Christmas Gardening

Today weather is wet and rain, and plenty of it. A wet Christmas day. No need for watering today and maybe tommorrow as well. Just slow rain which is so much better than hand watering which my vegetable garden is so used to. This slow rain soaks deep into the soil. It's actually good to hear the rain of the colourbond metal roof, as it is rare these days.

Updating myself on the current condition of the patch, potatoes are starting to die off and I expect to start digging up potatoes in a week or two at most. Spring onion/shallots and silver beet are being harvested now. Corn is about 600mm (2 foot) high. Sowed more sweet corn and leek seeds a week ago. Noticed yesterday they are just starting to emerge. With this rain the seeds will grow crazy. Pulled the last of the spinach outand they all went yellow and died off. Will need to strongly thin out the tomatoes and prune them in coming days. Zuchinni, pumpkin, and cucumber growing well in the heat. Also water and rock melon plants are spreading and will very soon cover the ground, hopefully with plenty of fruit.

I have drawn a map and will very soon publish it on this blog as a rcord of what I have in my vegetable garden now. What I have in at the moment is quite extensive. Modestly, it's the best vegetable patch I have ever had. Merry Christmas 2009!

Regards!

Summer is here!

See the pictures on left showing different angles of the vegetable patch. The first piture shows the onions growing well. They are about one to one and a half inches (25-35 mm's) in diameter. The second picture shows potatoe plants, spinach, and leek. The third photo displays tomatoes on the right, zuchini and cucumber. Also you can see the one year old asparagus ferns. In the back of the pic are sweet corn (about 6 inches - 150mm tall) and beds with carrot, basil, sage, dill, and turnip (the turnip is being eaten a bit by pests). The fourth photo contains cheery tomatoes and climbing beans in the closest bed, then beds of water melon and then rock melon. The rock melon is beginning to run. Then there is leek, potatoes and spinach at the back right. The fifth shows part of the still young silver beet, two types of orange carrots, spinach, leek and potatoes. Sixth picture is a similar shot to the third photo. The seventh and final picture illustrates a broad view of the entire vegetable garden looking towards the west. The sunrise was behind the camera.

Basically all growing well. Sowed some pumkin, snow peas, beetroot, shallots, and another batch of silver beet since the last post. Peas really went crap and there is only one plant left and it's struggling. I don't know what happened there. So in the spot where the peas died I sowed as I mentioned before, snow peas. And they are already starting to break the soil. Good stuff. Tomatoes are starting to take off now. They are due for a thinning and staking. The capsicum (forgot whether it is red or green) is just about the size when they can be trnsplanted. The size they are now range from two to four inches high. So in the coming days/week I will separate them and sought that bed out. Garlic is dieing right off now and I'll leave them in the ground till I need garlic in the kitchen. Just have to keep them dry.

Summer is here and with it is some pretty warm temperatures. Great for the garden and boy those vegies are taking off. Just got to keep the water up to them with a good soaking early morning and late evening. Nothing beats watering late evening when the temp is warm. Just the mozzies are out in force.

The creamy colour posts in and around the patch will be holding up a new sprinkler system and shade cloth cover. The sprinkler system I hope to construct over the Christmas break. The shade cloth cover I will build in Autumn (around Easter next year) to give me a longer and warmer period for the year especially over the cold and freezing Canberra/Murrumbateman months. The shade cloth will be removed once the frosts are over and that's about October/November each year.

Until next time, cheerio.

Update on my Vegetable Garden

My Vegetable Garden as it is today. As you can see it has grown a fair bit since the last photos. Potatoes have really taken off as well as the spinach. See potatoe plants in the last photo. Spinach is the only item I am harvesting and have taken in two loads to date. The photos have been taken at different angles showing most vegies. Look carefully and you can see the asparugus ferns. In their first year, they aren't worth much and they this year will go to seed. Out of the eleven crowns I planted afew months back, each have sprouted and produced atleast two to three shoots. So I think that's good. This seasons summers vegetable garden is expected to be a bumper harvest with many different vegetables.

Spring!

Now the spring season is taking off. Warming up with fine sunny days and the occasional raining and showery day. Eg today is 25 degrees. Just a beautiful time. Took some pictures the other day, and I must admit, they are abit dark cause I took the shots after watering for the day and there was about 10mins of sunlight left. They are on the right. They show what I have in there now. Top photo shows peas, potatoes, brown onions, leak. Bottom photo displays at a different angle potatoes again with spinach, brown onions and down the back you can see (maybe) garlic. We have had some late frosts just a week back and I had to cover the potatoes with the green shade cloth you see laying there. But

hopefully the frosts are finished for the year, but one can not be sure. At the moment I have capsicum (red/green) seed in as well as parsnip, water and rock melon, carrotts, & spring onions. I have available soon from the green house zuchini, tomatoe, sweet corn, climbing beans, and cucumber seedlings ready to be transplanted. From the photos, you can see the beds I formed for the different vegys etc. I think there is too much space wasted. Next year there will be larger beds or only afew vegetable beds creating more space for growing. Anyway, until next time.......

Benefits of the Vegetable Garden

Growing your own vegetables has so many benefits. They are:


1. Allows you to experiment with vegetables and varieties not available in shops.

2. Saves you money in grocery bills each and every week during the year. It adds up!

3. Tastier vegetables are grown from home in your own backyard. Say good bye to tasteless vegetables from the common grocery store.

