Busy day

Busy day in the veggie garden yesterday.

Planted several rows of brown onion seedlings, a row of 'Early Crop Massey' peas seeds as well as some spring onion seedlings.

 

Also, as you can see in my previous post, I also harvested my Dwarf Sunray Jerusalem Artichoke and replanted four more tubers.

I've also been allowed to use some of the neighbours backyard for growing veggies so I plumbed in a new tap that I can use to get water there and then I set about getting a small bed of Broad Beans started.

It's a bit late for Broad Beans and there wasn't much soil prep but I just wanted to get something started.

I plan to grow some of the bigger veggies there like corn, potatoes and pumpkin but it's amazing how quickly you can run out of space.

I'll keep my yard for growing the quick pick veggies like lettuce, peas and beans, and herbs.

Cheers Stewart

P.S. Drizzly rain today so everything's getting a good start.

 

Potashing Peas

Post by My Veggie Garden.

When I'm Feeling Blue

I'm feeling a little blue today. After weeks of fabulous late Autumn weather things have turned cold for us here.
And after a miserable overcast day yesterday that only managed to deliver us a grand total of four mils of rain I've decided to cheer myself up with a heap of photos that I took of the garden last Tuesday.
These were taken at around 11:00 am and the weak, late Autumn sunlight, was simply marvelous for taking photos.

 Spinach is just getting going. Made a nice spinach spaghetti with them the other day.

Two tubs of lettuce is keeping me going.

A Lisbon Lemon tree I planted on Tuesday. I've got a video to edit on planting it and then you'll be hearing a lot more about this

Might be my last strawberry now until the weather warms up again. They are still flowering but I suspect the cold will take care or that for a while. 

Same for my chilli

And tomatoes. This is a late planting of tomatoes in the warmest part of my garden in an effort to see if I can get tomatoes to fruit here during winter in Toowoomba.

More lettuce. Never too much lettuce. What I don't eat the chooks (chickens) will take care of.

Silverbeet going gangbusters 

 as is the garlic.

Peas are powering and I've sown some old purple podded pea seed I found while tidying up and they are sprouting up out of the ground too.

I came out of hospital in early July last year and was greeted with mandies from my tree so I'm looking forward to a big mandy feast very soon.

Broad beans are growing strongly.

 Biggest and best parsley I've ever grown.

This might finally be the end of my Basil too.

Rhubarb's getting ready for winter.

And sage.

I feel better now or at least not so blue.

Cheers

Stewart.

Wow, what a day.

Wow, what a day. It's my daughter's 21st and it's been two months since my last operation and after today's effort in the garden I'm feeling ecstatic.

It's been years now since I've been able to do a full day's work and still feel OK at the end of the day.

The morning was made up of weeding, watering and liquid fertilising everything and I mean everything. Roses, perennials, annuals, veggies. You name it it got liquid ferilised. 

I've planted a lot of flowering annuals this year to keep me happy. Annuals like petunias, poppies, snappies, pansies, violas, and primulas in the shady parts of the garden as well. All of these were liquid fertilized as well as all the veggies like the peas, silverbeet, garlic, lettuce, cabbages, strawberries, chillies (still flowering and being warm here for this time of the year I might get another small crop) and broccoli.

The afternoon was all the boring stuff like putting all the prunings through the mulcher, working over the compost heap, mowing the lawn and clearing an overgrown site for planting the Lisbon lemon I bought.

My daughter, the one turning 21, works in a coffee shop/cafe so guess what this is.

Getting rad with my ish. There's 500 little radish seeds per packet so I won't be running out any time soon.

A handy sized seed, no pun intended, I'm just poking a few into small spaces or in between  rows of other veggies, they'll be long gone and out of the way by the time the other veggies grow up

My lemonade tree lemonading.

Seriously just juice and drink, delicious

Next cab off the rank. This is the Lisbon I bought and will be planting in the area I started preparing this after noon.

Two little rhubarb leaves.

