Well at this time of the year and with my inexperience there is not much happening in my garden. A few things in progress regarding the ground and preparing for spring.
First up is a new 'bed' this was weed central. I dug it all up and let it sit a while until I saw weeds starting to sprout again, I dug it all up and turned it all again, pulling out the dandelion roots as I went. This time I mulched it heavily with Sugar cane mulch that had been the left overs from the potato towers. This worked well and after a few weeks when I saw weeds sprouting again I turned it again this time digging that mulch in. It sat another few weeks and I noted weeds starting to sprout a few days before it started to rain, it has rained for a couple of days and this is it all freshly turned, I got less than 10 dandelions out and one straggly violet. Great progress.
I am thinking I'll try Zucchini and perhaps beans here. It is at the base of our back verandah.
This is more poor sad little Roma, I thought it was dead after the heat wave but it rallied, perhaps too late, I moved it here recently in the remote hope that some of this fruit will ripen, it is still producing flowers too. It has some old wire lattice in front of it, that I rig clear plastic over if the night is cold.
Here is my Garlic!
Its purple garlic and was originally from the supermarket. After I planted it, as my first experimental planting I read this was a bad thing to do. It grew. I planted them last spring late, and the cloves multiplied and I got a small harvest, I kept it all and planted it out again this season.
This is one of my strawberries at the moment. They all grew well in pots and are now quite crowded after the increase in size, I plated out some runners and had success with two. I think I have about 14 plants in all, spread out in 4 pots.
This next picture is where I am thinking I will plant them out in Spring. This was a garden that had been well over run with weeds.
I have laid newspaper and mulch on top of it after digging it all out. I salvaged all the daffodil bulbs, and that was about it. The newspaper is working well as weed mat and has started to break down, has a few holes poked into it by hungry birds. I am pulling weeds from the edges at times but am quite happy with it really. Not sure where to from here but thats where its at.
For me all of this gardening business is new. Well gardening with the purpose of producing food, is new. I got small harvests of potatoes from towers last year and tomatoes from this poor little Roma here, also strawberries. My zucchini in pots failed, my cherry toms were fizzers. Oh I did get a few baby carrots and as I mentioned the supermarket garlic grew.
I am just sharing all this as a record of where I am at, I'm not an authority, I'm learning as I go and largely by trial and error. I do have a wonderful resource at my fingertips here on the net, and use it as I can but learn more out there in the yard doing it.
I saw worms in the bed that used to be weed central so I think I'm on the right path, I know I cant grow potatoes or Toms in there as I used the material I had grown potatoes in as mulch and to break up the soil ...
Anyway I'm excited that I'll get to harvest garlic in Summer and to see what it's like, I am keen to see what strawberries do in the ground and how they might spread. Also to see If I can get Zuc to grow... Ah so many things ... all of out cold winter to think about it while I knit, sew and bake away the days ... LOL ( in a perfect world that is )
Hope you all have a great LWE.
First up is a new 'bed' this was weed central. I dug it all up and let it sit a while until I saw weeds starting to sprout again, I dug it all up and turned it all again, pulling out the dandelion roots as I went. This time I mulched it heavily with Sugar cane mulch that had been the left overs from the potato towers. This worked well and after a few weeks when I saw weeds sprouting again I turned it again this time digging that mulch in. It sat another few weeks and I noted weeds starting to sprout a few days before it started to rain, it has rained for a couple of days and this is it all freshly turned, I got less than 10 dandelions out and one straggly violet. Great progress.
I am thinking I'll try Zucchini and perhaps beans here. It is at the base of our back verandah.
This is more poor sad little Roma, I thought it was dead after the heat wave but it rallied, perhaps too late, I moved it here recently in the remote hope that some of this fruit will ripen, it is still producing flowers too. It has some old wire lattice in front of it, that I rig clear plastic over if the night is cold.
Here is my Garlic!
Its purple garlic and was originally from the supermarket. After I planted it, as my first experimental planting I read this was a bad thing to do. It grew. I planted them last spring late, and the cloves multiplied and I got a small harvest, I kept it all and planted it out again this season.
This is one of my strawberries at the moment. They all grew well in pots and are now quite crowded after the increase in size, I plated out some runners and had success with two. I think I have about 14 plants in all, spread out in 4 pots.
This next picture is where I am thinking I will plant them out in Spring. This was a garden that had been well over run with weeds.
I have laid newspaper and mulch on top of it after digging it all out. I salvaged all the daffodil bulbs, and that was about it. The newspaper is working well as weed mat and has started to break down, has a few holes poked into it by hungry birds. I am pulling weeds from the edges at times but am quite happy with it really. Not sure where to from here but thats where its at.
For me all of this gardening business is new. Well gardening with the purpose of producing food, is new. I got small harvests of potatoes from towers last year and tomatoes from this poor little Roma here, also strawberries. My zucchini in pots failed, my cherry toms were fizzers. Oh I did get a few baby carrots and as I mentioned the supermarket garlic grew.
I am just sharing all this as a record of where I am at, I'm not an authority, I'm learning as I go and largely by trial and error. I do have a wonderful resource at my fingertips here on the net, and use it as I can but learn more out there in the yard doing it.
I saw worms in the bed that used to be weed central so I think I'm on the right path, I know I cant grow potatoes or Toms in there as I used the material I had grown potatoes in as mulch and to break up the soil ...
Anyway I'm excited that I'll get to harvest garlic in Summer and to see what it's like, I am keen to see what strawberries do in the ground and how they might spread. Also to see If I can get Zuc to grow... Ah so many things ... all of out cold winter to think about it while I knit, sew and bake away the days ... LOL ( in a perfect world that is )
Hope you all have a great LWE.
Love your two new garden beds, they will be great come Spring!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat great progress, once you start it's hard not to see every little spot with something growing there.
ReplyDeleteI use the newspaper too and like it very much, and so do the worms!
The garlic is looking great!