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.