When I was harvesting some leaves last week a chunk of main stem came off as well so I bunged it into a pot full of potting mix and now it's looking like I've two more Rhubarbs to plant come spring.

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

Not the deadly

I had to hand in my enrollment paraphernalia for my prep course at uni today so I hopped on the deadly and rode out there.

It's about 9k's each way and mostly up hill on the way there and obviously down hill on the way home.

And for my 47 year old ex squash playing knees that don't do much more than lean on a brake peddle or accelerator in the taxi, I gotta tell ya that's a long way.


My plot at the Toowoomba Community Organic Gardens is on the way home, and as seen as I haven't been there since the last lot of rain I popped in to see how things were going.

When I first got my plot I planted some Violet Sicilian Cauliflower by seed which I planted in a spare raised bed close by. (behind the bike in the above photo)

They're doing well but I've got to get some blood and bone and sulphate of potash on them, as well as some mulch.


The peas are still growing well and will need to be stakes soon (I think I said that last time as well).













Weeds? What weeds?

This is a red cos lettuce the seeds of which I got from diggers. Never grown them before but they look good so far.








Leeks and spring onions.

I'm growing the leeks on at the moment, when they get about 200mm high I divide them up in to individual plants for growing on.










These are the broad beans I planted for a green manure but I'm finding myself attached to them and not wanting to turn them in.

When I get chance I'll ask the pres if I can have some more space for my potato planting plans and then I can keep the BB's.









Cabbage is doing well





















Broccoli Romanesco, same as the Violet Sicilian Cauliflower I planted some of these guys up.

They seem a little slow off the mark, but look healthy enough.

And same again, I've got to get some blood and bone and sulphate of pot ash on them, as well as some mulch.








Also after the recent rain the weeds are having a ball. Looks like wipper snipper time.

Well that's it for now, after having little to do for the last month the veggie gardening jobs seem to be piling up so I'd better get cracking and get into it.

Cheers,

Stewart

But wait there's more

Hang on a minuite, it must be Wednesday somewhere in the world.

Some more of the Wednesday walk through.

First up is the white Italian garlic bed with the purple podded peas at the back.

Very happy with the progress here.

Click on the photos if you want to see a bigger photo.



Some people think they are cute but, as you can see in the photos below, the trouble I have to go to to grow a few lettuce, (not to mention having all my carrot tops eaten off) I hate them.











These are the drunken women lettuce I've been growing for a while now.

The aforementioned possum has had more enjoyment from them than I have. Bloody, bloody bloody........bloody possums.








These are my Red Iceberg lettuce which I am especially proud of.

The possum got a few munches on them but I've had the rest and it's a great little lettuce for sandwiches.








Beetroot and some more lettuce which the possum hasn't found yet for some reason.













Climbing snow peas in flower.

I'm growing about 6 plants in 3 week intervals so I can hopefully have a continuous supply of snow peas until it gets too hot for them.

So far so good.







An eclectic collection of brassicas which includes red cabbage, kohlrabi, Cauliflower, 'Violet Sicilian' and Broccoli, 'Romanesco'. I think there is a normal drumhead cabbage in there as well as a normal Broccoli.

Cheers and happy veggie gardening,

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.

Magic Monday

Hi all, well after two weeks of sinus problems and 97mls of rain I made it down to the Toowoomba community organic gardens today.

The main job I wanted to complete was to plant the broad bean seeds that I collected from last years crop to use for a green manure crop.

Job done.

The peas I planted a few weeks ago have come up and are well on their way so the next job will be to provide them some support.

Even though they are a bush pea they still grow up to one meter high and will need supporting.

Next when I got home was some new laying boxes for the chook a books.

They are about 6/7 months old so they should start laying soon, but I'm guessing they might not start until the day length starts to get longer.




The Rolls Royce of laying boxes or am I just kidding myself.














My dear wife has been getting frustrated waiting for my chooks to start laying eggs and went out to the local produce store and got herself two point of lay chooks.

So now it's a race to see who lays eggs first.

That's it for Monday,
Cheers and happy gardening,
Stewart