Two Weeks In The Garden

I seemed to lose my blogging mojo last week, so this week you get two weeks of gardening in one post.

Tuesday August 16th

I harvested three cauliflowers and five heads of broccoli today. I let two of the cauliflower go too long waiting for them to get bigger and then I remembered that they are actually mini cauliflowers, I won't be making that mistake again.

There are now flowers on both plum trees. They always flower a couple of weeks apart, a fact that I seem to forget every year.

Wednesday August 17th

Lots of seed sowing today,  Rosa Bianca and Snowy eggplant, Hungarian Yellow Wax and Californian Wonder Bell capsicum, Honeybee, San Marzano and Rouge De Marmande tomatoes, Lyon Prizetaker leek, bunching shallots (my first time growing both of these), coriander, thyme and another sowing of spinach. 

I also sowed marigolds, zinnias, bergamot, two types of sunflower, alyssum and a bee and butterfly mix.

Thursday August 18th

Sunny and blustery today. It's the same every year, as soon as the fruit trees blossom it gets windy, hopefully there will still be some flowers left on the trees. My seed order arrived today.

Some new varieties to try out.

Saturday August 20th

I harvested three more cauliflowers and four more heads of broccoli today as well as a few side shoots and the first of the Early Crop Massey peas.

 I won't bother with mini cauliflowers again, they take up just as much room as a normal one, but you need three of them to get the same amount of cauliflower. I think both the cauliflower and the broccoli will be finished next week and it will be time to sow the chickpea and bean seeds.

Sunday August 21st

After three applications of the milk/water solution the eggplant is looking much healthier with no signs of powdery mildew at all.

Monday August 22nd

I bought six crowns of Torrey strawberries at Aldi today, I've never heard of them, but according to the packet they are easy to grow, produce an abundance of tasty, large to medium sized fruits. I hope they do.

Thursday August 25th

I spent some time in the garden today as it was too nice of a day to stay indoors. I potted on the two Rouge De Marmande tomato seedlings that I overwintered in the greenhouse, they were looking a bit worse for wear, but hopefully they will pick up now they have more room to grow.  Planted out some more Calendula seedlings and some carnations grown from cuttings taken from a bunch I bought at Aldi. The two borage seedlings I planted last week are not looking too good and I don't hold out much hope for their survival, time to sow some more seed I think. I also sowed some seed of Golden and Red Globe beetroot.

Golden on the right and Red Globe on the right.

So there you go, two weeks in the garden and although there is a lot happening there is also a lot of waiting happening too. All the pea vines are flowering, and I'm waiting for the pods to develop, the garlic is growing well, but I have to wait until at least November to harvest it, and I'm also waiting for seeds to turn into seedlings so they can be planted out into the spring garden.

There may not be a post about the garden next week with all the waiting going, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see. There will be another post on Monday though for this month's Garden Share Collective, the theme this month appropriately is seeds. I hope to see you then.

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Garden Update February 2016

I have corn! It has been a difficult summer this year and I didn't think that I would have anything out of the garden this season but as of today I have four cobs.

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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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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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Making Jam

It is something I had wanted to do for a while now but have always felt intimidated by the whole process. That all changed when I bought 4 1/2 kilos of strawberries for five dollars at the markets. I have no idea what I was thinking, but they were too good of a bargain to pass up.

I found an easy jam recipe on-line and set to work and it turns out it wasn't as hard or as scary as I thought it would be.

Hulling the strawberries was time consuming and the hardest part of the whole process.

When I tasted the jam at this point it was way too sweet, so I added more lemon juice to the mix and I am glad I did as it turned out to have just the right amount of sweetness and tartness that I like.

I didn't use any pectin so the jam is not as thick as commercial jams, but it taste so much better.

Now I know how easy it is I can definitely see more jam making in my future.

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