End of 2011 Vegetable Gardening

During this month, I have tied up the tomatoes as they are now at 700 to 800mm high. They are growing rather well.

I sowed a sald mix of lettuce seeds and put about one to two inches of lucerne mulch over it. I also sowed in the same area the shallots (third season generation). I sowed these just before Christmas and now the lettuce and shallots are growing well and are about 10mm high. By the way the second generation shallots are now about 6 inches high.The first generation of shallots are somehow mixed in with the brown onions and now I have a problem of knowing what is what. Not easy. When I look closely I can just see a slight difference in the color between them. Never again I sow similar seeds beside each other again because they can get mixed up.

I separated about only 10% of the lettuce. Put it into 2 beds. I shall still put in around them some lucerne hay as mulch to help keep the ground moist and the lettuce leaves clean. The rest of the lettuce I will cut off and use them in future salads.

The beans are shooting up to the sky as they are about 1800mm or 6 foot high.

Also back filled the potatoes and I'm confident that the potatoes will give a high yield.

The garlic is ready for harvest and I'll dig them up in the next day or so. Hopefully they are of good size.

I have been picking coriander seeds as most are brown. Some are still green and those ones anr still on the plants in the vegetable patch. The brown ones have been picked and are ready for bottling so to speak.

The sweet corn is about 12 inches high.

Basil is generally about 3 inches high.

While I water with the sprinkler, I have been doing the weeding throughout the patch. But the best way to water the vegetable patch is by the sprinkler.

See below the latest photos of my vegetable garden.

No more weeds and Pumpkin sown

Good Afternoon (lunchtime),

Just come inside after spending about three hours in the vegy patch this morning. I sowed four clumps of Pumpkin 'Golden Nugget' seeds near the Asparagus.See the picture below showing where they are sowed prior to backfilling half inch deep.

Quickly, we had 1.5mm (6 points) rain overnight.

I saw the opportunity to finish the weeding. The soil was so soft, couldn't help myself. It actually feels good too to see the vegetable garden to it's former glory. But one thing, most of the weeds went to seed so there is basicallly thousands of seeds that dropped into the soil which has now been dug over. So the weeding will unfortunately continue.

The other pictures show the vegetable garden from a distance on how good looking it is. I did however leave the Coriander alone as it's going to seed now and will harvest those seeds for later use in the kitchen.

While weeding I found wire and water nozels which was good. Also I was biten by a spider on left hand. And also while weeding, pulled out a carrot that was a year old, see the picture below. Quite amusing.

After the weeding was complete, I dug over the area ready for new crops.

See pictures:

Cheers, Steve the VegyGardener.

More November gardening

This afternoon I sowed 10 Climbing Bean (vitalis) clumps of seeds against the existing climbing F72 fabric trellis. Also sowed 14 Sweet Corn clumps of seeds. Sowed 8 Cucumber clumps of seeds. I watered the Sweet Corn and Cucumber seeds in except the Climbing beans as the soil was moist. The rain in the next few days will sought that out.

It is supposed to rain again mid/late next week. In the last 24 hours it rained 29mm (116 points). So the ground is rather soft. So yes I did some more weeding in the vegetable garden and now have about one fifth remaining to do.

Other things in the garden, the Tomatoes will need staking, One Zuchini is dead (leaving three remaining), the Coriander is seeding, the Lettuce I planted has come through and growing well, the Potatoes are starting to break through except the Sweet Potatoes. The garden almost weed free and now looking really good.

See new pictures below of what the vegie patch looks like today. The first shows the beans sowed up against the steel mesh and in the middle of the picture shows where the sweet corn bed is. The second picture shows just prior to backfillijng the cucumber seeds (on the left side against the boundary fence). The third picture illustrates a broad view of the vegetable patch with the tomatoes in the background and where the orange carrots were (now removed and soil turned over ready for new crop). The last picture shows the other side of the garden with garlic, onions and asparagus etc.

More Seeds Sown in Vegie Patch

Sowed seeds this afternoon, namely:

1. Shallots (Longwhite Bunching).
2. Basil (Mixed Gourmet Selection).
3. Carrots (Purple Haze).
4. Lettuce (Cos Romaine).

See pictures below showing where I sowed them.

The top photo: Top from left to right - Shallotts, Lettuce. Bottom from left to right - Carrots, Basil.
Bottom photo: Shows while watering with the sprinkler, the brown onions all transplanted in their final position.

