Mammabug

Winter Garden

It is just past mid winter, the shortest day of the year, and this is how my garden is looking.

The Beetroot is doing really well, as you can see at the front, just behind them is the broccoli.

The strawberries are also doing well, both in the hanging bag and the pot. And a loverly shot of some flat nappies drying in the background.

Yes, that is shredded paper that I am mulching with. Just like straw, once it is wet the paper felts down and so will not blow away. It is just as good at keeping the moisture in.

Yes, I probably should have waited until the sun was a little bit higher, or lower before taking these photos but live and learn…

Strawberry Aromas

My new strawberries and hanging strawberry bag came in the mail today from the diggers club.

Zucchini and Tomato

I forgot to plant the zucchini, so in went 2 seeds today. Luckily we can plant zucchini all year around here.

One of the 2 tomato seeds I have in a pot in the kitchen window has sprouted. Yay!

I got an upside-down tomato planter from woolworths at half price, so I want to try growing it on the porch, see how it goes. Another couple of weeks and it should be big enough to plant out.

No sign of the tomatoes in the garden bed yet. However, there are now broccoli, pea, beetroot, and a few onions showing their faces.

Shoots spotted

I checked the garden today and found a bunch of tiny seedlings.

The beetroot, broccoli, and peas are all starting to show, and what may be a single onion (or grass). Looking forward to lots of leafy bits soon

Carrots

I found a recipe for carrot soup, and realised I had forgotten to plant carrots in the garden! Shock! Horror!

I immediately remedied this by planting out 4 squares of carrots – 9 plants to each square.

I had also put up the old gate as a trellis for the peas to climb since last I posted, so here is a picture of how it all looks now. I have nails hammered almost in every 30cm, and have run string between the nails showing the square foot (30cm x 30cm) grid for a guide when planting.

April 2011 Planting

On April 30 LittleBug and I planted out the following in the freshly manured garden bed, which by then had been rained on for a couple of days.

Climbing Peas – Greenfeast (2 squares, 8 seeds)

Silverbeet – Five Colour Mix (1 square, 5 seeds)

Tomato – Gardeners Delight (4 squares, 8 seeds)

Onion – Hunter River Browns (2 squares, 6 rows)

Broccoli – Waltham (4 squares, 8 seeds)

Beetroot – Heirloom Mix (4 squares, 12 rows)

Empty squares left: 15

Lets see how they grow, I’ll be keeping an eye out for shoots.

Autumn Garden

I finally took the time to get the veggie patch ready for all those winter crops. Here in subtropical Sydney we can grow something all year round.

I should already have my broccoli in, but nevermind. The peas are due to be planted soon. They were a great hit with LittleBug last year. I think two handfuls might have made it into the kitchen, the rest were eaten straight off the bush, but I don’t mind – anything to get them to eat fresh veggies

So today I have been adding a mix of chicken manure, cow manure, and mushroom compost to the top of the bed, lots of yummy organic matter for the plants to eat. The soil level in the bed had dropped quite a lot, as the compost I originally filled it with a couple of years ago has settled and compacted. Hopefully it will rain tonight and I won’t need to water it in tomorrow.

I was supervised by 15 week old BabyBug who made comments like “Goo ahh eee, grunt, grunt, giggle” – which loosely translates to “Manure, isn’t that a fancy name for poo? Here mummy I made some especially for you!”

Joyfulness…