Seeds

My seeds arrived.

I was beginning to worry where they were as I'd ordered them very early last week and thought they might arrive by the end of last week.

And when they didn't arrive on Monday I was getting ready to make some phone calls.

As it turned out I had to drive Cab 11 to Brisbane and return and I'd forgotten all about seeds arriving in the mail.

So when I eventually got home and inside I was pleasantly surprised  to find two small parcels chock full of seeds.

Guess what this little veggie gardener will be doing this weekend.

I haven't grown a lot of these before but after watching a video of Brisbane gardening identity and chook wrangler Claire Bickle on Blooming in Brisbane Gardening TV I'm going to give them a try.

A few of the others I'm just curious about.



Cheers and happy seed planting

Stewart.

Organic And I Know It (Sexy And I Know It Parody)

 How could I not put this up?



Cheers

Stewart.

Freckles The Lettuce Update.

For those of you wondering how Freckles the lettuce is getting on then this is for you.

Planted as seed back on the 26th of the 8th they have since sprouted and grown well

Yesterday I planted them into the veggie garden.

A bucket of compost and a few handfuls of Rooster Booster and sure as the sun rises in the east we're away.

I'll bung a teaspoon (maybe two) of Epsom salts into a watering can of water and give them a drink with that.

The jury seems out as to whether Epsom salts helps or not but it doesn't do any perceivable harm so I consider it worth a go.

Cheers

Stewart and Freckles the Lettuce.



Any comments are welcome.

Daisy.

If it all gets  just a little too much from time to time, there's always daisies.

Bees, Australia v Italy

My musing on bees.

I made it to my second meeting (it only took me 12 months) of the Southern Beekeepers Association last night and renewed my membership while I was there,
Also I was asked if I had any hives and rather sheepishly I had to admit I didn't and I started thinking that maybe I need to make some sort of comment on my bee future.

As with most things with me it comes down to the bottom line of either, what's practical and makes sense, or, how much does it cost but in this case it's a blend of the two.

Why do I want a bee hive?

Mainly for pollination and I like to have bees in the garden. Because of this I was leaning towards a native bee hive.

During my research however I came across a fairly significant hurdle. Cost! My research found the cost of an established native stingless bee hive ranged between $350 to $495.

It was this cost that has made me swing back to honey bees but another fact I uncovered made honey bees an even more convincing argument in my mind is that honey bees give you honey (yeah I know, who'd have thought, right?). And this in the deal breaker, about 40kg per year of the stuff.

Now 'honey' was never the main aim of having bees either native or European, in my case Italian (I learnt this last night, clever, huh?) but the cost to set up for honey bees is similar if not less than the cost of a native bee hive and with native bees you might get 1kg of honey per year, though I'm told it does tastes pretty good.

So deal done and the winner is Honey Bees by 39kg.

Next Meeting I'll find out what I need to get started and a firm idea of how much it will cost me.

Cheers

Stewart.

Any comments are welcome.

Capsicum

Much excitement here at MVG. 

Capsicum seed I saved from a bought capsicum that I'd sown on the 24th of last month have sprouted.

So I now know it's easy as to save capsicum seed but I'll have to wait to see what fruit actually gets produced. 

Cheers

Another Busy Weekend.

Wow, my first full weekend to myself and a productive and surprising weekend it was.

Productive simply because I managed to get a lot done, obviously.

Mainly maintenance gardening jobs like weeding, spreading and side dressing with compost, applying liquid fertiliser, some pruning and then today I got lots of seed planting done.

Talking about seeds, I watched a short video from Blooming In Brisbane Gardening TV by Claire Bickle who looked at salad greens including sorrel, chicory, rocket, mustard giant red, watercress and kale.

Some of these I don't have so this morning I placed an order with Edan Seeds for Chicory, Fennel Florence - Romanesco, Mustard - Red Splendor and Sorrel. While I was there I also added some Shallots, the red bunching variety which are highly coloured at all ages and a packet of Helchrysum, Tom Thumb Mixed for the bees.

Still on seeds I went mad planting this morning including, 

Eggplant, take two (first sowing failed to proceed)
Taskeniki,
Red Square,
and Rosa Bianca.

Carrot - baby, Cabbage - red, Lettuce - Great Lakes, Tomato - keepsake, Zinnia and Cosmos, Lemon basil, Lemon cucumber, More borage, Cosmos Bright lights,

Pumpkin, Leek and Watermelon.

That took care of most of today and this afternoon I went to a get together for the Toowoomba area Backyard Veggie Growers group.

 

And surprising simply because we received and unexpected nine mils of rain on Saturday night.

Not much else, bunged a few spuds into the ground, planted a couple of lettuce and a few Chinese cabbage.

Just have to sit back now and watch it all grow.

Cheers

Stewart.

Mid Week Blues

It seems I've got the mid week gardening withdrawal blues.

I've started a new roster for driving the Taxi that will give me every weekend to myself instead of having a split week.

But last Saturday I felt unwell and had to work on Sunday so it's been nearly two weeks since I've managed anything productive in the garden.

So that leaves me Thursday and Friday to battle through and then I've got two glorious golden days to garden my little heart away with.

I've got to clean the chook pen and spread new straw for them, organise a bin and two piles of compost. There's a gazillion seeds and seedlings to plant. And I've managed to borrow some of the neighbours backyard for planting pumpkin in so that's got to have horse manure, compost and coffee grounds added to it.

And mentioning coffee grounds, I've got buckets of the stuff to spread and add to garden beds, throw it over the lawn and in compost. It's everywhere.

I am currently enjoying some of the best broccoli I've ever grown, along with heaps of peas, lettuce, rocket and coriander. Just enough strawberries to keep me interested and the broad beans are flowering like mad but no beans yet.

Onions, garlic and beetroot are making good growth as well as radish, lettuce, purple climbing beans, Chinese cabbage and pokchoi.

 I can't get any leek seeds to sprout so I'm guessing the seed is old. It's a fresh packet but just no go. Not even one out of two sowings.

How fast does water cress grow? I think my seed has shot but it's very slow to get growing. My first time growing water cress so I've nothing to compare it with.

Not having much luck with capsicum and eggplant seed as well but that might just be from the coldish weather. I'll sow a few more this weekend and see if I have more luck.

Well that's about it for now, chomping at the bit for the weekend to get here.

Cheers

Stewart

Toowoomba area Backyard Veggie Growers Group.

Just under a week now until the second get together for the Toowoomba area Backyard Veggie Growers Group.

A place where experienced and novice veggie growers can come together and help, meet, share and enjoy each others veggie growing escapades, failures, experiments and successes.

Full details can be found on their facebook page at Toowoomba area Backyard Veggie Growers Group.

Cheers and see you there

Stewart.

Carrots in pots.

46 days since planting seed.

The Good Guys.

Post by Gardening Australia.

Budding Roses.

Ever wanted to know how to bud a rose? Some great advice here.

I've tried before and failed spectacularly but this fills in all the gap in my knowledge.

I've got some Dr. Huey roses here that I propagated from a sucker last year so I'll give this a red hot go next Winter and Spring. 





Cheers

Stewart