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.