The Coming Season

Getting ready for the coming growing season can mean only one thing here at My Veggie Garden, seeds.

This year I'm taking a different path to the one I usually take.

After reading David Glenn's, from Lambley Nursery, spiel on growing F1 hybrid tomatoes for improved yield and increased disease resistance I've purchased two packets of tomato seeds to trial here in My Veggie Garden.

Lambley Nursery is set around an old farmhouse in the hot dry wind swept plains of the central Victorian Goldfields so it will be interesting to see how they do in my, usually hot and humid summer.

 At around a dollar per seed they could be considered expensive but I consider it a small price to pay, for if they do crop well it will be a good investment.
The two Tomato varieties I'll be trying are,

• Tomato, Gourmet, 'Gabriella' F1 
• Cherry Tomato, 'Tycho' F1

On the Lambley Nursery web site, David Glenn goes on to say,

"If you are having trouble growing a good crop or indeed any crop at all of “heirloom” tomatoes or seedling tomatoes bought from garden centres or big box stores you will be joining a growing band of gardeners.  The answer is to plant disease resistant varieties. 

We trialled 10 varieties of disease resistant hybrid tomatoes and the 3 listed below were the best for taste and for disease resistance. I was still picking good, ripe, full size tomatoes at the end of April. 

The seed of modern, good flavoured, disease resistant tomato hybrids is expensive but it more than pays for itself in the vastly improved production of ripe tomatoes."

I've also ordered other seeds that I will trial for myself as well, these include,

• Cucumber, Australian Slicer 'Icebreaker F1' 
  
  • Beetroot, 'Red Ace' F1
  • Broccolini, 'Happy Rich' F1
  • Cabbage, Mini, 'Gonzales' F1
  • Carrot, 'Nelson' F1 
  • Coriander, 'Calypso' 
  • Scarlet Runner Bean, 'Scarlet Emperor' 
  • Bush Bean, 'Simba' 
  • Spinach, 'Tyee' F1 
  • Zucchini, 'Bush Baby' F1
   

I'm keen to get started and can't wait to see the results but I'll be posting as I sow and plant and hopefully have a bountiful harvest to share.

Lambley Nursery has a good reputation among my circle of gardening friends and my seeds arrived well packaged and inside the two week time frame I was advised to expect.

Seed planting

I didn't have a whole lot planned for today due to the forecast for rain in our area.

We ended up with 23mm yesterday (Saturday) and woke up to bright sunshine this morning.

As it turned out it became a good day for planting seeds.

Seed planting

Water Cress - Nasturtium officinale. Started out by sprinkling some Water Cress seeds over about a one meter square area and watering them in.

I've never grown Water Cress before so this'll be a new learning curve for me. Seed purchased from The Seed Collection.

Tomato - Australian Red. A bush tomato with medium sized fruit. This plant produces large flat red fruit and it is noted for its ability to form ripe tomatoes in cool summer areas.  Seed purchased from Rangeview Seeds.

Eggplant -Taskeniki, Rosa Bianca and Red Square. What was I thinking? Three varieties of eggplant. 

That's right, I was trying to make the order up to ten dollars so I could get free postage  and  they were appealing to me too. Seed purchased from The Seed Collection.

Alyssum - Royal Carpet. Something to feed the bees with. Seed purchased from The Seed Collection. 

Tomato - Cherry Roma. Picked these up from Bunnings. 

I was looking for a cherry tomato when I saw these. This will be the first time growing these so I'm curious to see how they turn out.


 Coriander. These seeds are from a coriander plant I let go to seed and then collected the seeds for my self to see if I can become more self sufficient.

Other seeds I've collected are Basil, Pumpkin and Beans (dwarf), not a huge list by all means but I have radish and rocket going to seed now that I'll collect. As I get better I'll increase my varieties.

A part from weeding and mulching some rose and bamboo prunings that just about covers my day in the veggie garden. One more thing, the bamboo prunings were from a lattice structure I built for some climbing beans, Purple King, also purchased from Bunnings.

Cheers

Stewart.

Busy day and I'm Buggered.

Busy day and I'm now more than buggered. But plenty was achieved.

I planted the Dwarf Sunray Jerusalem Artichoke that I rode all the way to Brisbane to see Jerry Coleby-Williams open garden for.

Helianthus tuberosus
 
(Dwarf Sunray Jerusalem Artichoke)

I prised a small chunk off my rhubarb some months ago and put it in a pot to hopefully grow on which I'm happy to say it has.

 So today was planting day.

A bucket of  'Witches Brew,' a hole, mix it up a bit and bung it in. Job done.

Just need to mulch it up and we're done.














The coldest and frostiest winter aroung here for years and I decide to try and over winter tomatoes.

Needless to sat they copped a hiding and aren't looking to good at all.

But with the weather slowing warming up a touch of fertiliser and a good watering I thing I'll get a good start on some tomatoes during spring.

I gave a handfull of Rooster Booster fertilised to the Lisbon Lemon I planted a few months back.

Added some mulch and gave it a good drink.

It shouldn't need much more than a regular drink from here on in. Then around the beginning of Autumn I'll give it some more Rooster Booster.

I also placed an order with The Seed Collection who were talking themselves up big on facebook so I thought I'd give them a go.

Turns out they walk the talk and I had my seeds within two days. Very efficient, I must say.

Of the seeds I ordered I only managed to get a few Red Amaranthus and some Red Cabbage planted.

But hey, It's a start.

The BoM is talking up some rain for us here on Saturday and Sunday so fingers crossed I'll get to hear the sound of rain on my tin roof this weekend and get my rainwater tank filled again.

Saturday 16 August

Cloudy. Very high chance of rain. The chance of a thunderstorm in the afternoon and evening. Light winds becoming east to northeasterly 20 to 30 km/h during the morning then becoming light during the evening.

Also did fair bit of liquid fertilising, mulched up some prunings, fixed a gutter that had a hole in it and the rain wasn't getting to the tank.


Cheers and I hope you get some rain

Stewart.

Today/tomorrow

Stiff, sore and exhausted. Been digging and clearing all day so I can plant seeds all day tomorrow. 

After months and months of neglect it's starting to look like a backyard again.

Carrots, beans, tomato, spring onions, lettuce, basil and something else I can't remember right now all on the to plant list for tomorrow. Only managed to sow some Great Lakes lettuce today.

Still want to get a bed ready for some Sweet Corn so as soon as I get all those planted that will be priority #1. 

29° tomorrow and 33° on Wednesday, though, hot and dry too, not great seed planting weather.


 Damn the compost is full too. Need another Gedye Bin.

Anywho, 'till next time, happy gardening

Stewart.