Time to get planting!

I was strangely excited to start planting seeds again after a years hiatus. On the heated propagating mat inside I have peppers, tomato, eggplant and basil. I've being quite restrained this year on the tomato front - only 5 different varieties (cherry rainbow, and mortgage lifter for eating, and oxheart, principe borghese and san marzano for bottling), although I confess to going a bit OTT on eggplant varieties (little finger, snnowy and greek). My excuse is....well, other than the seed was only $3 a packet there is no excuse :-)

On the direct sowing front I have also planted out snow pea, sugar snap, beetroot, swede, lettuce mix and carrot. For the lettuce and carrot I trialed a nifty UK seed sewing device (seedsava) muma and papa Jerry gave me. I confess I have had it for a while, but really haven't put it to good use until now. However, on small seeds like carrot and lettuce it is brilliant. There are 4 different seed holders, each with a different size seed hole. Orange is the second smallest, and good for lettuce and carrot. You put the sizy you want into the base, and click so it is shut (seed holes covered so they can't fall out). Seeds go in the spoon part, then you shake them along the device until each hole is filled with seed. Then you place it on the bed where you want to sew, and simple slide the coloured section along, which opens the hole and lets some seed drop in. You do get a few seeds in each hole, but they are sewn at intervals making it easier to thin. It was easy, and I suspect there there was less wastage compared to broadcasting the seed.

I'll update you on progress as the seeds come up.

7 days later and here's the update - I hit save not publish and just realised :-). The basil and most of the tomatoes are looking good - the cherry rainbow is the forlorn punnet in blue. These seeds were just about at the end of their use by date so I'm not entirely surprised germination is almost non existent. The eggplants, chilli and capsicum are taking longer, but the first eggplants are just pushing up.

This year, there WILL be a garden

If Jerry's brother and sister-in-law can resuscitate their allotment after a flood, I can dig mine out from the weeds and couch grass and get planting!

In the last month or so I have been progressively digging over the beds that have been basically ignored since before we went away for 10 weeks last winter. Let me tell you folks, it has been ugly! One a day has really been all I (and my back) could manage. In fact a couple of them took 2 days.

This picture gives you a good idea about the state of the garden - but multiply that by 14 beds...

And that same patch of garden now (from the reverse angle). All the beds have been dug over, and had a dose of manure. These beds were done about 4 weeks ago, and when I scraped back the mulch yesterday the worms were going mad. When I originally dug over the beds and added the manure there were almost no worms. These beds should be ready to plant out for the main spring/summer planting starting next month.

The beds that I want to plant first I have used purchased compost and mushroom compost, so I can plant almost straight away, but the others will have 4-8 weeks for the worms to work on the manure and other bits of home made compost.

As the new garden season has really only just started here, there isn't much to show apart from some self seeded spinach and mustard leaf, and some rocked that is going to seed for the year. However the garlic is coming along nicely.

The same can not be said for the fruit cage, which looks a mess! However, we have plans to redo this area, remove the beds on either side of the fence, and extend, so motivation is low for serious weeding at this stage.

Garden Update

I've taken a semester off uni (again) - I have a lot or work on, and it was all getting a bit much. However this has meant I have had the luxury of time to get out into the garden and remember why I hate weeding, and I really hate couch grass!

However, I've cleared 3.5 beds, and have even planted some winter veg, so I am making progress. We signed up to the local CSA scheme again this year so our veg is still (very) local, but at a minimum I'm determined to have some Kale and garlic in the ground over winter. I haven't had to buy garlic for years now and I don't want to start now. It will be hard enough to go back to buying tinned tomatoes at some point in a few months when I run out of my preserved ones.

Here's how things are looking.

These will be garlic beds - one "resting" after a mammoth dig-over, the other a work in progress.

Beds I dug over last week - now planted with 3 kinds of kale and silverbeet, cauli, cabbage, spring onions, turnip, swede, sugar snap peas, rocket, lettuce and a few radish varieties (mixed, podding and daikon)

The "wild garden" beds - all a bit haphazard, but at least there are a few peppers (L) and chillies (R- jalapenos) still to pick, as well as cherry toms. 

 And this will give you an idea of what I still have to do.......

 SIGH.

Is it April already?

How did that happen? It doesn't feel like more than a month since I last posted...but if it's any consolation you haven't missed much!

