summer update

Rain with occasional burst of intense sunshine, but never enough to absorb the volume of water lying on the ground. Some early retirements to report: corn, cucumber, lettuce, beans, coloured spinach. Some survivors to commend: eggplant, capsicum, volunteer cherry tomatoes, berries, spring onions, globe artichokes. In an effort to repair some of the leaching damage done by the rain, I have planted a green manure crop of mung beans and millet. These crops like rain - sigh, I wonder if they LOVE rain? - and should do some good for the soil.

Still, no point in complaining (although I will, make no mistake!). I am planting the autumn/winter crop this weekend, but only in seed trays so they can get a good start without battling all this rain. Thanks Green harvest, you always give me plenty of new ideas: Massey Gem shelling pea, Raab Broccoli, Cabeza Red Cabbage, Purple carrots (a personal fav), violet cauliflower, Deep purple spring onions.

on this wet day, what are the workers doing?

let's ignore the rain and it will go away....... 

this day in the patch

My lettuce is on a mission - global domination. This is Royal Oakleaf, an heirloom lettuce. I bought the seeds from Green Harvest and they really are a winner.

I have also planted a wormwood and it has really shot up this summer after a slow winter start

And my coloured chard is also a picture in the late afternoon sun......

open sesame....

My wonderful gardener came in and pruned the peach tree. It is a beautiful pink blossom in spring and because I love it so much, I have let it get a bit out of control. This meant there was too much shade on the patch and also over the fence on the neighbour's yard.... so it was pruned.

a smaller peach tree than before......

Now there is light.......

see my little sunflower..... she finally sees the sun!

First day of a new year!

The weather is lovely and after a marathon pruning session 2 days ago, there is so much more light coming into the patch. The sunflowers are finally seeing the sun (which is helpful if you are a sunflower!), the raspberries are getting some more light and the cucumbers continue to climb to the sky.....

It is amazing how mild the weather has been so far this summer. There have been very few really hot days, only one storm with hail (so far! I am NOT tempting fate here.), but it has been warm enough for things to get on with their growing. So today we have a selection of pics from the patch on the first day of 2012

Serendipity!

my Delbard rose

my coloured carrots...... yum!

today's harvest

my raspberries escaped their enclosure and now run freely under the peach tree!

what's new in the patch?

I have been waiting for my new seeds to pop up and a few days ago, they did just that. I have been planting seeds in egg cartons, that way, there is really no transplant shock at all when they go into the garden. All I do is separate the carton into its 12 sections and the whole lot goes into the soil in the patch. By the time the cardboard has decomposed, the roots of the seedling are ready to go exploring.

As it is summer, I keep a ready supply of lettuce, spring onions and cucumber..... I am most proud of the spring onions as they are seeds I saved from the flower head of the previous crop..... yah!

cucumbers, lettuce and spring onion seedlings

Meanwhile, there are some other interesting things in my seedling nursery.....

seedling nursery

I have some micro basil, some slow bolt corriander and some mini tomato bushes, each with one single fruit on it...... how cute......

how cute..... wonder how big they will grow when I plant them in the patch?

today in the patch

My alliums are finally opening. They have been struggling along for months now, emerging as tiny fragile single stems. Now they are almost a metre tall and the ball of fluff is about to explode

ref: the-grazer.blogspot.com


Ultimately, they should look like this: