Blogtober Day 9

Today was a day of sunshine, blue sky and it was the perfect temperature (22°C) for working outside. I spent most of the day down in the vegetable garden weeding and digging up spent broccoli plants. I don't think I've ever had so much Milk Thistle in the garden before.

The garden before.

I have a real issue at the moment with whitefly on my Brussel sprouts but decided not to spray as the garden needed watering. It will have to be done soon though or the whitefly will start to affect the growth of the plants.

The garden after. 

The only thing left are two very healthy bok choi plants that were hidden under all the weeds, and the Brussels sprouts which I'm hoping will reach maturity before it gets too hot, I had to cut the top of one as it was going to flower. Tomorrow I will plant out my bean seedlings which should have been done a while ago.

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Garden Update

Winter is well and truly upon us now, and as expected growth in the vegetable patch has slowed down, I wish I could say the same for the weeds. It's hard enough to keep on top of the weeds during the colder months, but when you add the flu (which took me two weeks to get over) to the mix, by the time I felt well enough to go down to patch it was completely overgrown. It took about six hours to get it all done, now I just have to keep on top of it.

 The snow peas that I sowed on May 14th finally sprouted 15 days later. I am using two old innersprings that I picked for free as trellises for them, when the peas are a bit bigger I will take a photo, I like the way they look in the garden, kind of like rustic sculptures.

Even though they were covered, my first planting of mini cauliflowers was decimated by aphids, so they had to be pulled out and they were replaced with Snowball.

 Two of the Green Dragon broccoli plants were also affected but nowhere near as bad as the caulis and with a spray of soapy water I was able to save them.

You can see the aphid damaged brocolli on the right.

I also planted a punnet of Green Sprouting broccoli, and I will be planting another punnet in two weeks time, hopefully that will give me enough broccoli to see me through until summer.

 The garlic is coming on, I'm hoping I've got the number of cloves right this year. Last year I planted way too many and most of it went to waste.

I've lost count of how many times I've sown coriander seeds, but none of it germinated and in the end I gave up and resigned myself to not having any this season, so I was pleased last week to find  a single plant that had self-germinated. Maybe I'll have coriander after all.

After I finished weeding the strawberry bed I discovered the Red Gauntlets flowering.

 Harvesting 

The last of the Genovese and Thai basil were harvested, half of which was frozen, the other half is hanging in the kitchen window to dry, along with two bunches of parsley. I've also been harvesting small amounts of bok choi and silverbeet.

Sowing/Planting

I have sown more snow peas, both Melting Mammoth and a new one I am trying, Oregon, Sugarsnap, Telephone, Early Crop Massey and Blue Bantam peas. Windsor Longpod and Brown Beauty beans have also been sown and I am hoping to have a bumper crop of beans this year.

To do

Plant the potatoes, more bok choi, broccoli and celery.
Keep on top of the weeds.
Fertilize

That's about it for this month's update, I will see you all again next month with another.

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Garden Share Collective

Linking up with Lizzie at Strayed from the Table  for another round of Garden Share Collective.

Sadly, not a lot has changed in my veggie patch since last month, it has been badly neglected and pretty much left to its own devices. Despite the neglect things are still growing.

Red Taipan Bok choi

I planted silverbeet in a few gardens and it is all doing well.

Silverbeet growing amongst the weeds that are threatening to take over the veggie patch.

The rhubarb is still growing strong, I will be harvesting this sometime in the coming week and it will be going into the freezer for later use.

The pumpkins are looking a bit tired now, but I am hoping they will continue to grow long enough for the two smaller pumpkins on the vine to ripen. We are expecting our first frost on Thursday, so I will have to remember to cover it.

 The only cucumber to survive the summer has finally set fruit, will it reach maturity, I hope so.

If you look closely you will see a smaller cucumber sheltering underneath the leaves.

Harvests 

What I think will be the last of the basil, but it was a very good harvest. I will be freezing the majority of it to use over the cooler months.

Celery seeds, I have been unable to find this in the shops, so I decided to grow my own.

Planted

Garlic, 60 cloves all together, 36 white, 24 purple.

 

To do list 

Get some peas sown ASAP.

Buy more seedlings of broccoli, cauliflower and Asian greens.

Weed.

See you all next month.