I thought I'd get back in to the swing of things with some garden updates. After 10 weeks away last winter/spring, and uni and work over summer the garden is really in a "state" (to put it mildly). Thank goodness for berries and the peach tree so the harvest season hasn't been a complete bust. The tomatoes were an epic fail this year, other than the self seeded cherries and tommy toes, which just keep on keeping on. I have had small successes with a couple of chilli plants, the eggplants were a waste of time, but the parsley and basil varieties have been outstanding.

Many locals have reported poor tomato crops this year, probably due to the late start to summer and a few cold snaps in November. As for the rest I'm not sure why - this year I bought seedlings rather than started from seed, and it is tempting to blame that, but who knows. Berries have been the hero crops this year - around 35kg of them. However I must put in a mention for the peach tree I was going to pull out 18 months ago. I cut it right back to 3 "stump" branches, but it wasn't going to give up without a fight. It surged back, and this year we harvested 17kg of the most gorgeous peaches - some up to 350g. Needless to stay its survival is now assured.

The garlic did very well again, and I have enough bulbs to eat, as well as to plant out for the next crop.

Updated garden pics to come in the next post

Yes, I still have a garden!

But it is going to be a lot smaller this year, as we were away until October so missed the main tomato/chilli/eggplant/capsicum seedling raising months. I did buy some plants at a local charity market, but not as many as I would normally grow from seed. It feels really weird to only have one bed of tomato plants!

I will probably only have about half of the beds in production this year for several reasons

• work plus study means I have to scale back my garden ambitions
• it will take a few more months to weed and rejuvenate some of the other beds
• we are planning to move a few things around in the autumn, and redo the fruit cage so I'm deliberately not doing anything with some of the beds

To fill in the gap we're getting a weekly organic veg box again this year from a local CSA (community supported agriculture) family farm about 10k away. Can't argue with those food miles!

This overgrown mess is what almost all the beds looked like when we came back from holidays...although the garlic beds were looking in better shape!

New plantings - eggplant, chilli and capsicum, and lettuce and basil, with a few sugar snap pea seeds that hopefully will germinate soon.

The tomato cages are back in use again. This year I have planted tommy toe, black russian, mortgage lifter, another beefsteak variety, and two paste type tomatoes whose exotic names I can't remember!

Cucumber, herbs and a zucchini. On the right is the red table grape - this is the best it has ever looked in 5 years, and it has loads of fruit on it.

 

In spite of some curly leaf (I wasn't around to spray in time), the veg patch yellow peach tree is laden with fruit. Lovely! The other white peach in the mini-orchard is far less impressive. To the right are the raspberries and brambleberries - both promise to give us a good few months of berry delights.

 

Harvest tally update

So far at least 189kg of produce, which isn't too bad I guess. I don't count lemons, limes, herbs or leafy greens. Or eggs.

The water chestnuts were a big fail, only growing thumbnail size - very disappointing

I still have yacon, oca, cabbage, swedes, turnips, kale, collards, silverbeet, carrots, beets and cauli in the garden. Oh, and garlic - LOTS of garlic.

Saving over $2k without even realising it

Wow. Sometimes it really does pay to pause and reflect. Over the weekend I updated my harvest tally for the  2011-12 season, and came to the staggering conclusion that even this early into the season we have grown over $2000 worth for fruit and veg!! I have weighed recorded almost everything we grow (minus what I eat in the garden , and herbs and leafy greens). On Sunday I did some online research and put per kg prices for the equivalent organic item next to everything and added it up - $2047. And that's probably a bit higher as I didn't weigh or include all the lemons and limes.

Crikey!

Now, the bulk of that - a staggering $1450 - was for the berries and currants - which have an average organic retail price of $52 per kilo  (assuming you can even get them - and I suspect the redcurrants and blackcurrants would be more as they are harder to pick)

It really is quite sobering to see how much all that produce is worth - we tend to take it for granted a bit. In  some ways it is a paper only saving - we'd never actually spend that much on berries if we had to buy them - we'd just be going without. But either way, it has been an interesting exercise.

Early summer garden

Fingers crossed for a bountiful harvest this year!

Fruit to be

 The peach tree in the veg patch is laden with fruit this year, in spite of a bit of curly leaf, and there are a few nectarines in the orchard as well.

The brambleberries have had a radical haircut so won't be incredibly productive this year, but they are flowering happily, As usual it's raspberry city (foreground)

 Red and black currants are looking good again this year

The mariposa plum is laden - although not as laden as it used to be - I didn't realise the chickens would eat off the green fruit at this stage. Oh well, live and learn. The 3 rhubarb patches are kicking along nicely and showing no signs of transplant stress

 This apricot tree doesn't look very inspiring, but there's plenty of fruit!