December 2015

It is a tradition in our home that the Christmas tree does not go up until December 1st, and not one moment sooner. The girls went a bit crazy with the decorations this year.

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A Gardening Conundrum

It started a few weeks ago, just after the heatwave in October, a branch of my cape mallow bush started to die, I didn't worry about it too much, things die, that's just the way it is. When the branch died completely I cut it off and put it out of my mind. 

Then one morning I went out to water the pot plants and noticed that the lemon balm was dead and that the parsley in the same pot wasn't looking too good either.

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Garden Share Collective - Growth

I wasn't going to do a post for this month's Garden Share Collective because I didn't think I had anything to share, but a quick walk around the garden and potted plants proved me wrong.

Sweet corn, sown weeks ago and only now starting to sprout.

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Garden Share Collective - Design

  My veggie patch has gone through some changes over the past six and a half years. 
It started out like this;

April 2009

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Repurpose - Reuse - Recycle

A monthly post to (hopefully) inspire you to look at old things in a new way. 

New Ways to Use Old Bedsprings

Outdoor candle holders.
Source unknown

A unique way to display dried flowers.

Use them to display old family photos.
Four Corners Design

Organize your office using the base from a cot.
Source unknown.

One for the sewers in the family.
Stamp Girl

Fun snack holders for a children's party.

Source unknown  

Marie Niemann's wind chimes

Test tube vase.
Free Pretty Things for You

Shabby chic table decor

Source unknown

"Spring" wreath

Beyond the Picket Fence

And finally, my favourite way to use them.

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Bugs and Blooms

Geraldton Wax

Water drops on an Oregon snow pea flower

The bees are loving the flowers on the "With Love" lavender

Verbena peruviana pink

Spanish Bluebell

Livingstone daisy

Carpet beetles

Lemon scented pelargonium

Scabiosa atropurpurea

Marguerite daisy

I have no idea what species this is but they seem to like the daisies.

Seaside daisy

Rhubarb flower

Kangaroo paw "Little Gem"

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From the Veggie Patch

Pickings from the veggie patch have been a bit thin over the past few months, but now suddenly everything has sprung into life and I'm harvesting once again.

The first asparagus (which I forgot to weigh). It was delicious.

Silverbeet, just over 5 kilos. I gave this lot away as there is still a lot more in the garden for my own use.

It seems that earwigs like silverbeet as much as I do

The first pickings of rhubarb and peas and more asparagus.

More peas, asparagus and a few broccoli sprouts.

So far I have picked just over 1 kilo of peas, 5.15 kilos of spinach, 628 grams of rhubarb and and a little over half a kilo of asparagus.

The broccoli is finished now and it was really disappointing this year. The plants never grew as big and the heads were very small compared to last years, but I have had lots of side shoots which kind of makes up for the smaller heads.

There will be no plums again this year. Honestly, I don't know if growing your own fruit is worth it. Last year I lost all of the fruit to the wind, this year it was the rain, but I persevere because there really is nothing better than fruit from your own trees.

I haven't planted anything new in the garden this month as I'm still waiting on the winter crops to finish. I have sown all my seeds though so when a garden bed empties I can plant straight away.

 I don't like summer, it's my least favourite season and one of the tasks that I don't enjoy doing during the hot weather is watering the garden. To keep veggies alive and thriving, it has to be done often, and it takes up a lot of my time, so next week I will be installing a drip irrigation system in the veggie patch. It is something I should have done years ago, but it looks so complicated that I wasn't sure I could do it, but I am going to give it a go, what's the worse that can happen. It will make my life a little easier and be much better for the plants too.

I was saddened this week to find that one of my favourite bloggers, Daphne from Daphne's Dandelions won't be blogging anymore, I understand her reasons, but she will be missed.

So, that's it from the veggie patch this month, I'll be back next month with another update.

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Seeds

Seeds, where would we be without them?  They fill our flower beds with colour and fragrance, and allow us to grow tasty, nutritious food to feed ourselves and our family. They are the perfect little capsule, containing everything that is needed to start the next generation of plant life. They lay dormant sometimes for years waiting for the perfect growing conditions and then, they spring into life. 

This year I am trying to grow all my vegetables and flowers from seed.

What I'm growing

Sown 24th September

Melons

Hale's Best 

Sugar Baby
Luscious Red

Tomatoes

Honeybee 

Rouge de Marmande

San Marzano

Unknown truss (seeds were from shop bought tomatoes)

Corn

Kelvedon Glory

Jubilee Bicolour

Cucumber

Lebanese (sprouted today)

Zucchini 

Green Bush

Beans

Windsor Longpod

Brown Beauty

Butter 

Cannelini

Red Kidney

Borlotti

Leafy Greens

Cos lettuce

Green Mignonette

Salad mix which includes

Lolla Rossa

Bionda

Red and green salad bowl and

Great Lakes

Endive

Kale

Medania spinach
Celery

Eggplant

Snowy

Rosa Bianca

Capsicum

Hungarian Yellow Wax Sweet

Basil

Sweet Genovese

Thai

Radicchio

Palla Rossa

And a new one to try this year, chickpeas.

