Veggie garden

Cayenne Peppers (left) and Tagastaste (right)

Purple Broccoli

Tomatoes

Cellary

Snow Peas

The cool weather has arrived

Well it seems that summer has packed her bags and left us for a few months, and the cooler weather has arrived. We are now getting lovely days for being out in the garden, which turns to chilly nights once the sun disappears, great for retiring inside for the night to a bowl of hot soup, or a nice roast, before snuggling under blankets on the couch for the evening.

Over the last couple of weekends I have acquired a 5000L rainwater tank, (thanks to Mr Rudds $900) which is residing next to the 5400L tank. The bigger one was overflowing, but not having a pump for it, it was very difficult to get the water to the veggie patch where I wanted it. Now there is a pump hooked up to it, which means I can water the veggie patch guilt-free more than once a week, and the bigger tank is now almost empty (that one is hooked up to the shed gutters, and is going to be used as a collection tank) with the water from that one being pumped into the other one.

So with raintanks, with rainwater in them, and a pump, and this cool weather I decided its time to get a move on getting the veggie patch producing some yummy vegetables. Hopefully those which I planted today will be ready in a couple of weeks to plant (to coincide with me taking a week off of work)

Heres what I have planted in seedling pots so far:

• 2 x Pak Choy
• 2 x Silverbeet
• 4 x Broccolli
• 4 x Cabbage (sugarloaf)
• 4 x Corn Salad

Hopefully they grow nice and stong and stay out of the way of "munchers"

Veggie garden update

Despite the hot weather we have been having, the garden is going pretty well. I had to decide, now that I have stopped going away so much with work and I am home more often and can put a bit more time into the garden, whether to plant a few more things in the garden, and know that I will have to water them during the summer or to wait until after summer when the weather was a bit kinder. Well my decision was to put more in and try to keep it alive, so far so good.

The capsicums are flowering and have fruit.

There is fruit setting on the burpless cucumbers.

Something a little unusual is that a patch of what I thought was corn is actually millet, which really doesn't cook up much like corn at all but the cockatiels are not complaining, they love it when I put a millet spray in their cage, they are straight at it pulling it apart, picking the seeds apart. So shortly I will be picking the seed heads off and drying then for use later, saves buying them from the supermarket for them. This is the same spot that I tried to grow corn last year, so I thought that was what was coming up, some seeds that hadn't sprouted last year, but I had forgotten that I had thrown the cockatiels left over seed out there a couple of times. I had thought that the toppies (crested pigeon) that come in each afternoon would have eaten it, but they must have missed a bit, including the sunflower which is providing a nice bit of shade for one of the cucumber plant and a rogue pumpkin plant, which I gave up on last year because it was only producing male flowers.

The Moon and Stars watermelon I planted a while ago (the start of December), no flowers yet but it is growing well.

Garden Progress

Well after the "little" bit of rain we had last weekend the garden has taken off!!! Including the weeds!! The tomato plants I planted a few weeks ago are coming along really well, they even have a few decent sized tomatoes on them, although with the rain I did have the first Black Russian tomato that was ripe split, but so far the rest look good. The Pepino plant is asking for a pruning it is starting to smother the other plants near it.

The Lucerne is growing well too and is flowering these lovely little blue/purple flowers, I keep braking bits off for the chooks to eat, so I am glad it is growing so well. There is even seed pods starting to set so hopefully it will self seed a bit, I can handle Lucerne as a weed, its useful, but I guess by definition its not a weed then.

We got two apricots of the tree this year, the first fruit, and they were delicious, actually tasted like apricots!!! I cant wait for next year we should get a few more. I'm still watching the two peaches to get them before the birds do, mmmm they should be yummy too, cant wait for home grown fruit!!!!

