kale Archive

0

Vegetable Beds September-November 2012

The current plans for the next season of growing. Some of last seasons plans did not even get off the ground. I did not do any of the carrots or...

The current plans for the next season of growing.

Some of last seasons plans did not even get off the ground. I did not do any of the carrots or beans. And I attempted to grow the globe artichokes but they died after they were transplanted.

This season I am taking it easy and growing only stuff I have previously grown. Apart from the garlic, but that does not get harvested until November anyway. I also plan on growing a bunhc of the mexican sour gherkin along the front fence.

Most of the seed has been sown in trays for these plans. The lettuces and spinach are already in seedling stage and will be planted out in the next day or so.

 

0

Vegetable Beds June-August 2012

Plans for plantings and layout in my vege garden for this winter. Some of it is already in and ready and growing, others are not even in the seed sown...

Plans for plantings and layout in my vege garden for this winter. Some of it is already in and ready and growing, others are not even in the seed sown stage.

I really want to try my hand at growing artichoke. I love the look of the plant, and I love eating the globe. Being they need at least 2 meter spacing I will attempt to grow three plants (three whole plants omg!) in the last bed of my patch. As they grow so high they will not shade any other bed in the morning sunlight and will be well enough out of the way for maneuvering between beds.

As they take a while to grow, I will make as much use of the space as I can trying to get some herbs up and running in the richness of my garden beds (and out of the way of trampling puppy paws). I realise it is a commitment as I will need two years to really grow them to get a decent crop, so I am giving over a bed for a substantial amount of time. I am really hoping it will be worth it.

Dad brought down a fantastic magazine for me. Its a basic ‘how to’ gardening guide put out by the organic gardening magazine. In it there was a sowing and seedling season for a range of vegetables and herbs. Using this I will also be growing some carrots and beans in one of my current beds only occupied by basil.

Yet again the planning is part of the experiment to see what I can and cannot grow and if the yield is worth it.

0

May updates and garden bits n pieces

The garden is going well, however due to it starting to get cold, everything is slowing down, watering is only needed every few days so there isn’t much to do...

The garden is going well, however due to it starting to get cold, everything is slowing down, watering is only needed every few days so there isn’t much to do around the garden. One of the things I want to do is clear out some of my basil. There is so much and its now taking up space in two separate vege beds. One is at the end of my brassica beds, and it seems I might only get one broccoli plant, so I want to clear that and try and get at least two more plants.

This is the amount of basil I harvested with the plans of making pesto. We filled that steel bowl with only the best leaves, discarding any older or slightly damaged leaves. We still had a few stalks that were unharvested so the pile and stems went on to the compost. The pesto was excellent. We had it on pasta less than 30 minutes from it being made, and had more on potatoes in a bento the following day. The rest has been jarred or frozen.

This was my basil AFTER that harvest. Super unsure what to do with the rest apart from harvest or appeal to any friends who want bunches or just cut it and put it onto the compost pile.

This is the other bed of basil. It didn’t have any competition so it has gone nuts. And the amount of bees that visit it are fantastic. The dogs brush past them, I brush past them, they just move about the flowers collect the pollen. Very happy to have bee’s know where this place is and I will try my best to keep up enough flowers to keep them returning. But obviously I am not running out of basil any time soon.

This is an update on my green manure. So so lush. The pea tendrils are starting to form weaves around the other plants. Fun to watch.

A couple of kale seedlings. I will move the secondary one that came out of no where when I have cleared the basil.

Half of my lettuce bed. Baby cos in various stages of growth.

The other end of the lettuce bed. Some cos, Australian yellow leaf and spinach.

This is the side of my house.It is right next to the carport, with a path to the back yard and gate. It was just a massive pile of rubbish. But when we returned from our trip over seas my dad had cleared it off, put up some railing and repositioned our spider plants to allow them to hang down. As this rarely gets any direct sunlight it is the perfect position for them.

This little beautiful fern was found as a small guy sprouting just under the edge of our back deck. So I carefully dug him up, and put him under the spider plants. He is three times larger than when he was first moved. I think he likes it here.

At the front of the house, outside the fences on the edge of the driveway we have an area of grass. So I planted a lime verbena (I wanted lemon, I ordered lemon but ended up with lime in my delivery). It gets just enough sun, and it will grow well. It is surrounded by some newspaper and mulch to kill the grass underneath to make a garden bed I can plant some flowers in.

I love this night scented jasmine. I love the story of it. The hubs’ father had a really large beautiful jasmine in his garden at the house Mark grew up in. We took a cutting and propogated it and grew it in our old house. When we were moving we took a cutting of that plant and did the same. Propogated and grew it and now it is ready to flower. The smell and beauty of this shrub. It reminds him of his childhood so I think we will always take a cutting of this plant and move it around with us. I just love that technically it is the same plant he grew up with growing in our second house.

Yep, it seems I have a bottle recycling problem.

It took only a day for ants to find the worm farm and try to get settled. So I dug them out and put the legs on the farm and have not had an issue with ants since. The worms are having a great time and have had their first bath on the weekend. I love watching them hide when I put scraps into the top.

Next are sunflower seeds that I harvested from my two largest sunflowers. I still get awed by the concept of one tiny seed making a large sunflower head, that then produces hundreds of seeds. I could plant a field of sunflowers from just the first sunflower.

And lastly an update on neo and his companions. He is doing so well. We have lots of leave shoots and already some flower heads. When I opened the greenhouse to take this picture, it was so warm and humid that the camera lens fogged up.

So lots of things happening, but slowly, and not much to do daily, but lots of things to watch.

0

Vegetable Beds July-Dec 2011

I found a website with a fairly recent satelite view of my house. So I was able to trace the outline of my front yard to start documenting what plants...

I found a website with a fairly recent satelite view of my house. So I was able to trace the outline of my front yard to start documenting what plants are where for rotation purposes.

Some area’s are static, like the passionfruit along the fence, and the herb garden (which is more of an outline currently than an actual garden bed!).

The brassicas are done, they got so overrun with caterpillars that I am taking the bed down, and my peas just up and died on me after a vigourous weeding session. But this is how it was for those months, on to the next stage for this new year.