Planting seeds

Tonight I planted 4 of the heirloom mix tomatoes. I wonder what they'll be! Also, I planted a mix of sprouts in a jar a couple of days ago and they're already looking good. In the mix is adzuki beans, mung beans, lentils and fenugreek.

It happened so fast!

We've had the heat wave of days around 35 degrees. I watered them every couple of days and they were looking fine at last water.

I don't think the fuchsia on the end will live. (sob sob) The others look OK

Hayfeever Season

I'm really allergic to pea straw and I will NEVER spread it on my garden again. (I said that when I spread it on my garden last time too!) It makes me have bad hayfeever to the point my eyes and nose go raw and my head pounds. I am so run down from the hayfeever that germs enter my body with no resistance and I eventually get really sick with an actual cold. It happened when Peter was 7 weeks old. I didn't think I was up to spreading heavier mulch yet so I opted for the pea straw cop out and suffered for it.

Over the past week or so I've just had a normal level of hayfeever but it still really gets to me. I just can't stop sneezing. I didn't want to take any antihistamine in case it goes in the breast milk. However today it got bad enough and the hospital advised me to take some. Within an hour my life changed! I could see and breath and the pounding went from my head. Hopefully I've taken it in time so I won't get sick. Thank goodness for antihistamine!

Fuchsia

The fuchsias are looking good!

Bottle Brush

Looking at all of the bottle brush trees in my area bursting with bright red blooms, I was worried at my tree which didn't have many flowers at all. I thought I might have damaged the roots when I did the trenching or given it too much water with my new drainage system. Perhaps the chook poo was putting too much nitrogen and phosphorus into the soil which I think natives don't like. These photos were taken on 27th October.

However, a few weeks later, it came good with a magnificent display. It's just starting to fade now.

Aquilegia

My 3 Aquilegias are looking good under the blackwood tree. I'll cut the dead heads off the purple ones today.

Roses

Our Peirre de Ronsard is flowering! It is their first year so we're excited. There's one either side of the garage doors. We know nothing about roses so it's great to get some results, even if they're not perfect.

Also in flower is the Iceberg climber, the Goldbunny climber and the Scarlet Carpet Rose.

The Cecile Brunner's not looking so good with the root stock overtaking. I liked the dark red flower on the root stock and was going to leave it there but Sandy tells me that's not a good idea. She says the root stock will take over and I won't be left with any Cecile Brunner at all. (I bet she's never tried it though!) I guess I'll prune it. What a pity I can't keep both!

Compost in disguise

Today I used my first batch of my own compost! Chris (husband) came out and saw me spreading it over the veggie patch and got all excited about it. "We made our own compost!" he exclaimed and the proceeded to ask me if it was the most satisfying thing I'd ever done. I think actually eating the produce is more satisfying but it certainly brought a sense of achievement. You can see the compost spread around one of my cucumbers in the picture on the left.

Since space is precious in our garden, I was reluctant to create a big compost patch but I need lots of compost! As a result, we've developed our own compost system to use our space as well as we can. It starts in the chook pen with everything organic added to it. This includes weeds, lawn clippings, hedge clippings, vegetable scraps, leftover dinners (but not meat or anything that looks like an egg) and of course plenty of chook poo. Here's a picture of it taken in July this year with a mountain of clover weeded from the garden. The floor of the pen is about 30cm below the level of the ground around it. (I also put a wire floor under the pen and sewed it to the walls to keep rodents out.)

The chooks do most of the turning and mixing for me as they sort through it for their choice of the veggie scraps and weeds. We still need to do some turning and I've also added a bale of pea straw because it seemed too wet and was going slimy. Soon after adding the pea straw, we moved the compost into a black bin and left it for 6 weeks to decompose further. After the 6 weeks, it's ready to use.

Here's what it looks like today. The chooks are out roaming the garden but they'll be back at night. I'll turn it and add some straw if needed this afternoon. Then I'll leave it for a week without adding any more to the pen (except chook poo which I can't stop). After that, it will be ready to move to the black bin and the cycle will continue.

Climber over the chook pen

I'm hoping this climber will cover the sides of the chook house and make it a more attractive feature of the garden. It's one of the natives Jan gave us for our wedding present. It's called Einadia Nutans. I'm not sure if it's a butterfly attractor because I can't find it on the butterfly website:

http://www.butterflygardening.net.au/index.html

Dill and Grevillia

Today I bought 2 plants at the Fullarton Park Community centre stalls. The Prostrate Grevillia is in front of the Chook house and the Dill is in front of the Blackwood tree.

Asparagus

I have a packet of asparagus seeds from the Diggers Club. Now I need to work out how and where to plant them. Here's what I've found so far:

They need a sunny spot with moderate water. In winter, the ground is bare but the shoots pop up in spring. In Autumn it goes yellow and you cut it back to the bare ground again. If you water it well and harvest often (once mature), you get a better crop. => I need a sunny spot that I don't care is bare through winter.

Gardening Australia has some info on their website (http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1669960.htm)

"An economical way to grow Asparagus is by seed, or with seedlings. If you do grow them that way then after planting leave for about two or three years for a strong root system to develop. Don't pick any of the crop, just let it grow naturally. "

"there are few pests and diseases that trouble this plant. When Asparagus is about four years old the fronds will have produced good, thick, strong roots and a good plant. They will then go yellow in autumn and that's the time to cut them back to ground level. The Asparagus bed will be bare until spring, and then spears of Asparagus will pop up all over the place."

