blog

Garden update

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 22:41:18 -0500

In amongst all the website updates I was working my way through today, I managed to take a break and get out in the garden for a short while to plant some more veges and check out what else was happening out there.

When I visited the vegetable shop earlier this week, they had a seedling specials on - 4 pots for $10, so I picked up some a pottle of leeks, 2 rhubarb plants, a pottle of watercress and finally got around to planting them today.

General rule of thumb with seedling pots here seems to be 6 plants to a rectangle pottle, or 1 plant to a round pot. 100 leek plants later, I'd finally separated them out and planted them in the garden. They were very root bound, so hopefully I didn't kill too many in the process and they should take off now that they have some space again.

My rhubarb is at one end of the garden, where it has room to spread out and grow. I got 2 plants and will pick up another couple if they still have them for sale next week. Along from the rhubarb, I've put in some silverbeet seeds which expired in 2004. Most of the seeds that I'm planting are old ones that I found while moving and because it's late in the season for planting. I'm seeing anything that comes up as bonus veges and will plant the garden with fresh seeds in the spring.

Turns out my peas won't be bonus veges this year. I wasn't holding out much hope for them, as they expired in 2003 and the seeds didn't look too healthy when I put them in the ground 3 weeks ago. Nothing has come up as yet.

I have the irrigation race running along the back side of the garden, so have put my watercress into pots which sit on the edge of the race in the shallow water. We'll see how they get on.

My potatoes are growing well and should hopefully be flowering soon, which means late season new potatoes - yum. My corn on the other hand is very stumpy. I had planted it into pots before we moved, but with all the hassles of moving being delayed by a week and too many other things to sort out, they spent a bit long in the pots, which has resulted in corn stalks that are only 1 metre tall (at the most). Lucky I planted some more seeds in the garden when I transplanted the stumpies, so hopefully they will actually grow to the height they should.

I've got flowers on one of my pumpkin plants, and the others are taking off across the garden, but not as fast as the blackberry that's on the other side working it's way towards the sprinkler in the middle. It will be moved out of the garden once the berries are ripe.

And finally I have some lettuces and tomatoes coming up in some pots I put at the edge of the garden. The lettuces is going to be a bit of hit and miss because there also seems to be a lot of weeds coming up as well, and I didn't plant rows which makes it's interesting to work out what is what. The tomato pot seems to be weed free at the moment and I have 4 plants on their way up.

The last thing I planted today was some scarlet runner beans next to the netting fence in the middle of the garden so they should grow up and over that quite nicely. I've only planted one side of the fence, when spring comes around I will do the other side.

I've still got a few things that I want to plant, and some pots of something to transplant (they're either savoy cabbages or broccoli but I can't remember which pot I put which in), but they will need to wait until another day when I have more time. Hmmm, I thought weekends were supposed to be when you had lots of time - yeah right!

Growing Grapes

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:43:22 -0500

We inherited some very well established grape vines when we moved to the farm, they are growing well and we'll be eating them when they are ready, hopefully before the million birds around here get to them.

New Zealand has a wide variety of grapes, used for wine making and also eating. I'm not sure what variety we have, but the people here before us had a great habit of leaving the tags on all the rose bushes, so with a little luck I might be able to get under the vines and find something once this seasons grapes are done - there's way too many leaves, vines and grapes to try and get under there at the moment.

According to www.garden-nz.co.nz, you don't get a proper crop from your grapes until the 3rd year, so these vines must be at least that old. There are so many bunches of grapes hidden under the leaves so I hope they don't fall off their support when they ripen. The vines are going to be well in need of a prune once the leaves start to die.

I'm looking forward to when they are ready - there's nothing quite like eating food that you have grown yourself and I think that is the best bit about being out on our farm. We can grow our own fruit and vegetables and raise various animals for the freezer (sorry but it's true).

All going well, all these grapes will be ready for picking in Autumn, which is only a couple of months away now. The easiest way to tell is when the birds start eating them, so I'll have to keep an eye on them to make sure they don't eat them all before we get there! Investing in some grape netting to keep them off might be a wise idea.

Setting up a Planting Schedule

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 21:58:53 -0500

I managed to get back out in the garden today and dig up a bit more of the weeds. It was all made harder because hubby broke my grubber yesterday trying to dig a ditch. I decided that now I should do up a planting schedule of what I want in the garden, so that I make sure I plant what I want when it should be.

I found a great website with a full planting guide called Garden Grow, according to temperatures throughout New Zealand. It was surprising to find out that lettuce can be planted all year round apparently. Not sure if I want to put that one to the test but it is making me think about getting a greenhouse - lets just add it to the list of never ending jobs at this place.

Asparagus takes 2-3 years before you can have your first harvest, and I can't plant it until August, so that's going to be a long time away, but I'll plant it anyway if I can get my hands on some seeds.

My biggest disappointment is our climate is not suitable to plant kumara (sweet potato) as it is a vege that both me and my hubby love but I'll probably give it a try once and see how it goes. Again, this is another thing that will have to wait until later this year ...

What I can plant at the moment is broccoli, cabbage, leeks, basically your autumn/winter veges. There's also a range of herbs that I can put in the garden - fresh herbs always make your food taste better so I'm looking forward to when they are ready.

This week I'm planning on finishing the digging, putting in the rest of the sprinkler system and planting a few veges.

Digging up the Garden

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 21:43:24 -0500

I haven't kept a vege garden since before I was a teenager. It brings back memories of helping my Grandad plant an entire paddock in potatoes. And the next paddock in everything else from carrots to lettuces to pumpkins.

At home we used to have a fairly big vege garden as well. And us 4 kids were given our own spot where we could plant what we wanted. I learnt that you don't need to use a whole packet of carrots in a row about 2 metres long, that pigs make excellent clean up crew once everything has been harvested, and that I would never have to plant potatoes when Grandad would have them coming out his ears in a couple of months time.

So anyway, I now have a plot about 4x10 metres, half of which is dug up and mostly planted, the other half is waiting for me to finish digging up. I have broccoli, cauliflower, spinach and cabbages in seedling trays, so need to have it dug up before they are ready to transplant. Already I have corn growing well, some pumpkins, potatoes, lettuces (which have been eaten by escapee sheep and dug up by pigs), strawberries, a blackberry threatening to take over the entire space, and although they were planted late, I'm hoping that my tomatoes come up. I've planted the tomatoes in big pots, the plan being if they don't come up soon enough, I can bring them into the conservatory which gets full day sun and will be warmer than outside in the wind.

Today I was planning to plant some carrots, radishes and spring onions, but I haven't had the time. I did manage to get out and check everything else over - I have potatoes coming up now and the second lot of corn that I planted. When I eventually get to the carrots and radishes , I will be mixing the seeds together to plant. Radishes grow faster and are eaten sooner than carrots, so you pull them up to thin out the carrots, which results in needing to pull less carrots out to thin them out. Ha - my tip of the day I reckon.