Sophie's Patch

Last Sunday my daughters and I had the opportunity to visit the gardens of Gardening Australia presenter, Sophie Thompson. 

 

Built around 1847, Hamlyn Cottage sits on one and a half hectares (three acres) of land which include gardens full of Australian natives, salvias and succulents, (and too many more to name), an orchard with one hundred different fruit trees and a large vegetable garden, it is an inspiration to anyone who lives in a Mediterranean climate.

Ducks, geese and chickens wander freely through the orchard and surrounding area eating weeds and keeping the bug population under control.

At every turn there is something quirky and interesting to see, many of which were created by Sophie's husband Richard, from what other people would have considered junk.

Nice photo bomb, Rebecca.

My girls, Samantha and Rebecca, checking out the vegetable garden.

The latest addition to the garden, a pizza oven built to resemble the stump of a Morton Bay Fig, with gabion walls that represent the roots.

Sophie's Patch is open annually over the Easter long weekend and is well worth a visit. I'm already looking forward to visiting again next year.

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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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Garden Share Collective

Happy New Year everyone, and welcome to another month of Garden Share collective where gardeners from around the world get to show what’s been happening in their vegetable garden over the past month, hosted by Lizzie from Strayed from the Table.

December was a bit of a mixed bag as far as weather was concerned, thunderstorms, winds so strong they brought down tree branches, 

One of the White Cedar trees across the road from our house lost a branch.

the odd hot day, but for the most part the days were just gorgeous, cool mornings (so cool in fact, that some mornings a cardigan was needed), warm sunny days turning into cool evenings that didn’t require the use of a fan to get a good night’s sleep.

In the garden

Down in the vegetable garden things are still slow to get moving, with some things doing better than others.

Sweet corn, off to a good start .

The Genovese basil  is doing beautifully and I have already made my first batch of basil pesto.

The self sown Kent pumpkins have started to flower.

 Tomatoes of an unknown variety. Well, not really unknown, they are volunteers from last summer's crop that I over-wintered, I'm just not sure what they are yet.

Lebanese cucumber, of the 4 seeds sown 2 of the seedlings are doing well, while the other 2 are struggling to grow, and I have no idea why.

Harvesting

Mostly herbs at the moment, basil, parsley, thyme and oregano.

To do

Weed and water as required, I have a feeling I will be doing a lot of this.
Try to get some coriander, English spinach and lettuce growing, I have had no luck so far.  
 Mulch the last few beds.

Well, that's it for this month, see you same time, same place, next month.

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Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a Christmas touched with wonder and filled with joy.

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