June, 2013

Decided to re-mulch the strawberries. Nathan reinforced the fence a while ago, but the weeds were growing up through the old mulch.

The surviving plants are ready to go, in about 6 months when the weather is a bit nicer.

And next time they get eaten, I'm getting an electric fence!

Dec 27

Over this last month we've picked a few strawberries (270g in all, currently worth $3.80) and 75g of snowpeas.

Here's what's in the garden at the moment.

One zucchini plant and one tomato plant in bed 4, both with a bit of fruit.
One ?pumpkin plant and a few leeks in bed 2.
Tiny carrot seedlings in bed 3.
Lots of potato plants.
That's it.

That's it because the sheep (who have about 3 acres of grass to eat that is so long we had to pay to have it slashed) decided to break into the vege patch and eat everything they could. Coco even broke into the strawberry patch, jumping over the fence, and at the leaves off all the strawberry plants, leaving only this

 Stupid thistles that have started springing up.

D

November 28

Another 430g of broccoli (stems chopped off) to add. With the other 250g that's 680g, and at $3 a kilo, a mere $2-worth. But it's homegrown :)

The potato plants are becoming a forest. I might pick some tomorrow and see if any are big enough to eat yet. Got a few snow peas. The carrots haven't grown, and only one of the leeks has sprung up. Sigh. Think I'll have to invest in seedlings. The strawberries are flowering up, though.

licks lips

-$95.20

November 5

No sign of seedlings yet (though it's not long enough since I planted them, I suppose). Today we weeded seed pot one and two, and planted zucchini in 1 and pumpkin in 2. Four each.

Then I pulled the mulch off the top of Bed 3 (the north half) and planted 3 rows of carrots across it.

The potatoes are looking good, the caulis are looking good, and we picked off one of the broccolis. It weighed 400g, and when I cut off the stem part (that we probably wouldn't eat anyway) it was 250g. I'll have look up what it costs at Coles, and take it off the total later :)

There's so much silver beet that it's starting to look like a tree. Must eat some of it...

October 27

After a few days of nice sunshine/ bucketting rain, I thought the garden might have progressed a bit.

1. The broccoli plants at the south end are flowering, if that's the right word, and there's one big broc florette and lots of little ones. The peas on the east row didn't grow, so I replanted it today, with Byron's "help". There were about 5 snowpeas on the west row, so I replanted the rest of the row.

2. Neither the onions or leeks grew at all. I replanted onions in the east row and leeks in the west row.

3. Quite a few cauliflowers grew in seedling trays 3, 4 and 5. I planted 4 in the south end of bed 3, with lots of space (taking up about a third of the garden). There are more in the seedling trays, but I'll leave them for now.

4. Noone in here but us worms

5. Heaps of potato plants have popped up everywhere! I'm fascinated to see how many kilos my 3kg/$3 seed-potatoes will yield. I think it will be a money maker

Hex: I did some weeding the other day, and the strawberries are growing well, though not flowering yet. The one silverbeet plant is producing more than I'll ever use. Must eat more silver beet.

October 4

Bed 5 has been planted out with the pieces of 3kg of potatoes I bought (for $3 a while ago). Byron and Jasmine had fun helping me out, dropping the bits into the holes. The rhubarb I replanted just died, but the original rhubarb seems to have come up again!

Today, I took the trailer to Gillies St. and loaded it up with cut Lake Weed. I don't know what it's like for mulch, but it's free! I covered beds 3 and 4 (the pots with some seedlings are between 1 and 3 there) and the rest of the Lake Weed is at the end of bed 5. Don't know if I'll mulch the potatoes... Might mulch the strawberries, though.

September 6

Spring has sprung, the grass is riz
I wonder where all the flowers iz?

Nathan recently dug a big hole in his shed, so some of the topsoil went onto beds 3 and 4. I've turned things over a bit and poisoned some weeds. The lettuce was stepped on (by Zach, I think) and I gave up on the mulch pile; too many weeds through it.

Instead, I bought some mulch, so here is how the garden looks today:

Bed 1 is mulched. There are two broccoli plants and one silver beet down the south end. There is a long row along the east side full of peas, and a similar row on the west side full of snow peas.

Bed 2 is mulched. There is a long row along the east side full of onion seeds, and a long row on the west side full of leek seeds.

There are 5 cheap seedling trays. 1 and 2 have zucchini seeds, and 3, 4 and 5 have (what I think is) cauliflower seeds. (They came from the cauli seed pack, but I have a feeling there may have been a cauli/broc seed-mixing accident a while back.

There are also 3 kilos of brushed potatoes in the cupboard, destined to be chopped and planted in bed 5.

Costs:
$27 mulch
$10 seedling trays
$3 potatoes

-$97.20