The weather has definitely warmed up! The grass is growing madly, there is already one set of wild ducklings in the back paddock, and the pests are (unfortunately) increasing in numbers. This time of year is usually a bit of a pendulum, weather-wise - wind, thunderstorms and generally unsettled weather is normal as we head into the equinox on Sept 22nd, and for several weeks afterwards. Spring usually brings a warm period, followed by a late cold snap. It's not time to get too excited and plant out tender summer crops just yet!
I've realised that one of the reasons that I have not been very consistent with updating this blog is that I tend to write long posts with lots of pics (which take time to upload), and so procrastinate because time is short. So, my plan for this season is to write more regular but shorter posts. Hopefully you will find them interesting and inspiring. :-)
I've realised that one of the reasons that I have not been very consistent with updating this blog is that I tend to write long posts with lots of pics (which take time to upload), and so procrastinate because time is short. So, my plan for this season is to write more regular but shorter posts. Hopefully you will find them interesting and inspiring. :-)
This week I've made a start in the garden. I had lots of plans for how I was going to overhaul it over winter...didn't happen! This past year has included a lot of life events which have conspired to keep me out of the garden - within my family: two deaths, being executor of a complex estate, a marraige, and two births, and then my own health issues, and overall busyness in my other life roles. However, every day is a new beginning! So rather than worry about what I haven't done, I'm just jumping in where I am! Yes, the garden is a mess - there is grass and weeds everywhere. Yes, there is a lot of work to do. No, it doesn't look like I intended it to going in to spring. C'est la Vie!
One day at a time - one step at a time. The good thing is, even when the gardener is unavailable, the garden still produces - the jungle out there contains plenty of silverbeet, miner's lettuce, NZ spinach, lemons, leeks, spring onions, carrots, puha, kale, broccoli, various edible greens, chickweed, calendula, mint, oregano, rosemary, chives, parsley, thyme, potatoes, and so on.
So, over this week I have:
Weeded the bed bordering my garden area, mulched with woodchip, and planted violas on one side, and calendulas and parsley on the other. Should look good with the bright flowers behind a cascading border of parsley. The parsley should also help the rose in the middle, protecting it from black spot and aphids.
Overhauled my blueberry bed, removing all the strawberries (it's more convenient to harvest strawberries from a low, netted bed than the big netted blueberry bed, and besides, it was easier to get all the weeds out if I removed the strawberries), and planting a gooseberry and some raspberries in the open space - they are tall plants who will do well in the netted cage. Nets are currently rolled up but will be let down once fruits are starting to ripen. I spread some sulphate of potash and sulphur-containing plant food, compost, peat moss (blueberries in particular like more acidic soil, and the peat moss and sulphur help lower the pH), watered well, then topped with aged sawdust removed from last year's raised potato beds.
Harvested the side shoots from broccoli in two raised beds, which did not get very big over winter (more on this in another post), along with kohl rabi starting to go to seed, and cabbages which were still tiny. We ate the leaves from broccoli, kohl rabi and cabbage, lightly steamed, for dinner last night, and the broccoli shoots over a couple of nights. I then planted those beds with the strawberries I had dug up, along with some extras potted from runners in my strawberry bath. Left over strawberry plants were given away. I also added sulphate of potash to these beds, and watered in. First bed shown below - second one was planted tonight. It also has shallots growing in it, which I left in between the strawberry plants.
I dug over the third bed behind these two, pulling out spuds from last season I never harvested. Was going to plant strawberries there too, but am now thinking I might overhaul it, and plant a bed of mixed spuds, under mesh against psyllid.
I cleared the remnants of sweet peas from this trellis, added a jasmine plant to cover the trellis (and hide the bins etc behind it), at least until the Leptospermum gets big enough to act as a screen on it's own. A few violas for colour at the base.
After weeding in front of the caravan (adjacent to the fence border above), I planted a yellow Argyranthemum daisy, sprinkled some buckwheat and white alyssum seeds around it, and lightly raked them in. On the other side of the carpet rose, in the corner, I sprinkled mixed poppy seeds. Extra colour and food for the bees and other beneficials.
The one job I got done last week was to dig over this bed, add some compost and a trench of well rotted horse manure (left over from brewing a drum of manure tea), and mulching with pea straw, before planting a punnet each of Rainbow Chard (silverbeet) and perpetual spinach (another kind of silverbeet).
Adjacent to it, the wee lemon tree is loaded, the garlic is doing well, though getting a bit shaded by the globe artichoke I planted last season (my first one) which is getting huge! I keep pulling leaves off and mulching with them, if they start to lay over the top of the garlic. I had literally no where else I could plant garlic at the time!
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It's a start!
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