.




- Post From Sandra's iPhone

6 March, today's haul

Tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, zucchinis and chillies. Could have picked beetroot but they seem to keep better in the garden.

And this zepplin, 60cm again!

Tucked right in underneath again so really hard to spot.

Post From Sandra's iPhone

4.7kg Zucchini

This us what happens when you have 3 plants too close together.... Sneaky marrows grow. I thought the previous one at 50cm was big, but this beastie eclipsed it.



60cm long
13cm diameter at the fat end and 4.7kgs.


-- Post From Sandra's iPhone

22 Feb various

Tomatoes; still being massacared. Have resorted to cutting away bad bits and using the rest.

Beans; fruiting! Well hidden though so I didn't realise until I saw them through the garage window. I think some have been left a bit past optimal picking.





Beetroot; still picking first batch. New batch coming along. Will plant one more lot on next few days.

Caulis; totally decimated by horrid caterpillars.

Lettuces. Most bolted. Iceberg still doing well.






-- Post From Sandra's iPhone

Cucurbits 22 Feb

Pumpkins... 4 now. This one is 23cm diameter.


Zucchinis still fruiting well.

Cucumbers, can't beleive how many on one plant! Have got 5 last week, there are another couple nearly ready and lots of babies. Am going to have to get creative to use them.

And, um whatever this is. I thought it was a cucumber until it started fruiting at which point I was baffled but now I'm thinking maybe a rockmelon?



-- Post From Sandra's iPhone

Pests and fertilising

Horrid little hump backed caterpillars are eating my tomatoes.




No idea what to use to stop them. Have had to cut off a bunch of damaged fruit.



But yay. Fruit is ripening!




Have also discovered I'm supposed to fertilise biweekly. Luckily there was some tomato food in the shed so they just got their first food post planting.

Notes for next time:
Plant earlier! Late September perhaps.
Fertilise regularly and the plants might not be half dead.
Figure out organic control for nasty humpback caterpillars!
-- Post From Sandra's iPhone

** Ok apparantly the control for the mini beasts is digital (squish) which is no good as they can do too much damage before being found.  Or Bacillus thuringiensis (or Bt) spray which is only harmful to caterpillars BUT takes 3-5 days to work, in which time they can do some serious damage :(  Oh well.  Needs must.

Herbs Feb 2010

Basil
It's in with the tomatoes but a bit shaded.  Next year I'll aim for it around the edge of the bed.

Sage
Flowered massively and then died right back. I've transplanted it into the new herb area as well as one little self sown seedling

Parsley
I sowed seeds but they had very low germination rate. I got more from self seeded in store punnets.

Thyme
Transplanted to new herb area and taking a while to come back

Mint
Planted about 2 months ago. Starting to take off now but being eaten by caterpillars and white fly.  Damn pests.

Other
I've got:
Lemon Grass
Oregano
Chives (from punnet as seeds failed to germinate)

Garlic 2009

Wow!  I miss a couple of bulbs last year.  They grew this year and I have about 2kgs of beautiful garlic.  Without a shadow of a doubt I'm aiming for an annual crop of this especially given it grows over the worst time of the year for growing.

Potatoes Feb 2010

We dug a few potatoes up from under the rose and transplanted them into the vege garden.
Most died but two grew really well. One has died back completely and the other is on it's way.  I would dig them up but they are in a bit of an awkward place being almost under the zucchini. I may have to wait until the zucchini dies back.

Potatoes are so easy to grow and expensive so I'm keen to try and plant them in some kind of raised planter next year .  It will be interesting to see how many potatoes are dug up.

Beets Feb 2010

Silverbeet
Planted from Diggers seed didn't get anywhere but a couple of self seeded ones from last years have grown nicely.

Beetroot
Diggers Heirloom mix.  Growing great and some lovely beetroot.
I planted 1 lot in November and another lot in January.  The November lot are picking now.

Lettuce Feb 2010

I've planted HEAPS this year!
Cos punnets from the shop and Baby Cos from Diggers.  All of them have done great.
Mesculun mix from Diggers.  Also great.
Iceberg punnets also fab.
Buttercrunch.  Bolted in the heat and pretty pathetic really.  Which is fine because I don't like em anyway.

Beans Feb 2010

I planted Blue Lake from Eden Seeds along the netting.  They were attacked by snails and slugs in a big way but eventually made it to climb up the netting.
About 1/2 the netting is quite badly shaded by the zucchinis and the plants are sparse.  The other 1/2 has clear ground with sun and they are very healthy although being attacked by some kind of caterpillar with a humpy thing.
So far so good with the beans.  Although an organic caterpillar treatment would be very welcome!

Cucurbits Feb 2010

Zucchini
I planted 3 zucchini because I bought a punnet. They are ridiculously large and taking up a full 1/4 of the garden.
They are overcrowded and hard to find fruit and often we end up with Marrows that in turn stunt the growth of other fruit on the plant.

Pumpkin
1 pumpkin self seeded right at the edge of the garden. I've loaded it up with cow poo and straw etc and it's already got 3 baby pumpkins on it. Yay!!

Cucumber
I planted 3 cucumber.  Damn snails ate 2 of them on the first night!  The last one has been slow to get going. I put a stake with it but it hasn't climbed it.  I need to work out what they climb.  A cucumber has self seeded and in 1/2 the time is healthier looking than the one left that I planted.


For the future:
1 green zucchini
1 yellow zucchini
2-3 cucumber with something to climb
1 pumpkin plant

Eggplant Feb 2010

2 varieties:
Punnet which I sowed in a bad place where it was shaded by the tomatoes.
Large potted single plant which is already starting to fruit even though I planted it about 2 weeks ago.

Capsicums Feb 2010

I used two lots.
One was a patio capsicum thing from Bunnings with only a couple of plants per punnet.  Those have thrived and are covered in growing fruit.
The other was a cheapo punnet which are still not looking overly impressive. 

For the future:
Well the patio ones were good but I'm tempted to start early and grow heirloom varieties from seed.  Need greenhouse.

Cauliflower Feb 2010

I'm using a Cauliflower Mini by Diggers.
It said sow in punnets but I'm lazy and sowed in the garden and the success rate has been very low.  They are getting absolutely munched by caterpillars and are too far into the centre of the garden for easy manual removal.

For the future:
Sow in Punnets
Plant near edge of garden

Tomatoes Feb 2010

I planted 4 tomatoes.
2 money maker and 2?? that I got from an old guy outside Safeway in Mordialloc.
He said lots of poo and 2 metre stakes.  Well I did the lots of poo but left the staking until too late.
One day they were tiny and the next they were huge and unweildy.   I've staked as best I can but they are a bit dodgy.
Right now they are looking a bit sick. I think it's a combo of lack of water and lack of fertiliser. I remedied the former last night and I shall remedy the latter today.  Lots of tomatoes on them though!
There are also a couple of self seeded tomatoes growing with the beans up the netting.  I think they will be cherry toms. I've pulled a bunch of self seeded ones too.

For the future
Stake at the beginning
Prune regularly
Fertilise regularly

My Garden Diary

I couldn't decide whether to get a book and do this by date or plant type.  In the end I decided to blog it.  This is a private blog for my records only.