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.

Alright already.

What's getting planted over the next week.

• Lettuce seedlings x 8, 1 punnet of. Done
• Peas by seed. Not yet.
• Broccoli seedlings x 6, punnet of. Done
• Radish by seed. I'm working on it.
• Leeks by seed. Soon alright.
• Kale by seed. Done.
• Cabbage by seed. Done
• Sweet Pea seedlings x 8, punnet of. Done.
• Poppy seedlings x 8, punnet of. Done.

What's getting planted in your garden?

Cheers

Stewart

Hi, how have you bean?

I had a few minutes spare on Tuesday and this is what I ended up doing. I wish it was as easy as it looks. It's like the weeds were just jumping into my hand.



I stopped into the nursery on the way home today (Sunday) and picked up a few punnets of seedlings while I was there. It seems now that I'm driving the Taxi of a daytime I can't care all that well for seeds that I've planted. Big seeds like beans and corn should be OK but the little seeds like lettuce and carrots that are planted close to the surface tend to dry out.

Anyway I bought some Leek, spring onion, cabbage and lettuce seedlings to plant tomorrow. I also picked up a packet of rocket seeds (I know, I just said I wasn't going to do that) and I'll try them in a protected spot where they wont dry out as much and see how I go. I know they sprout quite readily so fingers crossed.

I'm promised fine weather for the next two days that I have free to myself to play, plant and weed in the garden and I'm so looking forward to getting plenty of work completed.

Until next time,

Cheers

Stewart

The week that was.

A mixed week for my veggie garden. The weather has been varied ranging from plesant to showers, rain (10/12mm) and even warm (22C) for this time of the year.

Ordered and received

I placed an order with Green Harvest (my favorite online mail order company) on late Wednesday and to my surprise it arrived Friday lunch time (damn they are good).
Included in the order was;

• Potatoes; Ruby Lou 1kg
• Lupin
• Lucerne Sequel
• Tomato Oxheart
• Tumeric Madras
• Rhubarb Ever Red
  

Planted

• Rhubarb Ever Red
• Lupin
• Tumeric
• Carrots
• Radish
• Leek
• Potatoes
• Garlic

Sprouted

• Spring onions (just)
• Beetroot

Growing

• Strawberries are flowering
• Self sown wheat has seed heads maturing
• Radish are getting there.
• Peas are a bit slow but getting there
• Self sown potatoes are powering along. Must remember to plant my seed potatoes earlier next year. They seem to like the early start.
  

Chooks

• Still 2/3 eggs a day.

That's was the week that is from the veggie garden this week;

Cheers and happy gardening

Stewart

Getting better all the time

Hi all,

I'm in between Math assignment at the moment so thought I'd do a quick blog.

I'm slowly getting more mobile day by day though having a good sneeze is still out of the question.

I had mums hubby come down to the Toowoomba organic community gardens yesterday to help me get the potato patch ready.

He must have been impressed with the show because he signed up for membership on the day.

I couldn't do much myself but I managed to separate the Leeks and replant them for further growing on.

The weather here has been unseasonal warm to hot so I've been getting optimistic and have started some of my spring seed plantings including the free Tomato seeds that come with September's Burke's Backyard magazine. I've also sown a full range of lettuce including Drunken Woman, Red Leprechaun, Red Cos and Red Iceberg. I've also sown some Florence Fennel, Celery, and some seeds I saved from a shop brought tomato.

I'd better get back to math and finish my assignment and I'll see if I can update some more early next week. They (weather forecasters)are predicting some rain early neat week also so fingers crossed here. It's been 8/9 weeks without rain now so it will be good to get some as it is all getting a bit on the dry side of things.

Bfn

Stewart

Done Diggin', for now & Kylie's Rose

Well I had a good productive day in the garden today.

In my home garden I managed to weed and mulch the Italian garlic, Purple flowering Broad Beans and the Strawberries as well as giving them a dose of fish emulsion.

I'm still chasing the Grey aphids that seem determined to keep having a go at my brassicas.



Then after lunch I went down to the community gardens to finish digging the last third of my garden plot.

As this bed is mainly going to be used for a spring planted crop of potatoes I'll probably plant more peas in here mainly as a green manure crop.

I'll let them go until I get at least one picking of peas off the bushes and then dig the whole lot in.





I also went down yesterday (Sunday) to plant some Leek and Spring Onion seedlings. The photo is a bit short on detail but you get the picture.











The ' Greenfeast' peas I planted are up and going strong.

I also mulched them with some aged horse manure that is available at the gardens, so that should help them along as well.







Kylie's Rose.

This is a photo of Kylie's Rose who is my step daughter.

I can't remember how I came by this rose and I don't remember what it is called either, but we attributed it's beauty to Kylie and it has been with me now for 17/18 years (the rose and Kylie that is).




We lived on the Gold Coast at the time I purchased it and when we moved here to Toowoomba Kylie's Rose came with us.

Leek

These are my climbing peas which I'm just starting to get a crop from. Very tasty and fun to grow.














I planted these guys ages ago (Feb I think) and I am now just starting to use them. They were easy to grow and I'll definitely be planting more.














I read that carrot and leek make good companion plants and it was suggested to plant a row of carrots between the leek. I gave it a go and it is working really well.