Whats happening in the garden

Well the last week we have been lucky enough to have a bit of rain, the garden has appreciated it but so to have those pesky weeds, I have just been outside to identify a few little boxthorn seedlings I had thought might have been some sort of useful plant, but no just a noxious weed, green and healthy but a weed all the same. I also noticed that the caltrop is starting to germinate around the place so I will have to keep ontop of that and pull them out before they flower and set seed.
I have planted some tomato seedlings (a Black Russian, 4 Big Beef, and a Cherry tomato) and a capsicum seedling where the rocket was in the middle, and because I let it go to seed there is now little rocket plants coming up amongst the tomatoes but they will stay there if they survive past the two leaf stage, I'll just have to make sure I keep them pruned back the last lot ended up quite big. Things are a bit messy and need a bit of weeding, but thats life, no airbrushed photos around here.

The plants in the native garden are powering along, especially the acacia argyrophylla which I want to use as a screening plant, its about halfway up the fence now and its only been in for around a year, and that was as a tubestock, so I am quite impressed.

The lawn has magically truned from being dry and brown into being lush and green, helped along by a very timely (not at all intentional) application of blood and bone (by DP) a couple of days before we got rain a couple of weeks ago

Wicking beds from Broccolli boxes

About a month ago I (finally) got around to making a couple of wicking beds from Broccoli boxes I picked up for free at one of the local supermarkets. The idea of a wicking bed is that water is stored at the bottom and is "wicked" upwards to where the plants need it in the root zone. I have seen on a few peoples blogs that the idea is begining to take off, in these times where we all struggle to keep water up to our plants (for more info have a look on this site)

I thought I would try two different methods and see which worked better.

The first I filled the bottom with some gravel I had around the place, then placed a 2L milk container upside down, in the corner, with the bottom cut out (for watering) and the lid off and then filled the rest of the box with potting mix. Into this I planted a coupe lof Everlasting Lettuce seedlings, a Spaghetti Squash seedling and a couple of Purple Pak Choy seedlings

The second I decided not to use the gravel but instead I used a juice container cut in half length ways, and placed along the bottom to create a tunnel to hold water, then I filled the box with potting mix and planted it out the same as the first one. I gave them the same amount of water each and left them to do their thing.


Almost a month later and the one on the left (no gravel) has definitely performed better than the one on the right (with gravel). In both of them the Pak Choy has not survived (on the right of the boxes), and in the gravel one the squash died, but the lettuces seem to like both.

Just look at them now, I was considering replacing the seedlings that died with some more of the Everlasting Lettuce since that seems to be going really well in both, or maybe something like some rocket. It really is nice to see things so green and lush without having to constantly water.

Spring is definately here!

Well my seedlings are coming along nicely, even the latest ones are starting to emerge, there is a couple of the tomatoes that are starting to poke their head through and the kale and nasturtiums look like they are going well. Its good to have come back from a week away with work and see them all still going well and just look at those spaghetti squash, I cant wait to try some of them.

Top row: Satsuma Plum, Almond, Apricot Bottom Row: Apple, Peach, Lemonade
The fruit trees are starting to look good, and the weeds seem to like the watering they are getting as well. Even the Lemonade tree looks like it might end up looking like a tree again rather than a bunch of sticks after last years harsh summer


This (left) is a Lucerne plant from those seeds I tried to grow earlier in the year but got munched by a visitor of some sort. And my pea plants from the peastraw have now got peas of their own, and the cycle starts again!

More seeds to grow

Well the seeds I planted a week and a half ago, are doing well the Red Stem Welsh onions are just starting to emerge and I think I can see movement of the potting mix in the Spaghetti Squash, the lettuces are coming along nicely too now I just have to get my butt into gear and get some beds ready for them, I cant see them lasting too long in those pots. Oh and I have to remember they are there when I let the chooks out, I'm sure they once they found them there wouldn't be too much left.

Seeing that my order from Cornucopia Seeds arrived last week, very promptly I might add too, I will definitely be keeping them on my list.









So my second lot of planting involves:

• Tomato - San Marzano (x2)
• Tomato - Principe Borghese (x2)
• Tomato Rouge - DeMarmande (x2)
• Capsicum - Californian Wonder (x2)
• Chilli - Thai Hot (x2)
• Chilli - Long Thin Red Hot (x2)
• Lemon Balm (x4)
• Strawberry Spinach (x4)
• Kale - Red Russian (x4)
• Rosella (x4)
• Nasturtium (x4)

Wicking Boxes

This is the start of my wicking beds. I first saw the idea on Scarecrows Garden

The gerneral idea is that the bottom acts as a reservior and the water is "wicked" up to the root zone for the plants to use

Ok today I dropped in at the local IGA to pick up a few pieces and thought "ahh, they have broccoli on special and it is all nicely displayed on the shelf, what would broccoli come in......broccoli boxes......wicking beds...." so I asked the young guy who was stacking the banana shelf if they had any empty ones. so home I went with three broccoli boxes to turn into wicking beds, inspired.