The Heynes website (http://www.heyne.com.au/gardencentre/factsheets/factsheet.php/Asparagus.htm) suggests row spacing for the crowns. I wonder if I need to plant the seeds apart.

"The between-row spacing is 80 to 90cm (2 1/2 to 3 ft), with an in-row spacing of 38 to 46 cm (15 to 18 in)."

I also wonder if this is for an asparagus feast in a short 2 week period with enough to preserve for the rest of the year or just for eating when they're fresh.

"Ten asparagus plants should be sufficient to supply an average family, and well-cared-for plants will go on producing for at least twenty years." (also from the Heynes site)

I think I'll plant some seeds now and keep the rest for next year. It's already a long way into Spring and they suggest you plant them in "early spring" so I might be a bit late for this year.

I'm back! / CLEMATIS

I found my lost password so I'm able to enter posts on my blog again! YAY!!

Here's the tag for the Clematis I planted last year. When it died off over winter, it looked so dead I nearly pulled it out. Lucky I didn't because it flowered beautifully this spring. I found the tag today and wish I'd had it before. It tells you it's deciduous!

While I was away....

Last night we came back from a few days interstate to find the garden, our fish and the chooks all still alive. (Phew!)

WHEAT GRASS
The wheat grass that was planted Wednesday 30th May has grown significantly. (There were no signs of sprouts when I left on 3rd June.)



MYSTERY SEEDS
Also back in May, I planted some punnets of seeds and put them on the edge of the vegie patch. Unfortunately the Chooks promptly kicked them over and scattered most of the dirt into the patch. I counted them as lost and forgot about them but one of the punnets has definitely sprouted (below). It has lost its label but I'm pretty sure it's some sort of lettuce. (It also could be snap dragon flowers. I guess time will tell!) The second picture shows one of the other punnets which has some tiny sprouts in it. I'm not sure what they could be yet or even if it is something I planted!







CABBAGE
My cabbage seeds have quite similar sprouts popping up. (They're in the slots at the bottom of the picture. It didn't photograph well but they're there!) Perhaps they're just a weed that's blown in and it will turn out just like the sprouts in the tipped over punnet???











STRAWBERRIES

I ordered some Chandler strawberries from Diggers club. When they arrived, they were just a bundle of sticks looking like something from the Blair Witch Project movie. However, since I've been away, they've started to sprout green leaves. - I can't wait until they grow fruit!








BASIL

The 3 different plantings of perennial basil are also still alive. The one in the pot with the bottom cut out in the ground looks the best. I think I'll cut the top off the one in the pot by the vegie patch. (I should have done that before!)

Cabbage, Snow peas and strawberries

Yesterday I planted seeds in seedling trays. We're going away next week but the forecast is predicting rain every day so I've just left them out in the open. The seedlings were Chinese snow peas, Cabbage sugarloaf and the diggers club silverbeat 5 colour.

I also planted the Chandler strawberries that arrived from Diggers. I put some in the pots under the ballerina apples and nectarines and some in the ground along the side garden in front of the Geranium. The ones in the apple pot are under my vegie garden net but the others don't have protection from the Chooks so it will be interesting to see if they survive.

Chris found this article (right) in his Cosmos magazine (June/ July '07).

Chook proof vegies

I've got a good vegie patch by the back of the house. It's close to the kitchen and gets plenty of north sun. The soil's getting better in it after repeated additions of gypsum and compost and seedlings seem to grow quite well in it. The chooks have scratched around and turned the soil nicely for me. Unfortunately this turning also destroys any seedlings I plant in the patch. The chooks also recently ate all of my beautiful pak choy.

I started by making mouse wire cages to go over each of the seedlings I planted but it really spoiled the look of the patch and of my whole back yard. Last week, I replaced the wire cages with bird netting hung over my old tent poles. I ran thin strips of wood along the ground with cup hooks in it to hold the netting down. This way I can unhook it from the bottom and get access to any side of the patch. So far, the chooks haven't found a way in and I think it looks much better than my wire cloche.

Garden Blog

Yesterday I had my last session with Cancer Care's "Seeds for Health" course. Julian from Composting SA came and talked about keeping a journal of your gardening. He finds his journal valuable since he can look back on it and see what he planted last year and how long it took to grow. I thought a blog was a good place to keep mine so here it is!

It will be interesting to see if I manage to keep it up. (I can imagine myself doing one or 2 good entries then forgetting to continue!) At least some is better than none.

All enthused after the course yesterday, I planted some cuttings:
THE BASIL
I took 3 cuttings of the perennial basil from Fern Ave and put one in a glass on the kitchen window sill, one in a pot and one in the ground to see which will take. (I tried a much smaller cutting from the same bush a couple of weeks ago but it shrivelled up and died.)

The basil in the ground was planted in an old plastic pot with a slit down the side and the bottom cut out. I first started trying this a few months ago before the rain started. I used the pot to keep the water by the plant. Even though I don't need to worry about water now, I've found it is a good way to keep the weeds out, make sure the plant is established in good soil and doesn't get trampled by me or the chooks since you can see the pot rim. In this pot, I used old cheap potting mix and some Dynamic Lifter. (Julian would be horrified!)

The other cuttings I planted were all in pots. There were a couple of daisies and a geranium I picked from the side of the road as well as a cactus, mint and sage from Fern Ave.