May 21

Here are the garden beds. The nearest two are called bed 1 (left) and bed 2 (right). The far two are bed 3 (left) and bed 4 (right).

I forgot to buy weedmat, but I decided to plant my sick-looking seedlings anyway. There are two brocolli plants, two cauliflower and 3 or 4 silver beet, all spread out around bed 1. I put a few spades of mulch around each, but I didn't want to bury the poor little things. The dirt is still quite moist, so I didn't water them. If it doesn't rain in a day or two, though, I might give them a little bit.

May 20

Still haven't gotten around to getting a photo.

I went out with the kids this morning, and dug over beds 1 and 2. The manure is oldest there, and it's practically dirt, beautiful and rich, and full of worms! Beds 3 and 4 have dried out a bit, but the manure is still fresh enough to smell manurey if you turn over a spadeful.

Tomorrow I plan to plant the caulis and brocs that have survived in the neglected seedling box. They may as well grow in bed 1, as planned, and we'll see how they go. I'll get some weedmat and mulch on it first, if I can buy some tonight. Lots of grass was growing in it (though it's all turned upside down now) and I even found some potatoes from long ago ;)

May 8

I was certain I had a picture on here... can't find it.

Well, the garden now has 4 vege beds (two of the doubles like in the last post) and each double-bed has been filled with a trailerfull of manure.

It was hard work!

Luckily it was free, though. I took the trailer to the stockyards, where you can just help yourself to... erm... what washes out of the cattle trucks. The first day it was wet, heavy stuff. The next time, about a week later, it was drier, but I was still a bit exhausted by digging a tonne of it twice, first into the trailer, then out into the garden.

Not much is going on now. The seedlings are surviving, though I've been neglecting them. The second lot of zucchinis planted out into the hexagarden died off, too. But I can't really plant anything into the manure until it breaks down quite a bit.

Here's my basic plan for when we have 5 beds going.

Vege Garden rotation

Bed 1
Spring: peas, beans (legumes)
Summer/Autumn: cauli, broc, cabbage

Bed 2
Spring: Onion, leek (alliums)
Summer/Autumn: cauli, broc, cabbage

Bed 3
Early Spring: dig in manure
Late Spring: tomatoes, capsicum, (acid lovers)
Autumn: add lime, mulch

Bed 4
Spring: corn, cucumber, pumpkin, zucchini (curcurbits)
Autumn: manure

Bed 5
Spring: root crops and asian veges

Next year: bed 1 crop to bed 2, bed 5 crop to bed 1, etc.