I had looked into doing it last year and asked at the fruit and veg shop (where better to get broccoli boxes) and they would sell them to me for $2 each (empty that is too) surely word hasn't got out that fast and every one wants broccoli boxes for their wicking beds and the demand for them is overwhelming?

So after last years disappointing efforts of trying to produce food in the middle of summer on sandy soil, with water restrictions I thought maybe I would try something a bit different. Ohh and also being very disappointed with "Woolworths, the not so fresh people"s limp and overpriced lettuce, bok choy and the like, when I have seeds here that should grow perfectly with the right conditions.

I dont think I am ready to jump in to the inground systems, or should I say my diary and back are not ready. So I am thinking of something simple, using things I have around the house, buying as little as possible. Also I have come to think that there is a lot of "junk" around the place, so surely some of that would have to be useful, why else would I have kept it so its a bit of a challenge to myself.

Heres what I'm thinking so far, hole up the side to create the reservior, 10mm gravel in the bottom, cut PET bottle or milk container as the watering tubes, maybe a margarine container with the bottom cut out for the feeding station, so a lid can be used to give the worms "privacy". Then fill it with some potting mix I have in the shed. Should be pretty much FREE.

I have to think about what plants to use, I am thinking the ones that just wont make it in the beds, the high feed/water needing plants (the things that wilt the first in the garden) and also things that I can continuously harvest, like lettuce, bok choy, kale, herbs and other greens....hmmm thats the end of my list, surely there must be more?

Seedings Showing Growth

Some of the seedlings that I planted last week have started pop out of the potting mix maybe it is just a coincidence but these were planted in the leafy moon pase and that is generally what has popped up. Coincidence or proof that moon planting works??

Harvest

The first harvest of carrots and beetroot. I sould have had something in the picture for a size comparison but for an idea the beetroots are about the size of golf balls. The carrots are supposed to be "baby" Carrots but I think that is just a little bit too baby, maybe another order of seeds might be comming up :0)

Cornucopia Seeds

Well I couldn't help myself, today I had to go and have a look at the Cornucopia website and have put in an order for

• Capsicum - California Wonder
• Tree Lucerne
• Kale - Red Russian
• Spinach - Strawberry
• Borage
  
• Lemon Balm
• Gypsophila - Convent Garden Market
  
• Native Iris

Not bad for telling myself I really didn't need any more seeds, I really need to sort out what I have at home, well at least I controlled myself enough to only by the things that I know I don't have at home and that will (well most of them) go into the garden shortly after I receive them. So now it is that anxious time waiting for them to arrive

Planning to .........

Well I have planted some seeds now but I still want to plant more. The problem that I seem to have is I seem to have great ideas when I am in the middle of something, or just don't have time to write it down (or do write it down then loose what I wrote it down on) so I thought I would jot down a list of things I want to plant (and do) which I can come back to and say "ah yes that was what I was going to do with that"

OK here goes:

• Plant some Pigeon Pea between the fence and the chook yard (maybe interspaced with some Tagasaste if I can get hold of some seeds), hopefully this will end up being a perennial rather than just a summer growing annual, and grow into a nice bushy tree which will provide shade for the chooks in summer and also can be used as fodder for them and be cut for mulch, and will also do the soil good, being a legume.

• Get the "Chook Patch" up and going. The plan is for this to be a smallish bed (2m x 1m , behind the BBQ) which is by the door of the chook cage, and I can just grab a few things here and there from the bed when the scraps are getting low, and feed it to the chooks. Things like Silverbeet, lucerne, clover, parsley, garlic, mint, grain crops.

