The garden season is clearly changing around here. Most summer crops are all done and pulled out. I'm leaving the sweet potato for as long as I can until I investigate what is happening underground - hopefully something. Pumpkins are still curing and tomatillos are still ripening but that's about it. Oh, and my finger lime has started flowering - I think it may have been confused by the warm weather.
Blossoms on the finger lime.
Things have been a little busier in regards to gardening now that I've taken on my community garden plot. Not so much producing anything but a whole lot of digging has been going on in the last half of this month.
Cleared, planted and mulched.
I was keen to get stuck in quickly and clear space to plant autumn crops. I'm happy to report success and in this space I've planted 39 garlic cloves, 18 broad bean plants and 15 potato onions. Phew!
Broad beans peaking out of the ground.
Garlic sprouting - yay!
My scarcity mode always kicks in when it comes to once a year crops like garlic and broad beans. Will they all germinate? Will they survive the season? Will I harvest enough? So, I do tend to be a little heavy handed with the planting - I actually snuck in another 20 garlic cloves in a newly cleared part of the patch last week. Hopefully it's not too late for them to do their thing.
My strawberries have been putting out so many runners this year. I've been potting these up and last week I planted them in my plot. I'm not sure how they'll go with the frost but I figure they know what they're doing putting out new plants this time of year. I also put in two red russian kale plants that I had been growing in my milk carton wicking pots. I figure they'll thrive a little better with more space. Oh, and I added in some radish seeds as I was reading that they are frost hardy. I forgot to take some pics of this planted up space, it's to the left of the compost bin that you can see in the pic above.
Unidentified brassica seedling - broccoli or brussel sprouts??
At home I put in a few more brassicas. One lot I got from a friend who ran out of room for them but couldn't remember if they were brussel sprouts or purple sprouting broccoli. The other was an impulse buy from Aldi - some broccoli seedlings that I put in to replace my cucumber plants. So I could end up with a heck of a lot of broccoli!
More brassicas - broccoli impulse buy.
Sprouting broccoli that went in to the pot early March - growing well despite the bugs.
Red Russian kale looking happy.
And that's about it. I hope to get some peas into the ground at my community garden plot in the coming week but otherwise that'll be it for planting until the spring weather gets a little closer.
What's been happening in your garden this month?
Any exciting harvests or plantings?
Laura, my snow pea plants were eaten the other night :-( Not sure if it was a possum who was the culprit or a rabbit or hare. Rabbits are making a comeback here in Queensland which the farmers are not happy about as we live in a vegetable growing region. All the best with your brassicas.
ReplyDeleteBummer chel, about the peas and the rabbits. I always have to construct a bit of protection for my peas when they go in - I find the birds are the worst. Hopefully not too late to get a second crop in.
DeleteCheers,
Laura
It's wonderful that you have space at the community garden to grow more food, Laura. That's a real bonus! I'm not long in from the garden, I picked some very young cranberry hibiscus leaves for a salad I'm tinkering with. I have some roasted sweet potato, nashi, chickpeas and these little leaves. They are quite tangy. Sweet potatoes aren't from my garden though, sadly, one of the neighbourhood scrub turkeys dug those up about a month ago! Meg
ReplyDeleteYes, i'm loving getting back into the dirt - pots are great but just not the same. That sounds like a nice salad - i'm off to google cranberry hibiscus to check it out. Seems like everyone is fighting the pests this time of year.
DeleteCheers,
Laura
It's great that you have access to a community garden.
ReplyDeleteHere it's getting warmer, so I removed broccoli plants. I have long beans coming up, with a couple of okra and beetroot. :)
I've never tried growing okra. I enjoy eating it but probably don't use it very often - although I would if i grew it so perhaps one for the summer planting plan. Hope the grasshoppers stay away from these crops for you.
Deletecheers,
Laura
speaking of rabbits making a comeback in QLD, we saw some the other day! How the heck they get under or over the rabbit-proof fence is beyond me:) love all your produce.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sherry. I went to a wedding in summer by the Canberra lake and there were a family of rabbits looking on - I wonder if it's an Australian wide thing that rabbits are msking a comeback. luckily they haven't found my vegie patch as yet!
Delete