Veges

Wow,  this looks like being a vege blog - not my intention I assure you.

Whilst we were on hols, my son picked 2 zucchini and there were 3 more waiting for us when we got home.  I have given 2 away to a lady who walks her dog past our place every day - saw her today and she said they were nice.  Last night I used one of them to make a zucchini slice.  We had a salad with it using some of our mini tomatoes.  One pot with carrots had to be pulled out - they did not get enough water and so died.  The peas also have been neglected re the watering - oh well.

Our hols - away for 19 days at our caravan in the little town of Bright.  I managed to get a fair bit of cross stitch done and I finished 2 ankle socks.  Did not take many photos.  Only went  swimming twice - days just not hot enough.  Actually for nearly 1 week we wore autumn clothing - long sleeves/pants!!  In january!!
Who'd a thunk.

Bless you

My Blessings for this festive season.

May all your wishes come true.

Check 'em out

Check out these zucchini!!

The pale ones weigh a fair bit.  The small bulby bits on the far end are where the seeds are.  They measure around 40cm long!! Apparently they are good to eat up to 1m long.

Zucchini, etc

Just picked 2 more home grown zucchini - the one I picked last week was quite nice without the seeds.  Lightly steamed, yummmmm

1 of those just picked is nearly a complete circle!  Looks like there will be 3 more in a few days, they just need to colour up.

On and I counted the pumpkins too - 12 in all that I can see.  So far they are 4-6" long and getting their ribbed skin. 

Of my wartermelon and rockmelons I have 3 of 1 variety and 1 of the other - not sure which is which so it will be surprising when they get big enough to flower and then fruit.  Lost 2 along the sideway fence - darn birds digging for worms dug these ones out. Hopefully our Son will keep them watered well whilst we are away.

Zucchini

I picked 1 zucchini on Friday - slugs/snails were eating the bulbish area where the seeds would be - the zucchinis are TROMBONCINI variety.  We ate it with dinner on Saturday night - quite nice lightly steamed, no seeds to worry about.

We've had a bit of rain over the past couple of days, so I have not had to water.  The poppies are doing well and flowering lots.

Veges

Hubby whipper snipped around the garden beds Sunday - I lost part of a zucchini plant.  He asked our son who was helping him "can I glue this back on?" . 

In having a good look at the veges I have around 5 pumpkins, but they are long not round; lots of zucchini - most are curling around themselves; my capsicums look like tomatoes; the broccoli is a failure (or maybe that's just me not having a green thumb).  I have planted yet more peas - this is what I picked from what I had in to start with.

That's 3 plants worth of peas - they tasted nice and sweet, pod and all.  Maybe they don't like being in pots.

We have decided to get rid of our front lawn totally and turn it into a car park.  Our youngest daughter has her own car now and the driveway is not big enough for 3 cars - we need to put 1 on the lawn.  Putting down a stone/concrete mix will mean a lot of work, but be worth it in the end when the other 2 kids get cars (assuming they do that before leaving home).  We will have to redo some of the front garden bed to get the car onto the lawn easier.

Vege Garden

I have 2  more broccoli seedlings that I have put into the big beds.  I had to rip one of the original ones out - looked really sick.  The other orginal one is slowly getting eaten by something - I put down snail pellets.

I also planted watermelons and rockmelon seeds - some down the sideway and some out the front.  The bed down the sideway got weeded and sugar cane mulched.  Also put in another pea seed and more snail pellets around these.  Maybe I should invest in a snail trap - but then I would have to buy beer and no one here drinks the stuff.

Also put in MORE tomato seeds - if these don't germinate I am going to give up and buy 2 plants.  This goes against the grain as I don't really want to put profit into the hands of the large seed companies, but what do I do if I want to grow my own tomatoes?  Also put in some more capsicum and cucumber seeds.

All of the self germinated peas have been pulled out - they looked sick anyway.  A lot of the grass that was coming up in the big beds has also stopped doing that.  I think I have managed to pull the rest all out.

