G is for Garlic

Well it's been quite a while since my last post. I've had endless colds or so it seems, and last weekend was Rose's 2nd birthday party, so that has kept me fairly busy baking a giant Peppa Pig cake.

Now that summer is officially over and indeed, the weather is cooling quite a lot, it's time to plant garlic. The last 2 years' garlic crops have been very disappointing, with either the plants being  decimated by aphids, or the garlic bulbs being very small on harvest. Perhaps with last year's lot, it was harvested a bit too early hence was a bit small.

For this year I've decided to reinvest with new varieties. I've got 3 different ones from the Digger's Club: Korean red, early white, and glamour.  And I'll put in a few bulbs from last year's miniature harvest.  

I've prepared the bed with mushroom compost and cow manure, and as usual I'll be cramming in more than is probably recommended. But we'll see how it goes come the December solstice and the next harvest.

p.s. it turns out that whilst the bulbs from last year's harvest were small, the actual cloves were a reasonable size.  So hopefully some good will come of those.

C is for cucumbers

Cucumbers are one of the few vegetables (along with peas and possibly cauliflower) that Rose will actually eat.  So this year I planted 3 Lebanese mini munchers, from Diggers' Club.  I chose these ones as the actual cucumbers are quite small, to suit my small plots, and I've trained them over the wire that encloses each plot.  As my plots aren't that big, I'm always looking for ways to increase how much I can cram into them, so training them seemed like a good idea.  They have tendrils to climb with, but don't seem to climb without some help, being happier to sprawl over the ground.

After a slow start, they're cropping really well.  I get maybe a half dozen each week now, with plenty on the way.  They're lovely and crunchy.  But it looks like the natives (mice?) have found them too. Fortunately, I think there's enough to go around, although I have been picking them a bit earlier than I would ideally like to make sure we don't lose too many.

While I'm here, seems like a good time for a panorama update. We've just done a top up of all the mulch in the backyard (six cubic metres of pine bark) as it was wearing very thin with the whippets doing laps down the bottom and then up over the lawn.  I'm forever trying to repair the lawn, although summer is probably not the best time for it.  Amazing how much greener everything looks with a dark base to set it off.

New Year update

Happy new year!

Seems a good time to do a garden update, which I've not been keeping up with at all.  Lots happening in the vegie beds, from left to right now filled with:

• tomatoes and zucchini
• onions and carrots (plus nasturtiums).  Chilli seedlings squeezed in.
• beans and cucumbers, pumpkins seeds just germinated.

First harvest of zucchinis, beans and cucumbers already done and eaten, tomatoes just flowering.

The apricot tree is also doing well, with lots of fruit shaping up well, but the possums have been getting into the net.  Can't work out for the life of me how they got in last night - previously there was a hole chewed in the bottom, but I blocked that up, so they must be sneaking in underneath where it's a bit loose perhaps?  It was just touching the ground and weighted down with some bits of wood around the edges.  I heard that hanging mothballs around was supposed to deter them so I scattered a few around, but can't saw it slowed them down at all. Next step is to tie the net more firmly around the trunk of the tree above the ground.  If all else fails, I'm going to pick them early and let them ripen on the windowsill. Last year they decimated the tomatoes, this year the apricots..... fat lot of good the guarddogs (ha ha ha) are doing.

Best broad beans ever

A great season for the broad beans this year:

Note sure if it was the extra compost, lots of seaweed solution or actually remembering to top them when the flowers had set this year... but we got about 800g of beans, and I reckon there's still about the same amount yet to be picked. Rose loves eating them raw, so probably there was more like 850g originally! Not sure what's going on with the second planting of peas this season - nothing seems to be germinating which is a pity as Rose loves eating them too.  Sugar snap peas are doing well, although a bit of blight is discolouring the leaves although it doesn't seem to affect the peas themselves so I've not done anything about it.  Beans are up but looking a bit chewed around the edges.  Again, unless it affects the beans themselves I probably won't bother doing anything about it.

Here's an update on all the beds.  Broadbeans as above plus a few cucumbers in the front part, onion and carrots bed doing quite well after a late start.  This year I accidentally killed off most of my onion seedlings after they got waterlogged, so I bought some shallots and red onion seedlings, well past their prime in a punnet.  They seem to be settling in ok though. Tomatoes and zucchini partially in as still waiting to harvest the garlic - also have eggplant seedlins to cram into this bed. The garlic looks pretty sad and thin, although a lot better than the pathetic crop from last year.  Not sure what the problem is - maybe they didn't get enough food to start them off. Chillies and capsicum seedlings are looking ok and will get planted out soon too into the root vegie bed, so everything will be really crowded.  I'd like to rest beds between seasons but never seem to get the chance! I built a mini greenhouse for my seedlings and cuttings, after one I saw on Gardening Australia, and it seems to working really well.  At least my correa and prosthanthera cuttings haven't died yet - not sure why I have such trouble with them as I thought being tough plants they should strike reasonably easily. I'll try to post something about that sometime.

The chickens are a happy little flock now that Caramel has been cured of being broody - a week in chicken prison (aka dog cage) seemed to do the trick.

Garden update

Spring has sprung!

Onion harvest 2013

Onion cream gold

Veggie bed cleanup

Last chance to do a bit of work on the garden before the newest member of the family joins us.  Henny, Penny and Jenny are now 20 weeks and earning their keep cleaning up the old tomato bed.  Garlic and onions going in here next.

Tomato bed clean-up

Garden panorama update

Gardens away

Some catch up shots now that we are back from Malaysian holidays and the landscaping has very nearly been finished in our absence.  The before shot (from the living room due to the neverending rain) ......

 and the after shots:

As you can see, there's instant lawn down and lots of mulch plus paths made from lilydale toppings.  It's a nice change to not wade through mud every time we go outside.  The garden beds are full of manure and compost and broad beans, peas and sugar snaps went in two weeks ago - they're just starting to come up now.  Also in are broccoli and pak choy.  The third bed is for onions, leeks and carrots, but a bit too early to plant the leeks and carrots just yet.  Onion seedlings are waiting to be planted.

Here's Ruby enjoying the mulch.  She's even figured out how to get into her kennel via the door flaps now.  She isn't really reconciled to being outside during the day as she's had quite a few days inside whilst building works are being finished.  One major inside job this week - installation of the (sun shade) roller blinds - still waiting on the fabric curtains though.

 The real chickens won't be quite this big.  It's turning out to be hard to get pullets at this time of year, so they haven't moved in just yet.

 The front yard sits around the new car turnaround area, which is just big enough to do a 3 point turn in.  Everything's rather tiny at the moment but hopefully come spring, there will be a bit of growth.  Finally had the water tank problems sorted out this past week - a crack in the inspection port meant that the line wasn't staying as charged.  But that's now fixed and the tanks are finally filling up - being used currently in the toilets and washing machine.  It's not like the garden needs the water.

At least the lawn's nice and small now - not much to mow.