In other news, while the watering was being done, I pulled out afew more couple hundred weeds (esp in the entrance area). I transplanted the last of the brown onions. There are about 200 planted. I gave about 50 to Paul next door. Happy to do that. It looks like on the local forecast that this week excluding today will be wet. Good for the vegetable garden with those seeds just sowed and elsewhere. I will for the record put together a new mud map of the patch. This timer however I will separate the patch into sectors say. More later. CU.

Tomatoes and more

12/11/11 - Circular Asparugus

12/11/11 - Potatoes in place prior to backfilling in trenches

19/11/11 - Tomatoes planted

19/11/11 - Garlic mulched with lucerne hay

19/11/11 - Onions replanted at top and bottom of pic shows onions yet to be transplanted

Boy have I dug out wheel barrow after wheel barrow of weeds from the vegetable garden. Did this last weekend and this morning. The garden is looking much better and becoming enjoyable again for food growing.

On the 12 November I planted certified potatoe seeds. Namely Sabargo, Pontiacs, Desiree. What I did, I dug up the soil to air it out and then dug in two bags of moopoo (cow manure) into the soil and then turned that over. Formed trenches of about 200mm (8 inches) deep and placed/spaced the potoes into the trenches. Then backfilled. There is soil to the side to fill over the top of the plants once they are about 100 to 150mm (4 to 6 inches) high. This will build up the soil to the plants and promote further growth and number of potatoes. So I'll keep the blog informed.

Also for the first time I planted sweet potatoe in the garden. It is of the purple variety. I just bought a sweet potatoe from the supermarket and sliced him up annd buried it. So I'm hoping for the best too. There is a bit of luck in this. All I know is that sweet potatoes need four warm months. In the Canberra region there should be four months. Planted them on the 12 November, so mid March 2012 should hopefully be still warm enough. It's a risk, so see what happens. I have some black plastic from work so I'll bring that home and put over the top to keep that soil temperature up. Anyway it will be interesting.

I added a photo of asparugus head that went curly. So...

An update - The seeds I sowed in late October 2011 have all died. I watered once a day and the weather has been rather hot (mid to high twenties). Especially when the trays in in a brick courtyard which adds to the warmth. Anyway they did not survive due to I think the water quickly was absorbed in the egg carton box which took the moisture and left liitle for the seeds. So let me say this, I won't bother with the egg carton idea again unless there's a better way using them.

Put lucerne mulch hay around the garlic and all tomatoes. Obviously will keep the soil moist and warm.

In the photos you'll see I transplanted the brown onions in there final position. Gee there is alot of them, as I only did about half of.

Sowed Red Pepper seeds (Sweet Romano). As I lost the ones in the egg carton, I thought I'd purchase another pack and start again.

Purchased four plants of Zuchinni's. They are called Zuchinni Duo plants, so the exact meaning not shaw, perhaps grafted? There are two green and two yellow plants. I'll probably mulch them too.

Now tomatoes, I bought during the week and planted this morning:

1 x Lemon Drop Tomatoe plant (A Diggers Selection Heirloom Tomatoe).
2 x Tomatoe Mortgage Lifter plants
1 x Beefsteak Tomatoe plant
1 x F1 Truss Tomatoe plant
2 x Mighty Red Tomatoe plants
2 x Grosse Lisse Tomatoe plants
2 x Apollo Tomatoe plants
1 x Tommy Toe Tomatoe plant

So look forward to the summer tomatoe crop.

At present which is 20:48 Saturday night, there is very steady rain which just started afew minutes back and according to the radar will last only 10 minutes. Great water for the vegetable garden.

All the best till next time. Happy vegy gardening. Steve.

Sowing again new seeds

Well it's the time of the year at this place on the planet. I have just sowed more seeds otherwise I will miss the boat. Seeds I sowed this afternoon in egg cartons again as per picture below were:

1. Pumpkin 'Golden Nugget'
2. Zucchini 'Striato d'italia'
3. Pepper (red) 'Sweet Romano'

I look forward to seeing them emerge.

Have a great day where ever you are.

Steve the Vegy Gardener.

Sowing new seeds

This morning I sowed the following seeds in old egg cartons (in my courtyard):

1. Shallots, seed collected  26/4/2011.
2. Cucumbers, seed collected 5/5/2010.
3. Silverbeet, seeds collected 18/7/2010.
4. Spinach, pack seeds from shop.
5. Turnip (snowball), pack seeds from shop.

It rained this morning quite abit, so I did not water them in as I was hoping for the rain to do its job. Aim to plant the seedlings in a matter of weeks into the vegetable garden. With the egg cartons I'm planning to just plant the seedlings with the egg carton, split up, into the ground as the cardboard should break down.

