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Saturday, March 26, 2011

Two weeks on...

Iv'e had some mixed results with the seeds I planted. The beetroot are up and looking good. Also the radish but who can't grow radish. The onions and carrots are hardly to be seen. It's been very hot and they've only been getting watered once a day. Could have dried out a little as the seeds are very small and very close to the surface. Or the seeds were a bit old even though they were in date. The other day I planted some seeds of French radish (these are an elongated kind with a mild flavour I have grown before) and two types of beetroots, both heirloom varieties from Cornucopia Seeds, Chioggia (white rings inside) and Golden. I also put into those little peat pots that you soak, Romanisc Broccoli (it looks cross between a cauli and a broccoli). I've eaten it and it tastes great... lets hope they come up

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

From Chook Yard to Vege Garden

Our latest project has been the creation of four raised vegetable beds in what was once the chook yard. I have long since given up on chooks as foxes and dogs
just kept managing to get in somehow. I have access to some lovely organic free range eggs here in town so I don't have to keep chooks for eggs. I do miss having the girls around though.
Their old house will make the perfect 'hobbit-sized' potting shed after we remove a few bits of roof and replace with clear plastic. Some serious cleaning and renovating will be going on in the next few weeks!
The garden bins (built by hubby) are very deep and have taken a lot of layers to complete. We have two finished so far and into them I have planted seedlings: dwarf beans (hope it's not too late), spring onions (Red Legs) and Cos lettuce. I also put in a few advance pots of basil and parsley as mine had all died of thirst while we have been away over summer.  Seeds direct sown: radish (Red Rubin), Carrot (Early Nantes), Spring onion (Straight Leaf), Beetroot (Detroit Red). All these seeds were on 'Seed Tapes' I had in my supplies and are still in date so I thought I'd use them up. In future I will prefer heirloom varieties as I order them. I must say though, it was very easy to plant them this way!
So I'll be giving them a light going over with some organic liquid fert and some Boron for the beetroot. Yum!

Getting Started!

I have decided to play with this blog as a way to document my gardening and artistic journey. We have opened the garden many times over the last ten years donating the money to various charities. Last Spring we supported Variety Club. I hope to show photos of my latest artworks and post successful recipes I have created. I'm no technohead when it comes to the computer (I mainly use it to play Bridge on BBO with people from all over the world) so this blog is a new challenge, especially since the boys have left home and I no longer have 'free I.T. support' in-house! But here it goes...
This is a photo of some Louisiana Iris I have growing in and around my pond. They flower in late October. I also have some white flowering ones too. They multiply up quite quickly if they are allowed to. I have seven goldfish that I introduced to the pond. Lots of native frogs come and go depending on the weather. I'm sure the iris love all the poo from these animals but mostly they enjoy the company
You can see little forget-me-not (myosotis) under the stone bench. These seed themselves very freely in shady corners all around my garden. Too freely in places where they form a thick carpet preventing more delicate annuals from access. In the background is the beautiful foliage of Japanese wind flower (Anemone hupehensis). These have ethereal, poppy-like, white flowers in late summer and autumn. They demand a shaded home and whilst they will survive dry conditions, they perform their best, when given a moist root run.
Thats my first post. I'm not sure how I got the photo part way down the text when I put it in first. But it actually looks better there. Smile/grin xD
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