How does your garden grow?

Well I guess the question should be what does your garden grow? And where?

At the moment I have a few seedlings germinating in the shed, so far we have a few lettuce shoots, brussel sprouts, pak chi (red & green), stripy beetroot, chinese kale, thai basil. I shall be sewing some more this weekend. The last of Augusts crops- I'm trying to sew a few every 2 weeks, so we have a continuous supply. But I do get impatient and love to see plants flourish, so try to hold back.

I took a trip to Bunnings last night and picked up a new sprinkler for my veg patch (one of those oscillating ones- apparently it can cover 70m² so then I can use my soaker hoses to water the trees, along the fence line- as with the now drier weather the grass, let alone the fruit trees Iplanted are not lookign so good. 



Wom bok



I also picked up a composting bin yesterday. So hopefully we should be generating our own fertiliser/compost soon enough.  Now I don’t have the greatest amount of kitchen scraps to fill it with- as the pigs, dogs and chickens do pretty well out of these. But am sure I won’t find it hard to fill; we do have a reasonably unlimited supply of green waste and manure, along with used animal bedding (hay, sawdust, paper etc). It has bugged me in the past, as I clean the animals out that all that potential fertiliser was going to waste- since you shouldn’t place animal manure directly onto plants, as it will burn them.  

Pak choi/ Red choi

So to the garen itself, we are beginning to see the fruits of our labour.

   

Capsicum plant



Radishes



Cos lettuce



I was really surprised to see that the Fennel seeds and beetroot has finally germinated, along with the Wom bok, Bok choi, leeks and radishes. We have some success with the one capsicum (pepper) plant and lettuce (this one has re-produced a few). Also the herbs (that should be moving to their own patch soon)- basil, coriander and parsley thriving. Fingers crossed this bay tree is doing well (this is our 3rd attempt) and the "Maltese mint" I had from my neighbour needs pruning to stop it taking over. To be honest I'm nto even sure what it is, Ihave been told by many its edible and it does smell nice. Will have to post a picture, see if anyone can identify it.



 The silverbeet has done well, as has the rocket… though I must admit, neither of us are particularly fond of it, so the pigs and bugs have had the majority of it. The bugs have mostly been munching on my cauliflower and brocolli plants! Need to keep spraying them, though am trying to use natural remedies... I may have to resort to chemicals soon, as I may lose the lot. 



Silverbeet



Cauli plant- already munched

The Bortolli and Cherokee beans have begun to flourish and we are harvesting the last of the snow peas- am hoping to plant more of these next year.

 







Welsh bunching onions



Beans



From last year’s crops the Welsh bunching onions have continued to thrive right through. I would advise anyone give these a try- regardless of your garden/ pot size. As they’re great. You just pull them up, split them; taking what you want, but placing an individual onion (and root) back in the ground/ pot and it will multiply all over again. Also the tomatoes and egg plant (aubergines) have come back on their own… so should have a good supply of these soon enough.