Found an old hose on a reel too.  Now I need some tap connectors for it - much better than a watering can.  I can give the whole bed a good soaking.  Which I think I need to do daily.  The potting mixes where there were seeds are bone dry - even though we had a lot of rain yesterday.

Now I just need to get hubby to whipper snip the grass around the beds down low so I can put a thick layer of mulch.  Oh and I need a vege garden / grass barrier too.  Bunnings here I come.

Vege update - yep another one

So it looks like I've lost all my cucumbers to something - probably slugs/snails though how they can crawl across pea straw is beyond me.

The extra pea seeds I put in are starting to grow.  As are some of the extra carrots.  The first lot of carrots are really slow in doing anything - maybe they need more vigilant watering and fertiliser.

The 2 zucchini are looking good - see---

As are the pumpkins...

The Everlasting Daisies are doing well too.  So are the self sown pea seeds.

This strawberry plant is now 3 years old - it has the tiniest of fruit on it already and could do with a good feed.

Now for some other flowers in my front yard.

And the Expert says......

That it is a common problem with pea straw and that they should be fine to let grow if I wish.  She said they are usually not as nice to eat as any others I would plant, but that she usually leaves them.

So I have decided to let those not coming up next to the seed I have planted be - for the time being.  Some I have pulled out if there were lots together.  Maybe they will have some nice flowers......

The peas I have planted are doing quite well - most anyway.  One got attacked by slugs - so it's out with the snail/slug trap for me.  I have planted 2 more seeds in the same pots to cover those that didn't germinate and the 1 lost to the slug.

The seeds I put into the peat pellets have all germinated except for the tomato ones.  In a few weeks when they get their true leaves they will go in the vege beds.  If the tomatoes don't come up, I may try direct sowing them in their pot.

Another Vege Garden Update

Just come inside from checking the vege garden beds.  Boy are those peas that I didn't plant doing well!  There must be 20 of them.  I will have to think hard on if I wish to keep them all and if I am going to put in some sort of climbing frame for them.  There are a couple that are quite near my cucumber and pumpkins.  I wonder if they will help each other grow or just create a mess.  Must ask the experts.

vege garden update

We've had a fair bit of rain lately - those seedlings I planted out have survived it all.  The seeds keep sprouting.

So far I have 3 pumpkins, 3 zucchini, 2 cucumbers and it looks like 2 tomatoes as well.  I think that's what they are - will have to wait a bit to see if I'm correct.

Today I put in extra pumpkin, zucchini and cucumbers - hopefully they will do well also.  I also put more tomato, capsicum and broccoli seed into jiffy pellets and some more carrot seed into the same pot as before and 3 other pots.

I have noticed that there is a lot of grass coming up in the new beds - did not even think about that!  I think it is from the straw - could be the lucerne on the bottom.  It even looks like I have quite a few peas coming up too - from the straw - it is pea straw after all.  I have left these to grow - hopefully they won't do the other plants any damage or be much competition.  The grass I am pulling out each time I check up on the beds.

I noticed the small strawberry plant has had 2 more leaves - yay.  And my poor dutch iris that is pot bound has a flower on it.  It must like the fact it has water!!

Some more of out gardens flowers - the white ones are convulvulus, the yellow are fressia's.

Vege Garden Update

Well I am feeling a bit happy this morning - my pumpkins, zucchini, cucumber, daisies and poppies have mostly germinated.  I expect within another week the rest of the seeds will have also germinated.  My carrot seeds look like they are finally doing something also.  And I have 1 healthy capsicum plant that I have moved out of the seed tray and into the garden bed.  The broccoli seedlings look a bit sick, but I have put them in the big bed too.  Shame the tomato seeds don't look like doing anything.  Maybe they take longer to start.

Now I just have to remember to get out each day and give them all a drink!

