Start of Autumn in the Garden
March 3, 2014
Start of Autumn in the Garden
Garden Share Collective March 2014
This past month in the garden has had us collecting lots of fresh produce each day, plus I have had some excess to preserve. The zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs and lettuce are producing beautifully, as is the corn but the flavor is terrible! I will not be planting the same variety again.
The eggplants and capsicums have started producing also.
The past couple of weeks we have been focused on finishing a new (vegetable) garden area. The space is about 35 square meters. This additional space doubles the room we currently have to plant vegetables – yippppeee!!! There are some images below.
This The Garden Share Collective update is hosted by Lizzie at Strayed from the Table. The Collective is made up of keen productive gardeners from all around Australia and in many places overseas. Visit and learn from some of the other gardeners, there are some fabulous gardens to see.
My garden currently looks like this:
Harvesting
This month I have been harvesting basil, beetroot, carrots, capsicum, almost 1 kg of chilli, coriander, (horrible) corn, cucumber, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, zucchini. We have also just started to collect some beans. The second lot of corn that we planted last month in the tractor tyre (an alternate variety) is coming along well. I am counting on it to deliver us some fresh sweet corn this year.
Planting:
I have just planted seeds in trays for the new garden area.
Seeds are being raised for three types of kale, beetroot, bok choy, carrots, fennel, leeks, lettuce, onions, peas, spinach, rocket – I think that is it for a start.
To do this month:
Last month’s To Do list was pretty much completed.
I re-planted the herb patch with some more lemongrass, added rocket and an olive oil herb to see if it would work there, plus some more coriander and parsley. The parsely is having some time out at the moment and seems to not be working for me at all. This is the third or fourth lot I have put in and they are failing to take off. It is still not looking totally fabulous but is on the improve…
I didn’t bother spraying the zucchini leaves but did cut off and remove all of the leaves that had some powdery mildrew. Some of the strawberry plants have been moved to pots and I added more tomato plants to the space they left. The tomatoes had self seeded from compost.
- I will be closely monitoring the current garden beds this month as it only takes a few days for a zucchini or a cucumber to become ridiculously huge. We collect one that way 1180 grams a few days ago. My three year old struggled to bring it up to the house 🙂
- Continue to clear any the excess foliage from the pumpkin plants. This allows light and sunshine to get into the other plants that are close to them.
- Tomatoes will continue to be trained onto their strings. In the picture below you can see the tomatoes neatly hanging. They are wrapped now back over the top of the string (which is green so very hard to see in the picture!)
- Monitor a few of the tomato plants that were set up on strings that are not high enough. They may require some additional support added.
This month the main aim will be to keep working on the new garden bed area. To get it to the point it is so far the retaining walls had to be restrengthened and drainage established in both the top and bottom wall. Mr Fresh took care of that for me 🙂
The soil in the new area is severely compacted, full of stones, rocks and rubbish and is totally devoid of any goodness. We have dug it all over, hand sifted all of the rocks out I have added compost, chook and cow poo. There is still over half of the space to to have this completed. It is very hard work and time consuming….I am being motivated by the fast growing pea seedlings that will need a home sooner rather than later. I will need to add more compost and poo as the soil still doesn’t feel good enough to plant in to me. I will be monitoring it’s progress in preparation for planting the seeds in the coming couple of weeks.
The planting and walking spaces need to be planned, mapped out and then planted. I would love this new garden area to be more structured than the current vegetable garden beds and so I will be planning out, spacing and trying to be less heavy handed with the planting than I would usually be. I am saving some of the space to allow us for a greater volume of garlic plants this year. There never seems to be enough garlic planted…maybe this year.
The current raised beds will be cleared of plants as they finish producing and then I will assess if any of the beds need to be rested for a little while and the soil replenished. I have a busy month planned, let’s see what happens 🙂
How is your garden going this month? What have you been collecting?
I hope that you have a great month of gardening.
Join me here:
Inspiring families to grow at least one fresh food item at home to experience the benefits of fresh food.
what a massive achievement digging that new garden bed. i am in awe! i have plans to extend my gardening area soon, so you’ve given me a hint of the reality of backbreaking work ahead.
it is disappointing to care for somethign and nurture it along – and then find it tastes terrible! did you bravely chomp your way thru it, or find some not-fussy chooks?
another gorgeously lush and colourful post – thankyou!
I recycled it back into the compost e/dig as it really truy was not edible, and yes terribly disappointing 🙁
Wow, looks like you will be very busy with the new garden. What a huge space – fabulous. I’m sure the ‘hard work’ will be absolutely worth it too! 🙂
Thank you Julie for visiting.
What beautiful bounty Krystie! You have picked so much produce. I am envious of your chillies as our chickens keep eating our flowers and we only have enough to cook with, not enough to sauce or freeze. I have grown ‘bad’ corn before too but you can plant more and harvest before winter. Your garden is so lush, a testament to your hard work. 😀
Thank you Merryn, I would never have thought that chooks would go near chilli plants at any stage!
Your veggie gardening is getting more serious with those extensions. I am really envious of your harvests this past month, glad you have been flaunting them around on Facebook. It really shows what is possible in a backyard garden. Look forward to seeing your new space flourish.
Thanks Lizzie, and thanks for hosting
Your garden always look so amazing, Krystie. My garden is neat (my dad and my lawn guy visited lately) but it’s sadly lacking in attention and direction. Would you consider visiting Adelaide and sorting it all out? 😉
Of course I would if you would cook for me Christina 🙂