Still have alot of natural weeds to remove from the patch. If you can help, let me know.

Please see photo below:-

October Weed pulling, Preparation!

Hey, thought I better get in and pull weeds. Since it rained quite well over the last few days, I have decided to get off my arse and do it. Action! As you can see above the weeds are tremendously bad in the vegetable garden and needs removing promptly.

I need to sow new spring/summer crop, condition the soil ready for that crop, and better the looks of the patch. This month - October - is the time to start sowing vegies and at the end of this month put in tomatoes. Any earlier, the tomatoes won't survive due to any lateish frosts.

So I can't wait to free up the patch and clean up all those unwanted weeds. Same shit happens every year, eh?

As you can see on the second photo is my little potatoe harvest. By the way, still digging up beautiful potatoes. Great!

Catchya.

Start of the Asparagus Harvest

A before shot of the Asparagus area of the patch prior to cleaning it up abit.

An after shot of the Asparagus area of the patch after removing last years growth and some oif the immediate weeds.

My first harvest of Asparagus heads ready for the kitchen. This is year three and now I'm eager to try them out.

This section of the patch shows garlic and onions that are growing rather well. Just watered.

Happy to actually see the asparagus (Mary Washington) plants doing well. The area of the vegetable garden did need a clean up as it shows on the pictures above. They grow quick. It is the third year now and I'm starting to harvest these beauties. I am however will be moving house next year and I'm beginning to think about relocating them to the new vegetable garden of the new house whcih I'll be building as I prempt that the new owners would not appreciate these asparagus plants.

Does anyone know how to successfully relocate asparagus plants?? If you do, please let me know!

The garlic and onions are doing well. As I have little in the vegetable garden at present, I am hand watering the needed spots as shown in the last picture above. At present there is thyme (i think), mint, last years carrots and sage in the patch ready for the taking. Took the last of the pumpkins in tonight for a dinner.

Until next time, Happy Veggie Gardening!

Sept 11 Vegy Garden Update

Shallots and Onions, and Garlic

Asparagus starting to shoot already

A rather cool day today, top of about 14 degrees and a fresh wind. Last week we had nice warm weather touching early twenties in the sun. As Spring is here now, the weather will start to warm up and temperatures increase which is great in my books.

Not much happening at present in the vegetable garden. What's going? The shallots and onions are growing rather well and the garlic growing strong as you can see in the top picture. Needs weeding.

The lower picture displays the asparugus with last seasons shoots still there. I will need to chop those off ready for the new shoots for this season. The new shoots have beaten me to it and have started. I will chop them off during the week to also help tidy up the patch. I will harvest this season from the asparugus. It's now been three seasons. I look forward to eating it.

The entire vegetable patch needs a bloody good weed extraction job. Then all will be happier. Also the Sage is growing well and shown in the picture with the asparugus.

I have thyme growing well in the opposite side of the patch. Last year I did not harvest any and I am determined to harvest as much as I can this season. I will start to harvest this week and will look into preserving the herb for later use just like what I did with the sage a season or so back.

Today I also added more kitchen crap to the compost. The compost is doing fine.

I harvested more potatoes this morning. So many, it's not funny. Will be giving 3 to 4 kilos to Mum and Dad. I took in another 4 or kilos into the pantry. I need to pull as much up as possible as I do notice now that the potoes that aren't harvested are begining to sprout and grow into new potatoe plants. If these grew they would not last long as we will have aferw more morning frosts yet. Mid to late October I think I'll sow potatoe tubers. In regards to potatoes, I purchased this afternoon a red sweet potatoe from good old Coles andf I will attempt to grow sweet potatoe. I'll wait abit till end October then do it. I heard once on the radio that a uy here in Canberra did do rather well in producing a red sweet potatoe harvest. So I'm go to give it a shot. Sweet  Potatoes are more suited to growing in the tropical climates. Here in Murrumbateman/Canberra we are within the cool climate belt. Will let you know how I go with it.

So I look forward to the Spring weather and a great Summer vegetable gardening experience. Happy vegies!

Garlic Onions

Just a quicky, the Garlic and oinions are growing well. The garlic is about 1.5 to 2 inches high at present, and the onions and shallotts are starting to show. The dog got in afew times and chopped up the ground where I sowed them but it seems to not have prevented them to surface in a large way. Please see updated picture below. Onions and shallotts to the left of the picture, garlic on the right (look closely, you can see the garlic shoots).

Potatoes - What a Harvest!