The rain we have had over the past 2 weeks has  moved the straw over the potting mix to create a nice bit of mulch - I like that.

gardening

Had another storm last night - lightening, thunder, the works.  Largest dog was running around the house like a luantic - he hates loud noises!  Lying in bed listening to the rain pelt down I wondered how my freshly planted seeds were going - would they get washed away; would the potting mix be pushed around and leave the seeds to air; would nothing happen?

Checked them this morning - it seems the rain has pushed the potting mix into the straw.  I haven't gone digging through it yet to see what has actually happened - a bit wet still - but that is on the agenda when the rain stops.

I think I have decided what to use as an edge around the new beds.  Hubby wanted me to use treated pine sleepers - cheap and will not rot away.  After some investigation that will NOT be happening - they are still treated with copper arsenate - no way am I having that stuff near my vege gardens.  So I have decided on a plastic bordering product that comes in 5m and 10m rolls.  I'll get the green one, I think, that is 20cm high, maybe 10m of it.  Not sure how it stays upright - I presume some sort of spike goes into it at the back.  If that's the case I will have to watch where I put the spikes - we have under ground sprinklers in the front grass.  I'm sure hubby will not like me puncturing those lines.  What I don't use out the front I can use to make a taller garden bed out the back for the Sunflowers.  May even get a 5m roll for the garden bed down the side.......

Vege Garden Update

This morning, I was up relatively early, so I finished filling up the new vege garden beds out the front.  By midday they were all full, had to go get more manure and straw though.  I  now have handfuls of potting mix in little spots in each bed with Pumpkin, Zucchini, Cucumber, Everlasting Daisies and Poppies in the mix.

I even labelled 2 of the beds with nice ceramic plant labels - hopefully no will steal these.

Here's the beds:

And here are some of the flowers in other parts of our front yard:

I think we may need to weed under those ones....

vege garden update

Saturday night was really windy.  Things were blowing around all over the yard.  I thought I would lose my pea seeds that I had left outside, it was that windy.

Pea seeds were just where I left them when I checked the side way in the morning - phew!  The only 'damage' was my mini glasshouse was tipped over and on the ground and the plastic cover over the cat grass seeds had blown off.  So no realy damage to speak off.  A few sheets of paper from the one new bed that did not get the lucerne/manure/straw treatment had blown out too.

So I put the paper back in and covered them with the lucerne.  It was rather wet lucerne and had started to decay in parts - is this a good thing? - who knows.  I also fixed up the mini glasshouse (it's plastic btw), put the cat grass into it and put some seeds into the peat pellets that had fallen out of it; then watered the whole lot.  So now I have tomato seeds in 4 peat pellets, capsicum in another 4 and broccoli in the last 4.  And I put the glasshouse on the ground...

Yesterday Hubby was mowing the front lawn.  He commented to me that I had made it very hard for him to do that.  Like duhhh.  I told him, yes I know that and the plan is to put a barrier of some sort - wood, bricks,etc - across in front of the new beds for him to mow up to and then I was going to mulch around the beds.  He obviously thinks I did not think of the grass getting mowed!!  But I noticed, apart from  the smell of the wet lucerne, a lot of flies buzzing around the new beds.  I think I may have to set up a fly trap.

Vege Garden

Just spent the last 2 1/2 hours putting together 4 metal garden beds, and starting to set up a no-dig garden in each of them.  The beds went together quite easily - all I needed was a screwdriver; easy to find in this house.

I ran out of lucerne hay, manure and straw for the beds.  Will have to get 1 more lucerne bail, another 2 bags of manure and 2 more straw pallets.  Then I need to figure out what I am going to put around the beds to cover up the grass that is there - I have put these on my front lawn!  I may get a large pallet of straw and scatter that around thickly, though that may cause problems with other things growing from the straw seeds.

So when they are full with hay, etc. I am going to plant broccoli, capsicum, pumpkin, cucumber, zucchini, maybe some poppies or native everlasting daisies just to make the beds 'look nice'.

Sunday's plan go pushed to Monday - sorted out 4 pots and planted some carrot seeds in one of them.  Pulled out most of the weeds down the sideway - I just left them on the garden bed to break down.  I still want to raise that bed up a bit for some more veges.

This morning before starting on the new garden beds, I put potting mix into 3 more pots.  These pots have rods and wheely things to make towers.  In 2 of these I put some sugar snap peas, 8 seeds in all.  So hopefull;y we will have some peas to eat over summer.  If they germinate well I will seriously think about putting in some more.  I also watered some jiffy peat pellets so I can start some toamato seeds for the other tower pot.

I'm off to have a shower - I smell like manure!

Garden

I just had a look down our north sideway - ugh, what a mess.  It has not been looked at over winter and boy does it show.

The weeds are HUGE, the plants cover the path nearly and there's lots of leaf litter under the olive tree (I think that's what it is).  Time to get my butt into gear.

Moved and weeded the poor strawberry plants.  I still have 3 of them, though 1 looks a bit sick.  Gave them all a good drink and moved them to the front of the house where they will get some sunshine.  It looks like I may have another one growing in an abandoned pot; the one I was going to use for carrots.  I found some more pots too up near the front gate that still have mix in them.

So the plan for Sunday is this......

• Get those pots and dig around in them to find any left over roots.  Remove said roots, add some manure, extra mix and water well then let sit for a week.  Then I will plant some carrot seeds.
• Put a few tomato seeds into the jiffy pots.  I might do 2 or 3 pots and see how they geminate.  I think if they go well I should probably do 2 or 3 every month - that should keep us in tomatoes.
• Pot up the Cat Grass for the moggies.

This is after I've done the ironing and come home from the competiton in the morning.

I should also rip out as much of the weeds in the pavers as possible.  One weed is a rather large thistly prickly thing - need gloves or a spade (or both) for that.  The leaf litter I want to keep - it will go in the vege garden bed I intend setting up.

Vegetable Garden

So the other day I went online to a gardening website and joined up.  This will give me 2 years of magazines - 12 in total - full of gardening advice and seeds/plants to purchase.  I also bought a collection of 9 different varieties of seeds to plant out.  There is broccoli, pumpkin, melons (don't know what sort) tomatoes, peas, lettuce, capsicum and onions.  Apparently using these 9 packets I can produce over 100kg of produce.

Now the next part is to figure out just where I am going to plant them.  I have been thinking about this for a couple of years now and I believe the best place is in the front yard!!  I know hubby will NOT like this at all, but if I do a small bed out there that should not look too messy.

I think I have a plan - 1 raised bed in the top end of the front lawn that is 1.2m x 1.2m,
                                            only 30cm high
                               - 1 raised bed out the back against the back fence that is 2m
                                             x 1m, needs to be 40cm high to keep dogs off it
                               - and a final one down the side against the house that is .5m
                                            x 3m, 40cm high

This last one could possibly be put on the existing garden bed, then it only needs to be 30cm high, but it won't be 3m long.

Each bed I want to do as a no-dig-garden - I think I will be raiding the supermarket for carboard boxes, and maybe the newsagent for old newspapers.

Hope my seeds turn up soon.........

Men

I read a quote the other day that was attributed to William Morris.  It was "Do not have anything in your house that is not either useful or you deem to be beautiful." 

My immediate thought was - "Does this mean I can rid of the hubby??"

Hubby's Car

He has finally finished making up and installing drawers in the back of our Landcruiser.  I will admit they look quite good, all covered in grey felty carpety stuff.  He wants to add some dividers in the drawers to help with the rolling around of items within them.  They are quite large and take up the whole of the width/depth of the rear of the car and are about 30cm high.  Not much room for the dogs anymore.

His next projet will be to make a tipping up slider for out engel car fridge.  He also recently put a snorkel on the car too. 

The kids think he is crazy and can't believe I let him 'ruin' the car.  But next year we will be travelling up to Cape York and possibly over to Uluru also, so I can see the need for these modifications.