4. You can choose to avoid artificial fertilisers, pesticides and genetically modified varieties. Much healthier for you and your family. You know what you are eating.

5. A great hobby while enjoying the fresh outdoors and exercising. Digging in the garden preparing the soil for example won’t hurt you. Hard work often won’t hurt a person.

6. Gives you the pleasure to serve them fresh from your own controlled garden.

7. Gives your backyard a colourful and decorative look to your property.

Even in the coldest climates, a good range of summer and winter vegetables can be grown successfully. All plants need three main things in order to grow successfully; sunlight, soil and water.

pH Soil Testing - Naturally

Normally, you would measure the pH of soil with a purchased chemical kit from a garden nursery or have it professionally tested in a science lab. However there are simple and natural ways of testing the aproximate pH of your soil in the vegetable garden.



Observing the existing types of plants growing naturally in an area can be a guide of what your soil pH is. Common weeds such as sorrel, plantain and bracken normally indicate an acidic soil. The flowers of the hydrangea plant will be pink if the soil pH is alkaline (range of 7 to 7.5) and blue if it's acidic (between 4.5 and 5).



A simple way to determine soil pH is using purple cabbage. Here is how you do it:

1. Boil 500g of purple cabbage in 1 litre of water until the water turns a rather dark purple colour. Drain the water into another bowl and put it aside.


2. Mix two teaspoons of the soil you want tested in 200ml of distilled water and stir it vigorously. Allow it to settle overnight.


3. Fill a clear glass three quarters full with the purple cabbage water, then with a syringe, suck up and inject 50ml of water from the soil you mixed in with distilled water into the glass of purple cabage water.


4. The colour of the cabage water will change giving an indication of your soils pH. Colour indications are:

Colour = pH

Magenta = 3

Violet = 5

Blue = 7

Blue-green = 9

The above is a rough guide, showing you what your pH is in your own patch. Of course you can obtain a commercial testing kit of you warrant an accurate diagnosis. Enjoy.

Important Notice - How to keep weed free!

What's worst than having heaps of weeds in your vegetable garden. They seem to come out from nowhere, and are extremely resilient. They compete with your vegetable plants for the very nutrients that currently exist within your soil. The more weeds you have, less nutrients are left for your plants.

Here is how you can take a few steps and reduce the weeds.

You will need newspaper, mulch, a fine spray hose nozzle and a rake.

Firstly lay two layers of plain printed newspaper over your topsoil. The newspaper acts as a weed barrier. You could use the commercial weed barrier but newspaper is fine. The newspaper is porous enough for water and nutrients to pass through.

With your newspaper spread out over your entire garden, use your garden hose and set your nozzle to mist and lightly water the paper.

Next cover the newspaper with a black mulch mixed with compost. This is a good mix because it will decompose into your garden and will add nutrients to the soil. Layer the mix over the newspaper at no less than two inches (50mm) thick. This provides weight to keep the paper down to cover it. This impedes weed growth while retaining water moisture in the soil, especially when it gets hot during the summer months.

Following the information above you will eliminate a majority of weeds that would appear in your vegetable garden. To keep up the pressure on the weeds, do a five minute scan every day or so to pull one or two weeds out. Easy! This will keep your garden 100% weed free.

Canberra Vegy Gardening - July

Not too much you can do during the month of July. Canberra is a cool/cold climate and this month is generally useful for general maintenance in the vegy patch. Things to consider doing:

1. Maintain your gardening tools and perhaps purchase new needed ones.
2. Identify and remove weeds and grass from your patch. Once you see a weed remove immediately as they can become a hassle to remove later if left undone.
3. Only water the vegy patch in the warmer parts of the day (if any). With Canberra and Murrumbateman having relatively constant showery days at the moment, watering should be kept at a minimum. (It's raining/showering now at Murrumbateman).
4. Work on the garden patch by perhaps building a fabric (70%) roof/ceiling over. This will design a micro climate to your vegetable garden and will extend your growing opportunities and when/what you may grow in our colder climate. I'm hoping to achieve this. I'm about to build a ceiling cover over it soon, so I'll post on the blog later.
5. Start seriously preparing for the spring garden, such as what you'd like to plant and where in the patch to sow. Start to gather seeds from the desired shop/s. Spring really isn't too far away.
6. Read up on related vegetable gardening material from print material and media and trusted web sites. Better your knowledge.

I don't have too much in my vegy patch at the moment. Vegies growing at present:

• Garlic
• Brown onions
• Shallots
• Asparagus (just planted eleven crowns a week ago)

Local weather

For our weather of the local region, ie Canberra etc, click on the BOM link. This link is specifically the radar showing precipitation. Very good site!

Welcome to the cool climate country.

Just started today on this new Blog. My first.

I will primarily be talking about the vegetable garden and its contents. I love to sow , plant and nurture vegetables in my newly made patch. My patch is a good size of about 10x6 meters.

It would be good to have your feedback as well regarding what I have said and what you do in your patch.

I'm based in Murrumbateman NSW, just north of Canberra, and we aren't as fortunate as the warmer climates. But we do our best in this cool weather and succeed. Now is mid Winter and don't we love it. :-)

I will endeavour to include pictures of the patch and what I do in and around it. This Blog I suppose will be an online diary of my vegy patch. So, let's go............