Garden update

Apologies... it has been a few weeks since I posted as life has gotten in the way of blogging. Exciting things have still been happening in the garden though, especially with the new seedlings and potatoes I planted (more on the potatoes later). There have been so many posts I have wanted to put up, but havent had the time to even think about downloading the photos from my camera!

The garden is looking fantastic at the moment with everything growing like crazy. Flowers are popping up everywhere, the lemon tree is covered in shoots and blossoms, the vegies are growing like crazy.

The seeds I planted a few weeks ago quickly pushed up into the world. First the rocket came up, then the beans raised their huge head. The two pictures below are after one week.

Here they are three weeks after planting. As you can see the beans have gone crazy, and there has been a lot of success with the tomatoes (top tight) and rocket (bottom right). The basil has been the slowest - I'm only seeing the first little shoot now - almost a month to the day after I planted them. I was quite unimpressed with the germination of the spinach and coriander. Of the 12 spinach seeds I planted (2 per tube), I only got 2 seedlings. And only four little coriander. There are still a couple of late beans coming up - so maybe there is hope for the rest.

As they were getting so big, I planted out the beans with a pack of peas I picked up recently. The rest of the seedlings have moved outside to harden up a little and will be transplanted with their first real leaves start to grow. I think these zucchini (above) will go in next.

In other garden news, the kale is growing like crazy, even with the green smoothies I've been drinking.

I've also planted a number of other 'pre-started' tomato and capsicum seedlings for a bit of an early crop.

Finally, the nasturtium I planted down with the lemon tree is looking amazing and has just put on its first flower!

Wet weather

I've not spent much time in the garden this week - actually I've barely been out the back door. It has been wet and miserable most of the week and have only been home when its dark outside. I'm really looking forward to the days getting longer so I can sit outside after work. 

There is still a lot of progress in the garden however. The sweetpeas are in flower, and are starting to form pods. I am, however, starting to suspect they might actually be snowpeas. Either way, I'm getting excited about being able to pick them straight off the vine in a few weeks time. 

 The kale is getting bigger and bigger - It's almost time to start making green smoothies with some of it!

The garlic is really taking off and has almost doubles in size over the last two weeks. I've got it growing in 3 pots, two over in a sunny part of the garden and one in a more shaded area. Interestingly the one with less sunlight has barely grown at all so I've moved it across to the other side of the garden.

The succulents are also growing well. These two were transplanted from another local garden, and the ones below are going crazy!

I've also got lots of silverbeet, both in green and purple - again almost ready to join the kale in a green smoothie.

Finally, the spring onions, red russian kale and purple silverbeet are growing happily in their new homes.

Sunday Garden Makeover

After a trip to the gym and then onto the farmers market, it was time to get out into the garden. Although the sun had been shining and the sky blue all morning, as soon as I opened the back door the wind picked up and the clouds rushed across the sky. It was still warm though, and the rain that kept threatening me stayed away until I came inside.

I had a fairly large garden clean-up due after months of neglect over winter. Everything was overgrown and my pots were filled with all sorts of unidentified plants. There were self seeded parsley and unidentifiable weeds growing everywhere, and so much clover!

First step was to attack the morning glory and ivy that has grown over, under and through the fence. This is one job I kept up over winter, as unless it is tackled on an almost weekly basis it gets completely out of control. I do like the look of morning glory, and it adds a bit of privacy by extending the fence hight, but it grow several meters in a week choking everything in its path. The ivy likes to squeeze between the fence posts and is quite successfully pulling the fence apart. As there wasn't too much growth this week, I cut it back a little and attached all the dead vines underneath this months new growth.

Before:

 After (slightly less messy):

And finally - the massive bag of vines that came off:

Next I moved onto the garden beds.

Before:
These silvery grey plants were looking really tatty and had not only taken over the whole garden bed, but had self seeded in every pot and every bit of space in the garden. They were even appearing between the pavers:

After:
I pulled up most of them, but left a few baby ones, and added a few from pots in a small patch. I was tempted to get rid of them entirely but they do have a lovely purple/pink flower in summer. I also planted a lavender and some other flowers that had grown too big for their pots, then added the broccolini and spring onions from last weeks farmers market trip.

Before:
This patch of marjoram and mint has seen better days.

