Christmas in July

He's making a (seed) list and checking it twice.

Everything below in 'italics' is used from the Lambley Nursery Vegetable seed catalogue.

Carrot 'Mokum' F1:- Experimenting with a few new carrot varieties.

'One of the quickest carrots to produce 36 days for baby and 54 days for full size. The slender roots have a very good sweet flavour and a crisp texture. Performs well even during hot weather.'


Carrot 'Sweetheart'

 '‘Sweetheart’ is very sweet, flavoursome and productive bunching carrot for year round production. It takes about 90 days from seed sowing to harvest and maintains its flavour at a larger size.'

Bean, Bush ‘Simba’ I grew this variety last Spring/Summer and was very pleased with the results. Easy to grow and tasty to boot.

 'A round dark green bush bean with terrific flavour. It is a heavy cropper and has good disease resistance. Its heavy frame keeps the beans straight and clean as they are held well off the soil.'

 Beetroot ‘Red Ace’ F1 Also grew this one last season, same as above.

'This is the best beetroot I’ve grown. Fast growing, good as a baby beet as well as full size. It lasts well in the garden and is tender even when it makes a large size. As it is slow to bolt we plant it from August through to early March.'

 Leek ‘King Richard’ (Organic) What can I say, I like leeks.

'I sell the true strain of this very early leek. From an early November planting I was digging decent leeks by March. In fact Criss and I served fifty people with Leeks a la Grecque at a charity lunch here one March a couple of years ago. As it is slow to bolt it is happy well into winter too.'

Lettuce, Baby Leaf 'Encore' Another experiment. Just looking for a lettuce I really like.

'A mix of stunning colours, textures and shapes. Includes green and red oakleaf, green and red cos, Lolo Rossa. Can be grown year round and cut several times.'

Lettuce, Adrianna Same as above.

 A new butter-head with great flavour and disease resistance. It is especially good during the heat of summer as it is strong against tip burn. It can be sown from August until may for year round production.

Radish ‘Pink Beauty’ (Organic) I like radish, I'm just looking for one I like even more and this one looks appealing.

'Quick to grow and beautiful to look at this pink radish has a mild, sweet, delicious flavour. It is resistant to pithiness. It takes 26 days to mature.'

Baby Leaf Mustard Greens 'Scarlet Frills'  Don't know what I'm doing here. Trying something new maybe?

'21 days baby 40 days full size. A sweetly flavoured mustard green with finely cut, dark red, ruffled leaves which will add a beautiful spicy touch to a mixed leaf salad. Sow from August until April.'

Brussels Sprouts Diablo F1
I've tried growing Brussels Sprouts on and off over the years without much commitment and little success. Possibly due to planting too late. So I'll get some good seed and plant at a more appropriate time of the year and see how we go.

'The best Brussels Sprouts strain I’ve ever grown and I’ve tried twenty or so. Diablo produces crops over a long period from late autumn through most of the winter if seeds are planted no later than November.'

Pumpkin, Buttercup 'Bonbon F1' And this one is just for fun, simple as that.

'An All American Selection winner ‘Bonbon’ is a classic looking buttercup pumpkin with deep green smooth skin and a prominent grey button on the blossom end. Deep orange fibreless flesh has a good sweet flavour. Fruit weighs 2-2.5kg and each vine produces an average of 4 pumpkins.'

So there you have it Spring, Summer and Autumn all sorted. I'll buy the odd packet of seed from here and there. I'll need to get some seed potatoes from somewhere as well but the year ahead is looking interesting to say the least.

Cheers and happy seed planting

Stewart.

Another good week, sort off.

Another good week, sort off. There was the case of mild food poisoning overnight Tuesday with a two day recovery before I'd bounced back enough to get back to work.

On top of that the weather has been very, 'traditional Toowoomba Winter' weather. On top of 36mm of rain on Tuesday the rest of the week was cold, overcast and windy.

Therefore the pea seedlings I planted Monday after work expecting rain was a good plan. Also some variegated Iris I'd ordered arrived on Friday and then the weather fined up for the events of all events, the Queensland Garden Expo.

They're held at the Nambour showgrounds each year and I made a promise to myself to go back after last year and pick up a Burgon and Ball Digging Fork that I've had my eye on. Which I did.

Fair dinkum, without a word of a lie and without a shadow of doubt. Like a hot knife through butter.

It doesn't look much just standing there by itself but, this is the best $100 I've spent on a garden tool, hands down, ever.

It's a Burgon and Ball hand crafted stainless steel digging fork.

And after using it all afternoon digging up all sorts of garden, I'd have happily payed $200 for it.

It has great balance, the tines are at just the right angle, the handle is just the right length, the stainless steel tines just guide through the soil.

I bought it thinking it was a bit extravagant but after using it for an afternoon I can't wait to get back out in the garden and start digging again.

If you want one just look up The Garden Tool Shop.

My apoligies for the sound quality on the video but I trusted the GoPro would be up to the task. It sounds horrible and I hope I can fix it in time for my next video.

It's been a good week.

Hi guys, busyish week for me. Feeling energized now the winter solstice has been and gone.

Beginning to plan ahead to Spring veggie gardening but still planting some Winter veggies.

Today though, around these parts, was an absolutely fabulous Winters day.

Started with a good frost and by 9:00 am it was warm enough to head outside into the garden.

I spent the morning pruning back a renegade climbing rose. And three full wheelie bins later it was back under control.

After a short break for lunch, it was veggie time.

I'd purchased three punnets of seedlings yesterday, mini cabbage, broccoli and some "heritage' lettuce.

I'd had the bed turned over a few weeks ago and just needed to add some fertiliser, give it a rake over and I was ready to plant.

Earlier in the week I wanted/needed to transplant a raspberry that I'd planted last year at my work veggie garden. Once I'd finished I found had a half dozen small raspberry suckers that need a new home so I was happy to oblige.

Anyhow, back today. After planting the seedlings I set about preparing for this seasons Corn patch.

I've got about 2/3 of it ready. I've got plenty of time though as the Corn bed is in shade all Winter long thanks to a massive northern wall. It's about the end of September before I can get enough sun to plant up the bed. I've got a couple of bags of cow manure in the shed that I'll add near the end of August and give it a dig over once again before I plant.

After that it was a bit of weeding and by then the day was starting to cool off again and I still need to run  over the lawn with the mower before the lights went out.

Also the Broad Beans I'd planted a while back have been loving the cold and rainy conditions we've had lately. They look very happy and healthy.

And one last thing. I've had one of these Burgon and Ball digging forks on my veggie bucket list for a while and this coming weekend is the Queensland Garden Expo weekend at Nambour and I'm hoping the same guy is there this year as last year and I can finally pick one up for myself.


Cheers

Stewart.