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Garden Share Collective

Welcome to another Garden Share Collective hosted by Lizzie from Strayed from the Table, a place for gardeners to share what has been happening in their patches over the last month.

The month of February was so disappointing garden wise, I couldn't even be bothered writing about it and March wasn't much better.  Most of the beds have been cleared of summer crops now with the exception of the zucchini, basil and pumpkins.

The zucchini is still flowering and I am hoping to get a few more before the weather gets too cold, I have only harvested one so far.

The basil is flowering and needs to be picked and the bed emptied, so I can sow the bean seeds.

 There are still 2 pumpkin vines, flowering and setting fruit, and I'm not sure what to do with them as I need the bed for peas, but I don't want to miss out on the chance of pumpkins either. Should I pull them out or wait a bit longer?

Harvests 

Harvests for this month were a bit on the thin side with only one zucchini.

 Two of the smallest watermelons I have ever seen.

And a few raspberries, which were a lot tarter than I was expecting. This was the plants first crop, hopefully next year they will be a bit sweeter

The basil has been fantastic this year and I have had so much that I have been giving a lot of it away. 

Planted

Seedlings of Green Dragon broccoli (11), mini cauliflowers (6) and almost 2 dozen silverbeet seedlings.

Sown 

Green Sprouting broccoli 

Romanesco broccoli

Snowball cauliflower

Red Taipan bok choi

Kwang Moon pak choi 

Dwarf Green Curled kale

Milan Purple Top turnips

English Medania spinach

Celery

Still need to sow

Snow peas

Mammoth Melting 

Oregon

Podding peas 

Early Crop Massey

Telephone

Dwarf Blue Bantam

Sugarsnap

Beans

Windsor Longpod

Hawkesbury Wonder

Carrots

Chantenay

Topweight

Nantes

Potatoes 
Red Delight 
Cream Delight
Kestrel
Desiree

Garlic

Well, that's it for this months Garden Share Collective. I hope you have all had a good month in the garden, I'm off to Lizzie's to see how everyone else's gardens have been doing. 

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Garden Share Collective

It's time once again to join Lizzie @ Strayed from the Table for another round of Garden Share Collective.

January was a month of contrasts that began with devastating bushfires, followed by some desperately needed rain and then a return to much cooler weather.

Down in the garden things are finally starting to happen.

I lost all my Scarlet Runner and Butter beans, which had just begun to flower, during the heat wave at the start at the month. I had to sow two more times before any germinated. I have put up shade cloth to protect them from the afternoon sun and so far, so good.

I successively sowed four lots of corn seeds, but only the first two germinated and they are almost ready to harvest.

The cucumber plants are covered in flowers but no sign of cucumbers yet.

The chillies and capsicums are doing especially well this season and should provide me with more than enough for drying and freezing.

Cayenne chilli

Self-sown Bok Choi

My autumn fruiting raspberry is flowering. Is it normal for it to flower this early?

It took a while, but the strawberries are at last setting fruit and are sending out runners as well. Hopefully I will end up with enough to fill the bed without having to buy any more.

Immature fruit of the Red Gauntlet strawberry

 I really need to get better at labelling plants. I planted two different types of watermelon, but have no idea which is which now. There are only three at the moment, but judging by the amount of flowers on each of the vines there are going to be a lot more.

And  just because I think it's pretty, a lovely mauve flower on the mint bush.

Planting: I have planted the last of the summer crops now, which included English spinach, endive, rocket and a variety of lettuce. I won't be planting anymore now and instead I will start sowing seeds for my winter crop as soon as my seeds arrive.

Harvesting: Tomatoes (412g), basil, chillies and capsicum. 

Just before I go, I have a question about my tomato plants that some of you more experienced gardeners might be able to answer for me. What is wrong with my tomato plants?

  The plants started out lovely and green and lush, but then the leaves started to turn yellow and now they look like this. Does anyone know why?

The Garden Share Collective is a group of bloggers who share their vegetable patches, container gardens and the herbs they grow on their window sills. Creating a monthly community to navigate through any garden troubles and to rival in the success of a good harvest we will nurture any beginner gardener to flourish. Each month we set ourselves a few tasks to complete by the next month, this gives us a little push to getting closer to picking and harvesting. The long-term goal of the Garden Share Collective is to get more and more people gardening and growing clean food organically and sustainably.

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