Spring is in the air

An update on yesterdays jobs in the garden, hope you enjoy.

Spring is in the air even though it's only early August.

There's always plenty of jobs to do and here is but a few of them.

Getting asparagus ready for spring. Fertilising citrus.

Mulching.

Where I get my cow poo - Garden City Landscapes Supplies. https://landscapesuppliestoowoomba.co...

All about Searles 5 in 1 - https://www.searlesgardening.com.au/p...

My Globe Artichoke.

Roses

I received a phone call on Friday to let me know that two roses* I'd ordered a while ago had arrived and I could pick them up when I was ready.

I was keen to pick them up so I pinched my wife's car this morning (Sunday) and made a bee line for the nursery.

While I was waiting to be served I was having a good look around when I spied a very over grown punnet of Globe Artichoke.

  'Powis Castle' 

It's been in the back of my mind to grow some more Globe Artichokes.

So I bought them, the roses, a packet of seeds, some potash, a wormwood  'Powis Castle' and a punnet of lobelia.

 I had Globe Artichoke years ago but lost them in the drought when I was too crook to care for them. Before that though they grew well.

Planting

Being a perennial I gave the soil a good dose of Witch's Brew.

About twenty liters over a two meter by half a meter row.

Turned it into the soil and planted my Globe Artichoke.


Sixty centimeters apart was the recommended plant spacing on the label but seeing as it is only a single row I planted mine about forty centimeters apart.

 Mulch

  A  little on the root bound side of things but I teased the roots out a little so I hope this will take care of any root balling.

Gave them a good watering and I'll give them a good mulch of straw when I get a chance on Tuesday.

Cheers and happy gardening,

Stewart.

*The two roses I ordered were 'Cabana' and 'Remember Me'.

Asparagus TLC.

A sparrow grass Tlc.

Last growing seasons left overs. Removed the weeds and trimmed up the dead spears.

 A sprinkling of Searl's 5 in 1 and about 200 grams of Organic Plus fertilizer. If I had compost I'd have added a good bucket full of that as well.

 Mulch it baby. No water it first and then mulch and then water it again.

A week later and 'ta da' Breakfast tomorrow.


Cheers

Stewart.

If you want some more info on growing Asparagus then Jane Edmanson has gone to a lot of trouble click here


And about a 101 ways to cook with Asparagus at taste

Here's something you might want to try.

 The accumulator.
In the latest edition of 'Organic Gardener' (OG) there is an excellent article espousing the virtues of comfrey. One of those virtues is the high level of potash and good levels of nitrogen and phosphate contained within their leaves.


They, OG,  also suggested to use the leaves in layers about 5 cm thick as a mulch so that while the leaves are wilting and breaking down, which happens quickly, the nutrients are leached into the soil and become available to the plant you have mulched.

Here is my tomato with the comfrey stuffed around it. I'm using it on my tomato because it needs a good regular supply of potash for fruit setting and with all our rain lately they have become a bit etiolated.




I went one step further than OG suggested and covered my comfrey with compost and then mulched with some aging straw.


I also mulched and composted right up to the stem of my tomato. I did this because tomatoes don't get collar rot because they have a very active advantageous root system which allows them to produce new roots from their stems and thereby increasing their ability to access available nutrients from the soil

Cheers and happy tomato cropping

Stewart

Here's the plan. LUCERNE 'Sequel'

LUCERNE 'Sequel'
Medicago sativa

I purchased some Lucerne seeds with my last order from Green Harvest and here is some of my thinking behind this.

• The second highest (the first being taste) reason for growing my own veggies is to save money. In my mind it seems pointless to spend $100.00 preparing and maintaining a crop that you could buy from a fruit and veggie shop for forty or fifty dollars, not counting the hours spent tending the crop.
  
  
• So with the above thought in my head I decided to grow my own lucerne and make my own mulch/straw. I can place a few plants here and there where it is not practical to grow veggies like along the fence line, around the edge of the chook pen, between the roses, etc, etc.
  
  
• A nitrogen source for my compost.
  
  
• The deep tap root will help lift nutrients from deep within the soil making it a welcome addition to my compost
  
  
  
  
  
• Also due to finical constraints (like I don't have enough money) and a green tinge on my part for the environment I have unregistered my car and am now push pike bound which makes it very difficult to get bales of mulch and trying to save money means delivery is out of the question so grow my own it is.
  
  
• I can harvest it as needed let it dry in the sun and bung it through the muncher if need be.
  
  
• The chooks will get a feed every now and then of fresh lucerne.
  
  
• It smells nice
  

Here is a few Lucerne facts I lifted from the front of the Green Harvest seed packet.

• Lucerne is a upright perennial winter vigorous legume (more on legumes/cover crops below).
• It has purple flowers and a strong, very deep tap root.
• Lucerne prefers deep well-drained soils, with a neutral to slightly alkaline pH.
• It will not tolerate water logging even for short periods but is tolerant of frosts.
• (I'd like more info on this fact) The tender leaves are used as a vegetable and as a tea.
• The leaves are rich in methionine whatever that is), an essential amino acid.
• Lucerne flowers attract beneficial insects such as assassin bugs (who said gardening was boring), parasitic wasps, and ladybeetles (my favorite).
• It is useful as an orchard cover crop and as a mulch plant in the garden.
• It is also a highly nutritious animal forage.

Cover crops/Legumes

• Cover crops provide a living carpet of perennial plants for orchards, this 'living mulch' can provide many advantages, especially compared to grass, which aggressively competes with fruit trees for water and nutrients. Cover crops can;
  

1. Suppress weeds without the use of herbicides
2. Protect valuable topsoil from wind and water erosion
   
3. Reduce compaction caused by frequent mowing.
4. Increase organic matter, earthworms and beneficial micro organisms
5. Increase the soil's available nitrogen and moisture retention
6. Provide habitat, nectar and pollen for beneficial insects
7. Improve water, root and air penetration in the soil.