• Set up a "Cockatiel Patch". I have been giving the cockatiels millet sprays, but now that they know what they are they are only lasting a couple of hours before they are completely stripped, so I want to grow some of my own, a) because I don't want to buy it all the time, and b) so that I can know that there isn't any chemicals used on it. This will probably be a handful of bird seed thrown around (and covered to stop the wild birds from eating it before it grows). I also want to grow some greens for them, things like silverbeet, kale (is supposed to be really good for them) herbs like mint, parsley. I could combine this with the Chook Patch but I sort of want to keep it separate and have it purely for "Cockatiel Safe" food.

• Plant living mulches under the fruit trees and have them growing well by the time summer comes. I have lucerne, red clover, woolly pod vetch, which I had thought about sowing in a bit of a mix, but I'm not too sure about woolly pod vetch as a living mulch crop, might have to grow some and see how it grows, oh and nasturtiums, I did plant some last year but they didn't transplant well so this year I think straight into the ground.

• Sow some "good bug" plants in amongst the veggies, I'll have to go through my seed collection and see what I have bit I am sure I have some marigolds and cosmos, and I know I have some alyssum, red clover and lucerne

Spring Planting

Ok, well September is here and that means it is now officially spring, so before it disappears I thought I'd better start to get some things growing.

So last night I found a bag of potting mix that was hiding in the shed and some tube pots that I acquired from somewhere around the tracks (I think they might have been use for trees for life seedlings or something).

I put them in a 4L ice cream container, which will fit 16 of these little pots, nice and snugly, and that will catch the water in the bottom helping to keep the seedlings watered, now just to make sure I don't over water them and drown them. I am hoping that these pots which are bigger than a punnet but smaller than a proper pot will allow the seedlings to grow nice and strong and develop good roots before they are left to fend for themselves in the garden.

I have two ice cream containers of pots, so 32 pots in all (at the moment) which I have planted:

• Luffa (ALS)
• Spaghetti Squash (ALS)
• Broccoli - green sprouting (DT brown)
• Pak Choi (DT brown)
• Purple Pak Choi (seed savers)
• Cone Flower - Echinacea (ALS)
• Cucumber - Lebanese (ALS)
• Lettuce - Everlasting (Greenpatch - ALS)
• Onion - Red Stem Welsh (Greenharvest)
• Green Apple Cucumber (ALS)
• Italian Parsley (self collected - Adelaide)
• Unknown - I think it is Sweet Basil (self collected - Adelaide)

For labels I have recycled an empty milk bottle and cut it into strips about 1cm by 10cm long, which I have written on with a thin permanent marker (like the CD pens) and then stuck into the side of the pots, hopefully I will be able to reuse these when I go to plant more later, when these ones go into the garden. They're not all labelled because they are in rows, once they start to grow it should be obvious.

It's the weekend again!!

Ok, well news is....

The rainwater tank is full, the weeds are still loving the little bits of rain that we have been getting.

The veggie garden is still going well, it looked especially good this morning with the sun on it after we had a little rain last night, the plants are now big enough that they are (mostly) surviving two naughty chooks getting in there, scratching for tasty treats of grubs and caterpillars.In the bed next to the veggie patch is what I believe is a Satsuma Plum, last year it was looking quite sick, with almost half of it dead wood, and I think after our rather hot and dry summer this year it may be completely dead now. So this afternoons job is to get the secateurs out and see if I can find any non-dead wood, and if I cant then to pull it out and I will have myself another garden bed.

From the fruit trees that were planted last year the Almond tree has a few buds on it and is waiting to come into flower and the Apricot tree is showing signs of flowering too, there is deffinate dead branches that need to be cut off but some definite "alive" ones aswell, (see what happens with a little rain and no "easy-fix" poisons, I choose to think of it as "living mulch")
The two apples still have a few leaves on the tips of the branches, the lemonade tree is slowly putting out new leaves, but I will have to wait and see if the Satsuma plum and Peach tree have hung in there after last summer, I cant see any definite buds but they dont look dead either, so it is a wait and see thing.

