Spring Gardening Checklist

Hurry up and grow!

the greenhouse is filling up..

 Today we planted a mixture of heirloom tomatoes, corn and baby corn, an australian heirloom pumpkin mix and Im trying my luck again this year growing the worlds biggest pumpkin seed.. its supposed to be able to grow as big as a car but last year mine died in that 3 days of 40 degree heat, heartbroken.

still not finished the shelving but enough space for now

Was 41 degrees in the greenhouse this morning, took out the rosemary cuttings we are hoping will root.. Shops are charging like $10 bucks each for these suckers at the moment and its so easy to grow your own from transplants, sure you might get a few misses but you wont be short of big rosemary bushes in Ellenbrook to have another crack. Ill post a how-to soon.

ranbo has a mate finally =]

Busy Busy Busy..

tomatoes - remove the first cotyledon leaves (the two leaves under the first true leaves

We transplanted some tomatoes today. We have had a little bit of luck in the last few years with tomatoes, but hoping this year to get a massive crop. We will need to stake these in a few weeks.

plant deeply, to the first true leaves. The white hairs on the stem will all turn into roots when under soil.

seedlings for sale!

We have plenty of leftover seedlings again this year and trying for the first time to sell some. Having some luck selling herbs but not alot of people seem to want the veges.

the aquatic plant tank

Our aquatic plants are doing well with the addition of the CO2 reactor. I will post some pictures with a how-to when I collect some good plastic bottles ><

Spring Onion Seed Saving

spring onion flowering, some have gone to seed

The second season for our spring onion and they have begun to flower. To save the seed wait for the flower heads to almost completely dry (you may lose some seeds but there will still be plenty), we cut the heads off and leave them in a paper envelope for a week or so to dry completely. Shake out the seeds into the envelope.

If any chaff or foreign material gets left with the seed, using two bowls pour the seed from one into the other using a light breeze to separate the chaff from the seeds (this is called winnowing). I store my seeds in an airtight container in the fridge.

Gnomes should be Illigal

Like gardening, I thought collecting garden gnomes would be addictive so have held back buying one every time I see them.. We got given our first gnome as a gift and I think he looks a little lonely... 

October Plans

almost ready to start harvesting!

We had some sun this morning so decided to get into the garden and remove all of last seasons crops and make some room for our next batch of seedlings. Whilst the greenhouse is nearing completion we have been using a few cheepo mini-greenhouses to get an early start on some of our families most eaten veges though since its been pretty warm lately we have been hardening them off and they are surviving the weather well.

this side is a bit bare.. on the other hand at least the compost bin is full

Over the next few days we will be transplanting our broccoli, chilli (a few different heirloom varieties we have been collecting seed from for years), eggplant, leeks, tomatoes (another one we like to grow heaps of heirloom varieties) and we tried our luck with a few turnip... though I doubt anyone will convince me to eat it.

Planting Guide for October

Plant straight into garden; asparagus, beetroot, borage, broccoli, gooseberry, carrot, beans, cucumber, daikon (japanese radish), artichokes, lettuce, kohlrabi, yacon (sunroot), oca, corn, sunflower, spring onion, silverbeet, salsify (swiss chard), rocket, rhubarb, radish, pumpkin, potato and parsnips. 

Start in greenhouse; sweet majoram, rock melon, ladyfinger (okra), NZ spinach, marrow, celery and celeriac.

Underlined is what we are planning to plant, italics is what we have in the patch ready to harvest. 

Yay.. Some Sun!

Spring is finally here and we cant wait to get planting! We still have some of last seasons crops in the beds but have decided to get the soil prepared for the weeks to come. First things first though, we wanted to save some seed from our lettuce that has begun to flower.

After years of wasting money on overpriced seedlings and seeds (and wracking up a pretty hefty collection of empty pots) we decided to start collecting our own seed. The idea for our garden in the beginning was to become a little bit more self sustainable but now its more of an addiction we need to save all the money we can! Collecting seed can sometimes be a bit of a hassle and most people will probably not bother, but for us it feels pretty rewarding.

Our process for collecting lettuce seeds:

1. wait until at least half of the flowers have gone to seed
2. cut the entire top of plant off and place upside down in a paper envelope to dry
3. when dry we will shake the seeds from the plant into the envelope and hopefully save ourself a few extra bucks on seeds!