What is a Legume

• Legumes are plants such as clover, lucerne, peas, beans, medics and chickpeas. An important advantage of legumes is their unusual ability to obtain nitrogen, a major element need for plant growth, from the soil air, as most plants are unable to do this. They do this by forming a symbiotic relationship with a group of bacteria called Rhizobium, which live within a special structure, called a nodule, on the plant's roots. The Rhizobia can take nitrogen from the air and convert it to the form plants normally obtain from the soil. This process is called nitrogen fixation.

Well that's it for now. Any feedback or questions are welcome.

Cheers and happy gardening

Stewart.

This mans best friend #2

This mans best friend #1




After the magic score of lucerne mulch hay I discovered it was too coarse for the finer veggies as in the lettuce I have planted.
Pretty much as I expected though and no biggie to solve, just add 1 (one) 'This mans best friend' and abracadabra, hey presto, magic lucerne hay lettuce mulch.

Life should be this easy all the time.



















Red cos lettuce all mulched up ready for the 30 plus temps tomorrow.

Whatta you do, floods up north, bush fires down south and still a bloody (green) drought in the middle.

Damn you gotta love Australia or else you'd go mad.

As usual if you click on the photos you'll get a bigger picture.

I like hearing from you all.
All comments are welcome.
You can comment by clicking here.

The great lucerne mulch adventure.

Funny how things work out sometimes.
Saturday night just gone I was working in my taxi and the last thing on my mind was lucerne mulch.

Also it is very rare that I get bored enough to buy a Newspaper to pass the time, but as it turned out Saturday night was an exception.

Anyhow, as I was reading the paper, I usually go through the classified ads and look up the produce section. I usually look there for mulch straw or hay, mainly out of curiosity, but because of the drought even mulch hay was dearer than what I wanted to pay for it.




So it was to my surprise that I saw lucerne mulch hay advertised for $5.00 dollars a bale then just below $4.40. I thought bugger I've got no way of getting my hands on this at such a good price, then just as I was discovering all this Max in cab 48 pulled in behind me on the rank I was on.

So as cabbies do on a quiet night they talk to each other about how quiet a night they are having.
After exhausting that topic I lamented to Max about the mulch and wishing I had a ute to go and grab 10 or 12 bales of hay and blow me down he said he had one and I could borrow it.



Now not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth (ewu, why would want to) I took him up on his offer. The rest, as they say, is history.


The lucerne can only be used for mulch because it was rained on after being cut and then it goes moldy and horses won't eat it but veggie gardens love it.








Photo 1. is how much he has left to sell.

Photo 2. is Neville, my mums Husband and also recipient of 5 bales of hay for his veggie garden.

Photo 3. Just a photo of the lucerne farm. This bloke had 120 acres of heaven (6k's South West of Cambooya which is South of Toowoomba) and was very keen to discuss all forms of organic farming, bio organics and Natural Sequence Farming (NSF) among others.







Photo 4. At home with the loaded ute. We could have easily taken more but 11 for me and 5 for Neville will keep us going for a while and I did ask if we could ring at a later date if we wanted more.

Photo 5. A nice little haul to keep me going over winter.

As usual if you click on the photos you'll get a bigger picture.

All comments welcome. You can comment by clicking here

Beautiful mid spring day

Beautiful mid spring day here, cool easterly breeze fine sunny day not to hot and not to cold, just right said Goldilocks, I just cant help myself but go outside and work myself stupid.

Just some up dates and progress reports.
This is the tiny tom I'm trying, it is growing vigorously atm which is all I can hope for.

I mulched them this morning as well as my egg plants and watermelon I planted the other day.
The rain we had during the week was excellent, but there is still dry patched here and there when I dig somewhere to plant something. 70-80 mls of soaking rain over a week would be terrific but that hasn't happened around here since Noah was a boy.

I prepared a small area for my baby sweet corn which if I let mature I can use for pop corn as well so I'll plant them this arvo.






Most of my silverbeet is in it's second year and is now bolting to seed. I save some and see if I can grow more from my own seed.













The first of my sugar loaf cabbage is starting to form heads so it wont be long now.


















My potatoes are growing like mad. The King Edwards at the back are flowering and look absolutely divine.










My first planting of sweet corn is doing nicely as is the extra seed potatoes I planted that wouldn't fit in the main potato bed.













Last but not least is the globe artichoke with it yummy flower heads about half formed.

Talk about spoilt!

These are my Cabbage, Lettuce and Turnip that are about half grown and I decided to give them a treat. My Beetroot and Brussels also got the same treat.



First I added a light side dressing of blood and bone at about a hand full per sq/mtr.














































Then a side dressing of compost. I used about a bucket per sq/mtr































And then I covered it all over with my mulched prunings, again about a bucket per sq/mtr.

This mans best friend

This mans best friend. I hate buying things. I always worry it wont last long or wont do as good a job as I like, but when I do buy something and it works really well then it's a big relief. Then after a while I really get to enjoy using something that works well.
So by now your guessing that I'm pretty happy with the mulcher in the photos and you'd be right. Around a small yard like mine it has been perfect.











Below is a photo of the end result. It (the mulcher) cuts it down pretty fine and when added to the garden the worms just love it.













The reason for all this mulcher talk is because I need a new, extra rain water tank. With all the extra garden going in this spring summer the tank is not going to last long if we have a dry spell of more than six weeks.
So the site chosen for the tank is out the front of the house where there was a rather mature night scented jasmine growing. So out with the secateurs and out with mulcher and the end result you see below.