This week I have gone out an bought more plants from our lovely Arid Land Nursery:

• Melaleuca Pentagona (0.5 x 3m high)
• Eremophilla Deticulata ssp trisulcata, pink (2m x 2m)
• Eremophill Serpens, red stamen
• Eremophilla alternifolia, Magenta (2.5m x 2.5m)
• Eremophilla Galbra Roseworthy, red (ground cover)
• Eremophilla Galbra hybrid, plum (0.5m x 2m)
  
• Grevillea Flora Mason (2m x 2m)
• Grevillea Ellendale Pool (ground covering, 1m x 2m)
  
• Chamelaucium sp, geraldton wax
• Hardenbergia violacea, Purple Coral Pea
  
• Hardenbergia violacea Rosea, Pink Coral Pea

Hopefully I will get a chance this weekend to get them in the ground some of them will go in the native garden out the back but I also want to try to get something growing out in the front yard that wont need lots of watering, so what used to be a rose garden I think I am hopping to turn into another bird attracting native garden.

So now I shall be off to enjoy what is left of this wonderful day outside in the garden.

Some pics

I just thought I'd share some pics of what is happening in my garden

I haven't been spending much time in the garden lately and it was a lovely surprise to go for a wonder and see that after a few mm's of rain a few weeks ago things have suddenly sprung to life and I even have water in the rainwater tank.

This is something that greeted me last week in the native garden an Eremophila Maculata in flower

The Acacia Argyrophylla (Golden Grey Mulga) growing new shoots

The veggie patch which is struggling along, and I think I have decided that in the future I'll grow most things to seedling stage and then put them in the bed, It has been very difficult to try to work out what is weeds and what is a plant and then there is the elusive rocket thief which has left me with 1 rocket plant out of a row (decided that the two leaf stage plants were irresistible)

From left to right, there is rows of silverbeet, ruby chard, rocket, broad beans, beetroot, and carrots, and that bushy thing in the back is a pepino.

This is something I noticed this morning, one of the succulents in the front garden is flowering

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend, the weather here is just wonderful, the nights are getting chilly but the day today is sunny with blue sky and just warm enough to lure you outside into it (which is why I am going to sign off and enjoy it while I can).

Back to the veggie patch

Ok well the cooler weather seems to have set in so its "into the garden and lets try to make things grow"

It will be interesting to see how things go because I have not really ever grown winter veggies, last year I kept waiting for rain before I put anything in, and as such waited....and waited...and waited. This year I think I will ignore the rain, and go by weather, and water buy hand.

Last weekend I got out and cleared last years efforts and spread a bag of sheep poo and a bag of pig poo that I had bought at the local markets a few months beforehand and have been sitting on the back veranda waiting for me to get my butt into gear and use them. Then watered it in and hopefully this weekend I will get around to planting something in there. The soil looks and smells lovely now, it was very aged manure.

I am in two minds as to whether I should go out and buy some seedlings or if I should just plant seeds straight into the ground or if I should try to raise them as seedlings myself. I have heaps of seeds around the place, and planting them straight into the ground is definitely the easiest but then I have to work out some way of keeping the Toppies (crested pigions) from picking all my seeds out and eating them.

Before

After

Finally it has cooled down

Ok it looks like the summer is now behind us, the track pants and ugg boots have started to become the normal dress code around the house now, and the air-conditioner hasn't been on since before Easter.

I am determined to get something productive growing in the veggie patch this year, so this weekend I plan to get out into the "small patch" and remove the dead stuff from last years efforts, rake back the pea-straw and pull out the weeds then sprinkle some sheep and pig and horse poo around dig and water it in and let it settle for a week or two before starting to plant.

Now I'm off to clean out the chook pen and get started on the veggie patch.

Veggie Patch Progress

The corn and pumpkins keep growing, most of the corn seeds germinated which is good considering they were out of date according to the packet.

I have a few tomatoes on the tomato plants, in this photo there is three if you look closely, these were some seeds I got from Seed Savers they were labelled "Delicious Tomatoes" so I am looking forward to seeing if they are true to their name

One of my original plantings of corn has a cob on it, it is one that survived one of the chooks discovering she liks corn plants, especially since they only had a few leaves and didn't like being pulled out of the ground completely by one destructive chicken (they now have there own run)