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.

Mid Week Blues

It seems I've got the mid week gardening withdrawal blues.

I've started a new roster for driving the Taxi that will give me every weekend to myself instead of having a split week.

But last Saturday I felt unwell and had to work on Sunday so it's been nearly two weeks since I've managed anything productive in the garden.

So that leaves me Thursday and Friday to battle through and then I've got two glorious golden days to garden my little heart away with.

I've got to clean the chook pen and spread new straw for them, organise a bin and two piles of compost. There's a gazillion seeds and seedlings to plant. And I've managed to borrow some of the neighbours backyard for planting pumpkin in so that's got to have horse manure, compost and coffee grounds added to it.

And mentioning coffee grounds, I've got buckets of the stuff to spread and add to garden beds, throw it over the lawn and in compost. It's everywhere.

I am currently enjoying some of the best broccoli I've ever grown, along with heaps of peas, lettuce, rocket and coriander. Just enough strawberries to keep me interested and the broad beans are flowering like mad but no beans yet.

Onions, garlic and beetroot are making good growth as well as radish, lettuce, purple climbing beans, Chinese cabbage and pokchoi.

 I can't get any leek seeds to sprout so I'm guessing the seed is old. It's a fresh packet but just no go. Not even one out of two sowings.

How fast does water cress grow? I think my seed has shot but it's very slow to get growing. My first time growing water cress so I've nothing to compare it with.

Not having much luck with capsicum and eggplant seed as well but that might just be from the coldish weather. I'll sow a few more this weekend and see if I have more luck.

Well that's about it for now, chomping at the bit for the weekend to get here.

Cheers

Stewart

Toowoomba area Backyard Veggie Growers Group.

Just under a week now until the second get together for the Toowoomba area Backyard Veggie Growers Group.

A place where experienced and novice veggie growers can come together and help, meet, share and enjoy each others veggie growing escapades, failures, experiments and successes.

Full details can be found on their facebook page at Toowoomba area Backyard Veggie Growers Group.

Cheers and see you there

Stewart.

Carrots in pots.

46 days since planting seed.

The Good Guys.

Post by Gardening Australia.

Budding Roses.

Ever wanted to know how to bud a rose? Some great advice here.

I've tried before and failed spectacularly but this fills in all the gap in my knowledge.

I've got some Dr. Huey roses here that I propagated from a sucker last year so I'll give this a red hot go next Winter and Spring. 





Cheers

Stewart