Garden Share Collective – April 2016

The last Monday of the month has come around again and we are about to head into MAY! I don’t want to state the obvious but I need my brain to skip from Christmas towards the middle of the year.

The Garden Share Collective is a monthly online get- together of vegetable garden enthusiasts sharing the progress of their garden.  Each month a theme is published via the Facebook group to direct the month’s content. This month the theme is save.

The theme “save” has had me scratching my head trying to think of something new to write given that in the past I have written about:

• saving seeds
• how to save money by growing vegetables,
• saving the flavours of the season by preserving – via my recipe list page there are numerous recipes for jams, sauces, passata, dehydrated fruit and everything in between
• saving trips to the supermarket
• saving your children from fussy eating eating habits
• saving time to garden
• saving vegetables from garden pests

This month, I am saving the themed post content for  next month – ha see what I did there!?

This could very possibly be seen as cheating given that I am the one who sets the theme, along with Kate from Rosehips and Rhubarb.

Please don’t get me wrong, I will have much more to write about the theme of “save” in the garden. Right now,  I just can’t for the life of me think of anything …..

Instead – this is what has been happening in my kitchen garden this month:

The last tomato plants have been removed from the garden this week after two last harvests of beautiful tomatoes. I will miss them…The garden has also had a tidy with many plants being cut back and the soil re-worked with compost and cow manure added.

The cucumbers are still producing.

I’ve been waiting to pull out the plant to make way for new season plants there is still fruit growing. We are totally sick of eating them but I can’t bear to remove the plant while it is still productive.

Planting:

This month I am adding the seedlings to the garden that were grown from seeds over the past month.

I have planted kale into the garden this week – beside the nasturtiums to protect them and under glass jars until they become established.

Numerous rocket plants, some extra peas, lettuce and more fennel have also been planted.

I had intended to plant my garlic this month but have failed to get to it. I will do so in the coming weeks, along with onions and some broccoli seed.

Peas are my favourites of the autumn plants. They are just beginning to produce pods.

Planting:

In the coming weeks these seeds will be planted :

• beetroot
• broccoli
• carrot
• chicory
• coriander
• plus some more “Backyard Buddies” from EcoOrganic Garden to attract and shelter beneficial insects.

Harvesting this month:

Summer produce has continued this month as the autumn plants start to develop:

• capsicum
• cucumber
• eggplant
• feijoa
• herbs – basil, chives, coriander, mint, oregano, Vietnamese mint
• kale
• lettuce
• tomatoes
• zucchini

Things to do in the coming month:

• plant garlic
• work the compost and add what I can to the garden beds
• remove the last summer plants
• weed
• add the remaining seedlings to the garden that were planted as seed last month : corn flowers, spring onions and onions

What is happening in your garden this month? I am looking forward to hearing about it.

If you have a productive garden that you love to share please join us by simply adding your post to the link below or at Rosehips and Rhubarbs.