Below are some general pictures I took yesterday of the vegetable garden. A bit rough and scruffy but it does need some TLC from me. I pulled out some of the old tomatoes and capsicums. Some of it went into the rotating compost bin, which is starting to decompose quite well.Will need in the coming weeks to commence the cleaning out and weeding of the patch ready for the Spring sowing activities.

POTATOES

I hate to boast but WOW, have I had a massive harvest this season in potatoes. I dug up about a foot and a halk (450mm aprox) yesterday and harvested about 7 to 10 kilos. Can't believe it. They keep fresh in the ground. Thinking back now, once the potatoe plants were about 250 to 300mm high I built up and basically burried the plants with further earth that was beside and this I believe produced  heaps more side shoots and potatoes.I still have about 4 x 3m rows to dig up, so heaps more for the family and other friends. See my amature like video below:

 

End of 1/3 Winter Gardening

Yes, it's been a while since the last post. I honestly haven't done much in the patch due to work commitments, but now it's easing off and more time for my vegetable garden can be achieved.

Today I firstly took a photo of the mess that built up over time. Yes it was true. I had some weeding to do and removed the old (some of) dead tomatoes and stakes that were. I then dug with my shovel into the soil which looked rather good ready for garlic, creamgold onion, and shallot seeds. The garlic cloves have been in my fridge for a good month so I hope that helps. The shortest day of the year past a week ago and I was in a rush to get those garlic cloves in. 54 in total. I dug in cow manure mix in the garlic bed to further enrich the soil. I could almost eat it. With the onions and shallot bed, I added nothing. I checked on the shallots I sowed 5 to 6 months back and without giving them any water (just when it rained) they are about 250mm (10 inches high). Not bad for doing little. Gave a good water in to all above and she'll be right for a while. Possibly mid this coming week I'll water again. There is rain and showers predicted tommorrow and the first half of this week. See how it pans out. I took some pics of the patch today, so take a look. As you can see, they aren't really a pretty sight. The last picture was taken pre-watering. The location of seeds - In the far background are the garlic (against the fence), In the middle is the Creamgold Onions, and in the front/bottom of the picture are the Shallots. I have to record that because the paper tags don't last long in the Australian weather, even in Winter, and having onions so close together, I will get mixed up on what's what. Till next time, Steve the Vegygardener.

End Of January Vegy Patch Update

Hi, it's been a while since the last post.

So what has been happening? Read on......

I'm starting to harvest the onions from the garden. They are the reds and browns. Also continuosly harvest the shallotts. There are plenty of them. I will hwever sow the next generation of shallotts in the coming days.

I have tranplanted the capsicums to the bed beside. The new bed has the compost that I added afew weeks back. The plants were about 300mm (12") high and they have wilted in a major way. It's possible and most likely they will struggle because they were rather big when I relocated them. So with the hot days we are experiencing at present, we'll see how they manage.

The pumpkin are growing well. I have forced them to grow/shoot outside the garden area. As mentioned in a previous post, I planted them on the edge of the patch so I could direct them to the outside to prevent overcrowding amongst the rest of the vegies. So it's a better situation this season. I just hope our black labrador doesn't go chopping into the pumpkins before we can eat them. He 'Ben' has already gone the the tomatoes.

On the tomatoes, they are growing very well. I just need to keep the water up to them and with combined warm/hot weather, should have a excellent harvest this year. They arer begining to ripen now. There are black and the obvious red tomatoes in the patch. I thing though, I did the same mistake of last year - planted them too close. Silly. So I'm leaving them now and will keep them trimmed and staked so a maximum air flow and direct sunlight will travel between the plants to the fruit. So I have been snapping off the suckers (laterals) as they appear.

Zuchini are starting to grow well. They need hot days and they're getting it. They are about 200mm high and at the early stages of spreading. Possible I was abit late in sowing (it was about Christmas) but should be fine.

Iceberg lettuces have now gone to seed. They are only good for our seven chickens.

The purple carrotts need to be harvested in the coming days. If I don't do it now they'll turn to seed and I'll miss out.

Basil, carrots (orange) and Italian parsley growing well. Also the sweet corn. They are starting to flower and will soon pollinate themselves. And also, the potatoes have done well. I will this week start to harvest the many kilos that are underground. Can't wait for that. A quick note, the so called rock melon plant I found as mentioned in the last post was not a rock melon. It was a weed called a paddy melon. So I quickly smartly removed him.

So have a look at the pictures below that show what the patch looks like now. It is abit messy, but whose vegetable garden isn't? Yes the weeds are beginning again and need some attention too. So here they are: