September 2010 - Seedlings Ready for Planting

My second attempt at growing seedlings has been slightly more successful and they are now only a week or two away from being ready to plant out. The second planting consisted of two types of tomatoes and mixed lettuce.

To supplement these seedlings I also purchased butternut pumpkin, sweet corn and capsicum seedlings from the nursery. These seedlings will be planted out this weekend.

Last weekend I prepared the garden beds. The weeds were removed and the soil turned over down to around 20cms. I then put in some cow and chicken manure to improve the soil condition and removed more clumps of clay. The soil has definitely improved from the last year and hopefully will improve further as more organic material is added.

September 2010 - Spring Preparation

Over the last 3 weeks I have been slowly preparing the garden to receive the first plants of spring. The remnants of the winter crop have been removed and bags of chicken and cow manure obtained to renew the soil prior to planting.

As well as preparing the beds I have also been attempting to grow some seedlings from seeds. I used the same seed planter from last year and planted lettuce, squash, and tomatoes. These were the most successful of last years crops and I know will provide a good harvest.

Unfortunately, just 2 weeks after the seedlings sprouted I left them on the outdoor table in full sun on the hottest day so far this spring. All of the seedlings bar a couple of the squash plants were withered. Today I replanted  the seeds, hopefully I will be able to plant these out by the end of the month.

Next weekend, I will prepare the garden beds for planting.

April 2010 - Winter Vegetables

This weekend some winter vegetables have been planted. We have a broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy and parsley. These have been purchased as seedlings. The gardens have also been mulched with sugarcane mulch.

The capsicum plants have been removed and this garden used to plant some parsley. There is further space in this section of the garden for another crop.

April 2010 - Preparation for Cooler Months

Over the last month we have had some failures in the garden. The watermelon seedlings planted in January seemed to suffer during a cold snap and did not survive. The iceberg lettuce seedlings survived but never really developed a 'heart'. The plant produced many leaves but never really looked like an iceberg lettuce you would buy in the shops. Now that these plants have gone to seed I have removed them from the garden and prepared the bed for planting new seedlings.

What has survived and flourished are the tomato plants and the capsicum. We have harvested 8 - 10 capsicums and about 12 truss plum tomatoes over the last 4 weeks.

 The other garden bed where the watermelon and bok-choy was planted will be cleaned up and the garden prepared for winter herbs. This garden bed does not get a great deal of sun and I have decided to use this bed for herbs and other plants that do not require the same amount of sunlight as some of the other vegetables.

Week 15 - New Garden Bed Part 2

After a trip to the garden centre, I have edged the garden using treated pine half round edging. I used five of these to give me a garden 3m x 1m against the fence.

Two bags of garden soil, two bags of cow manure and 1 bag of chicken manure we have a garden ready to be planted out with some new seedlings.

I have some spring onion and bok choy to grow in the new bed. I will be getting some iceberg lettuce in the next week.

Week 15 - New Garden Bed

The new garden bed has been started. Today was the first fine day we have had since Christmas Day and I decided that while the ground was nice and soft from all the rain, I would start clearing the area where the new garden was going to be. This area has basically been somewhere I have been throwing grass clippings and leaves for around 5 years.

Much of this waste material has decomposed and only the top 15cms was still grass clippings and leaves. I moved this pile further down the slope and started to attack the ground with the mattock.

A mesh of fine roots was all the way through the ground and these needs to be broken up and the soil loosened. The roots were thrown into the green garden waste bin. Three quarters of a bin later most of the roots. twigs and grass had been removed from the   garden bed.

The next step in preparing the garden is to determine what I will use for a border around the bed. I will be off to the local garden centre to get some supplies.

The following images show the existing garden.

Day One - Growing Our Own Vegies

Over the past 4 weeks, I have been preparing a little used raised garden bed to allow it to be used as a vegetable garden. Previously it was the location of a large hibiscus tree and weeds and grass.

Two weekends ago I removed the hibiscus tree and cleaned up all the grass. I also loosened the compacted soil with a mattock and tried to break up the larger clumps of soil and removed any further weeds and leaves.

This weekend I bought two bags of cow manure and one of chicken manure. I mixed these into the existing soil to prepare the bed for planting.

To give my first batch of plants the best possible start and let the bed settle in I planted a batch of seeds in a seed planter.

I have chosen the following plants as they are foods we eat on a regular basis:

• Tomatoes
• Squash
• Lebanese Cucumber
• Lettuce (various varieties)
• Capsicum

Over the next few weeks I will post updates on how the plants are progressing. I will also include some photos of the bed and the seed planter.