passionfruit Archive

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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.

 

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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.

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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.

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Vege Patch – Bed #1 – Day #30

Bed 1 got some weeding action this weekend. I didn’t really have time or the motivation due to the heat to spend the hours out there weeding that it needed....

Bed 1 got some weeding action this weekend. I didn’t really have time or the motivation due to the heat to spend the hours out there weeding that it needed. Also due to a few nice spider webs, I could not reach the weeds from one side of the bed.

bed 1 grid 1

The first section of the bed still only holds the passionfruit I have planted. However it also has a sweet potato shooting up along the edge which you can just see at the closest side in this picture. The sweet potatoes are really growing strongly, I ended up pulling a few out just to clear some space in the garden.

bed 1 grid 2

The second section of the garden has the quite a bit of sweet potatoes, which it turns out like to harbour weeds. It was hard to cull the weeds under this mass of runners and leaves. They look fantastic though. There is my second sunflower that grew, its the smaller of the two. The sunflower seeds that I used were 4 different types, and due to the size difference of my two seedlings I am hoping this means I will get two different coloured sunflowers.

bed 1 grid 3

Section 3 of the bed has more of these sweet potatoes. They are really happy in the middle of the bed it seems. I am going to have to keep control of some of the runners as they are snaking out as you can see in this image. You can also see some of the weeks that are hiding beneath the sweet potato leaves. Between this section and the next are where the carrots were planted. They are actually right in the bottom right corner of this picture, but its hard to see. I have a close up below in the post.

bed 1 grid 4

Section 4 of the bed is still doing this best and has the most planted. Both of the seeded potatoes have sprung up and are looking fantastic. Also a sweet potato as come up on the edge. I was undecided about pulling it out, but I think I will have to or it will overtake this section of the garden.

Planter 1 mint and chocolate mint

The mint and chocolate mint planter has really taken off and enjoys its sunny position on the fence. You can see all the runners the chocolate mint is sending out, which is why my dad and I decided to plant them in a pot to save the rest of the yard from mint explosions.

planter 2 oregano and mint

The second planter box is doing really well also. The mint that was just on the left side has sent out runners below the oregano and is starting to come out on the right side. I am letting this just happen without worrying too much, the oregano is doing really well.

Bed 1 sunflower closeup

This is a close up of the larger sunflower. It looks fantastic already and I just cant wait to see how it grows, and what colour it will be.

bed 1 carrot seedlings

These are my poor carrot seedlings. I planted 4 rows 5 cms apart from each other with about 20 seeds per row. I have about 8 carrots left. My mistake was not putting some sticks in the ground to stop the pesky birds from eating all of my seeds. It wasn’t something I had considered would be a problem, however after seeing a pigeon in the bed scratching around for the seeds I knew my mistake. Next time will be different. I plan on replanting the rows on either side of the current sprouted seedlings and using some dried sticks pointing up making a nice ‘shield’ around to protect them.