After:
Although the photos don't look all that different, in a few weeks this area should pick up. I cut back all the dead growth and pruned it right back. There was actually a lot of new growth under all those sticks, and if anything like last year, this will take off now it has been cleaned up. I've taken the mint out of the plastic pot, and added in some pieces that were growing between the pavers. I was a little hesitant to do this as I'm concerned it will take over the garden so I'll need to keep an eye on it.

I then moved onto some of the pots...

Before:
These pots were filled with just about everything you could imagine. Strawberries, sage, mint, clover, parsley and all sorts of unidentifiable greens. I have a tendency to leave unknown plants alone to see if they become anything recognisable as they grow, and this has lead to some interesting discoveries (ugly plants that suddenly bloom amazing flowers) and also a spread of weeds. So while the plant in the bottom right corner looked healthy and potentially could be something beautiful - I decided to pull it up anyway.

After:

The end result here looks a bit bare, but I'm going to work on these pots. I removed everything but the strawberries from the top pot, and plan to add a few more runners when I get to that garden bed. The bottom pot has just the sage remaining. If this doesn't pick up soon I might need to add some more, or change it to something new. The other two pots are now empty waiting on some spring seedling. 

Before:
These pots were a mess of everything!

After:
I removed almost everything, just keeping the self-seeded parsley and transferring it all into one pot. I've planted the purple silverbeet and red russian kale, and moved a pot of the garlic over here. The lettuce has been dug up and I'll use the last few leaves for a salad with dinner tonight.

Before:

After:
I've not done too much here, just removed some weeds from the thyme and succulent pots, and pulled out the dead basil.

Before:

After:
I discovered under all that mess there were a few strong silverbeet plants that had either self seeded or were hanging on from last spring. The lettuce and parsley have gone to tonights dinner and all the weeds have been removed.

I'll leave the wider garden shot for another post as this one is getting rather long!

PS - If it isn't yet obvious I'm new to blogging and trying to get my head around these templates. Does anyone know how to arrange photos better so they aren't all in a big long list? Is it possible (using blogger) to put them next to each other or create a box of images?

Spring is in sight

The sun is out, the windows are wide open, and there is a feeling of warmth in the air. It is only early August, but it is starting to feel like the worst of winter is over and time to start getting back in the garden. As I wondered outside earlier this morning, it suddenly became clear how badly my garden has become neglected over the past few dark dreary months. The garden beds are full of weeds, there are strange plants taking over my pots, and the lettuce have gone crazy! Fortunately everything is still alive and looking green - it just needs a little bit of love.

So - this weekend I plan to have a garden clean out. That is, if this amazing weather holds out and its not back to the usual drizzle and icy winds that whip through Melbourne.

There are still plenty of signs of new spring growth in the garden. The sprouting garlic I picked up last week at the local farmers market is settling in well to its new pot.

The lemon tree I had almost given up on is now sprouting new growth. This tree received a rather agressive prune after coming home from the nursery, on the advice of the staff. I thought I might have gone a little too far when it then decided to spend the next 6 months hibernating and pretending to be dead. It is back though, and should start to have branches and leaves (and hopefully lemons) in no time.

Throughout the garden flowers are popping up. These interesting orange ones recently grew out a a succulent, and the pink snap dragons below are a surviving remnant from last summer.

 The peas are beginning to flower, some mint I pulled out from between the brick pavers is taking off in its new home, and the broccoli and kale (despite a slow start) are now beginning to take off.

Farmers market finds

This morning I stumbled across a farmers market not far from where I live. I had heard about it before, but had never managed to remember to go down on a Sunday morning (I am usually curled up on the couch with a cup of coffee).

As well as picking up my usual fruit and vegetables, I came home with some lovely flowers, a bunch of adorable heirloom carrots and four seedlings wrapped in newspaper. There was a huge selection on offer but I eventually went with red spring onions, purple silverbeet, red russian kale and some broccolini. I also picked up a bulb or planing garlic which will make an interesting experiment as growing garlic is completely new to me.

While not from my garden, a neighbour recently gave me a large bag of lemons and baby mandarins that were growing on their tree. The mandarins were polished off quickly, but the lemons have been waiting for the right dish. I've finally decided to go with a lemon butter so I use them before they go mouldy or dry out. I'll post the results of that later.