Flowers
Borage
Alyssum Rosie O'Day
Poached Egg Plant
Nasturtium
Zinnia
Candy Tuft
Calendula

So, hopefully not only will my vegetable garden be productive it will look beautiful as well.

This is my contribution to this months Garden Share Collective 

hosted by Lizzie from Strayed from the Table, Krystie from a A Fresh Legacy and Kate from Rhubarbs and Rosehips. To see what they and others have to say click on any of the links above.

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The Garden in August

When I moved into my current home in March 2009, the first thing I wanted to do was get a vegetable garden established. The only usable land was located right down the far left hand corner of the property, not the ideal location for it, but it was the only space that wasn't covered in concrete. The lady who originally owned the house was a tennis coach and although the house sits on a 1/4 acre block, most of the backyard is taken up by a tennis court. 

My back yard, lovely isn't it?

It wasn't much to look at that first year, the soil (for want of a better word) was like talcum powder, and the water didn't soak in, it just ran off, but I still managed to grow some wonderful vegetables. 

April 2009

The garden looks a bit different today, the giant compost/rubbish bin is gone, as are the tiles, and barrow loads of manure, as well as a lot of home made compost have improved the soil, it's also gotten bigger, and now measures 9.2 metres long (30 feet) x 5.5 metres wide (18 feet) in total. I've tried a few different layouts over the years but in the end kept it simple with seven beds either side of a central path. The beds themselves are different lengths but are all 2.1 metres wide.

The vegie patch now

To make it more attractive to beneficial insects I'm in the process of making an insect hotel, I've installed a bird bath (which is already attracting a lot of attention) and there is a shallow dish of water on top of the insect hotel for the bees and butterflies. I've planted two salvias, "Joan" and "Hot Lips", a Marguerite daisy in the pot you can see on the right hand side. I moved my two small plum trees into the garden to shade the bird bath and the insect hotel, and when the ground is warm enough one the rear beds will be sown with a mix of flower seeds, dill and coriander.

I still have to put up a new fence and arbour, finish the insect hotel, and when the winter vegetable are finally finished, dig in more compost and mulch the beds ready for summer planting.  So that's my garden, not the prettiest, and not always the tidiest, and despite the constant attacks by aphids, white fly, caterpillars and a multitude of other pests, and weather that isn't always ideal, I love it, it is my favourite place to be.

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Garden Share Collective - August 2015

Not a lot happened in the garden in July, everything is taking its own sweet time about growing and I just have to learn to be patient, I know that everything will get there in the end.

 It has been a colder than normal winter this year, and we have not had the amount of rain we would normally have, but having said that we did have enough rain in July  (42.4mm) that I didn't have to water, which is always a good thing.


After five very fretful weeks of wondering if they had rotted in the ground the potatoes finally decided to start sticking their heads up out of the soil. 

Kestrel

Royal Blue

I lost my first planting of broccoli to aphids, the one time of the year I didn't think I needed to worry about them, but they are everywhere at the moment. I am keeping a very close eye on my second lot and spraying with soapy water when needed.
The peas are making their way up the trellises, and the strawberries are flowering and fruiting.

Red Gauntlet

 The tomatoes that popped up all over the gardens in the front yard, have so far survived any frost we have had, I can't leave them there so in the next week or so I will be potting them up. After last summer's disaster with the tomatoes (Verticillium wilt) I'm not going to risk planting any tomatoes in the vegetable garden for the next couple of years.

Harvesting

Zero, zip, zilch, nada. It looks like the winter crop, will now be a spring crop, as long as I get something I'll be happy.

Planting/Sowing

It will be at least another four, maybe five weeks before I can start planting or sowing seeds.

I'm thinking of adding sheep manure to the vegetable beds as a soil conditioner. Has anybody tried this, or have any advice as to what the best soil conditioner is.
Don't forget that the next GSC will be on 31st August, I will see you all then.

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Colouring In - No Longer Just for the Kids

I'm not one to buy into every new fad or craze that comes along, but this is one craze that I'll quite happily take part in, colouring-in books just for us adults.  It's a craze that is sweeping the world, allowing adults an escape from the hectic pace of their everyday lives, a chance to disconnect from the technological world we live in and get back to basics. By focusing the mind on colouring, it brings calmness and stillness to the mind, almost like a form of meditation. 

There is a wide range of books available, below are just a few examples of what is available.

Secret Garden and Enchanted Forest by Johanna Basford, beautifully illustrated and just waiting to be brought to life with colour.

Animal Kingdom and Tropical Wonderland by Millie Marotta.

I love paisley so this one is right up my alley.

Art Therapy Colouring Book, this is one of a series of three books, the other two are Colour Therapy and Creative Therapy.

If you would like to indulge yourself, but don't want to buy any books, just type free colouring pages for adults into your search engine, there are plenty to choose from. Me, I'm off to do some more colouring.

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