Growing at the speed of light

Well things are really moving along in the garden at the moment - it's amazing what a difference a few days can make.

I had to go to Melbourne for a few days. When I left, the bean seeds that my 3yo helped plant were just starting to push through the soil. Get home 5 days later, and they are literally 15cms tall!

I planted them out into the veggie patch tonight. The newspaper pots make them so easy to get into the ground!

I also pricked out the baby tomatoes I had grown from seed - as I didn't really expect them to grow I have WAY too many. These are just the ones I pricked out, there are at least double this amount still in the original container.

I also planted my bought tomato seedlings into the ground, after originally having them in large pots so I could more easily protect them from any frosts.

Sadly I only have 2 cucumber plants left of the eight I planted - and one of those isn't looking too good either. I think I was a bit rough with them when I planted them out. I have some seeds though so may try to get a few more going from seed.

I also have my very first pumpkin flower - isn't it cute!

I have also discovered this fantastic product called Smart Mulch. Cost around $25 for this big bag, but I have mulched my whole patch, and still have about 1/4 of the bag left. It comes in little cubes of straw-like material, that when wet expands to 5 times it's volume. I mixed in some of the pea straw I already had, but it doesn't seem to be prone to blowing away like the straw did, and keeps the soil lovely and moist, really cutting down on watering.

This is a picture of what it looks like once it is all expanded - as you can see there is a little pea straw mixed in with some of it.

Well, not a huge amount been done in the garden this week, just a bit of pottering - pardon the pun!


Planted out the cucmber and capsicum - not looking very happy though - all sad and droopy - hoping they'll still come good.

Capsicums

Cucumbers

The spinach is still looking sad - but maybe a little better than it was :

But the lettuces are looking good, as is the pumpkin and zucchini.

Pumpkin

Zucchini

Lettuce

My strawberries are doing well too, except that I've noticed some little dots on some of the leaves - have no idea what this is:

Have been planting lots of seeds into my newspaper pots, lettuce, basil, beans, sage and watermelon.

Already have little baby lettuce shoots :) And the fence around the veggie patch is working well - see below Murray the whippet, and Amos the kelpie looking pleadingly at me to be let in - not on your life LOL!

From Little Things.....

Well was surprised by little tomato sprouts today!

These were from a grape tomato that went squishy in my fridge, so I just squeezed the seeds into some potting mix I found at the back of my laundry cupboard (don't ask me why it was there) and despite being told they wouldn't grow, today I have little tomato plants!

I also read about making seedraising tubes from newspaper, so after a bit of googling found 3 lots of different instructions. Have settled on the easiest method:

Take one full sheet of newspaper and fold it in half lengthwise. Fold it in half lengthwise a second time. This should give you a long narrow strip of paper.

Starting at one end, roll the paper around a glass. Any kind of glass will generally work. Iused a fairly narrow one. The wrapping doesn't have to be perfect, so it is an easy step for kids to do, especially if you use plastic cups instead of glass.

Push the ends of the paper into the glass. Then remove the glass through the open end. Push the bottom of the glass into the newspaper pot to squish the bottom and flatten it. Take the glass back out and you have your finished pot. Just fill with soil and plant your seeds. The newspaper will break down nicely in the soil when it comes time to add the seedlings to your garden.

When sprouted enough, these can then be planted directly into the ground, and the paper will break down. Apparently this avoids seedlings going into transplant shock - all for the sake of a piece of newspaper - sounds good to me.

This is a piccy of my newspaper pots, planted with mixed lettuce seeds. According to the packet they should sprout in 7-10 days - keep your fingers crossed for me!

The tray they are sitting in is a re-cycled meat tray, which I have stuck icypole sticks into the edge, and covered loosly with a plastic bag to keep the warmth in.

Once again, have no idea if this is the right thing to do, but will give it a burl!

A friend has given me a heap of seed packets, cucumbers, beans, peas, capsicum - heaps of different ones, so I can see myself making lots of little seed pots over the next few days!

All Fenced In

Well, the fence when in today - yeah!

Wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, says me who mainly sat back and watched as Andrew did it all LOL.

Had a few design difficulties with the gate, but overcame them at the end.

Andrew seen above, putting the finishing touches on the gate

The simple gate latch, that took so long to figure out lol!

Then because my garden is now safe and sound, I was able to plant out mixed lettuce, and spinach - yay!

I still have pumpkin, zucchini, capsicum and cucumber to plant, but need to make another cloche to protect them from the frost. Will probably use the remnants of the fencing wire, and cover with the left over clear plastic from making the one for the tomatoes.

I also have basil seedlings to plant, but wanted to plant them among the tomatoes, but as the toms aren't in the ground yet, not quite sure what I should do...will ponder that one some more.

Small Steps

A little more progress on the garden today.

Bought some strawberry seedlings, which I planted into a big pot.

I have also constructed a type of home made greenhouse, thingy, from clear plastic and timber stakes, to protect my tomatoes, until the weather warms up a bit.

I have no idea if this is going to work, but figured it was better than (a) leaving them to die in the punnets, or (b) planting them out to be killed in the next day or so by frost.

I have planted them into big pots for now, and will transplant into the garden when they are bigger and frost is not such a big problem.

Not sure if I should punch some air holes into the top of the plastic, to help it breath? Will monitor over the next few days and see how it goes.

I am also going to do a similar thing, but over the garden bed, to protect the pumpkin and zucchini, but have to wait till our fence is up (hopefully tomorrow) or the dogs are likely to trample them :(

All set up & ready to go!

OK - so forgive me if this is really basic, first time I've ever attempted a blog.


I hope this to be a journal of my (hopefully successful, this time) veggie patch.

Let me start off by saying that I have had numerous veggie gardens in the past, usually all dismal failures, mainly due to the fact that I lose interest, and couldn't be bothered maintaining it.


This time is going to be different - I hope :)


Here are some photos of my veggie patch, taken last weekend - before shots:

Note the lovely green weeds in the background - although obviously Ethan doesn't mind :)
My Lavender hedge along the path is not looking so great :(



And some after shots as well - looking a lot better!

Weeds all gone - and mushroom compost dug through. We pulled out all the dead lavender bushes, and transplanted the ones on one side over to fill up the gaps. The plan is that the big garden bed will be for veggies, and the smaller ones on either side of the bench seat will be natives - hopefully some flowering ones too.

Garden beds all dug and ready to go.

I even planted some parsley, coriander, and mint.

So today I bought seedlings of:

Basil, Spinach, Zucchini (Black Beauty), Pumpkin (Ironbark), Tomatoes (College Challenge x 3, Roma, Yellow Pear, Red Pear, and Beefsteak x 6), Capsicum - punnet of 6 sweet mixed.

I still want to get some mixed lettuces and strawberries.

But, we need to fence the area, or the dogs will run all over it, and get some sort of mulch, probably pea straw, and I'm not sure about planting out the tomatoes yet as we're still getting frosts.

So that's it for now at least, please comment on my blog, and my garden :)