A homespun day working in the vegetable garden

I have had a very homespun day at home today.  I am exhausted but satisfied with what I have achieved.

My vegetable garden is all weeded and mulched at last. I used a hoe to pull up all the weeds, laid newspaper and lucerne to suppress any new ones from appearing. This area will be planted out with tomatoes and corn before long.

The garden is starting to fill out as plants grow. Today I added borage to enhance my companion planting of flowers, herbs and vegetables all mixed in together. And I am beginning to harvest: today I came in with onions, herbs, a few peas and arm fulls of silverbeet and mustard greens.

The greens have self seeded all over the garden. I dug most of them up, transplanted some in other areas of the garden. The rest I have planted in pots, to give away and to nurture the smaller ones for staggered plantings later on.  There are still a few in between the paving stones of the path that I need to get to. I made a new batch of seed raising mix: all my planting this weekend used up the last of my store.

My mini greenhouse is full of seedlings: tomato seedlings donated by a colleague now all planted out into individual pots; Rouge d'hiver and Amish deer lettuce; mixed heirloom beetroots, Paris market carrots small enough to grow in pots; zucchini; Australian butter pumpkin; Asian vitamin green, wormwood, mustard greens and I can't remember what else.

I have made yoghurt, and dinner for tonight and the next two nights.  All the laundry is done. Now it time to head back into the working week.

Homespun propagation or seed-raising mix

Today I made my own homespun seed raising mix. I was given the recipe a few years ago at a permaculture course but only got around to using it today.

Its simple enough. I can't testify to the results yet but have faith in the person who showed me.

1. Buy a coir block from the hardware or garden centre. Be aware that some contain fertiliser.

2. Soak the coir according to the instructions. Essentially soak in a wheelbarrow of water. My wheelbarrow has a crack in it so I divided the block between two buckets.

3. One fully crumbled add coarse sand for drainage. I used about half a bucket. Add too much and it won't hold water at all.  Add the same amount of compost or soil.

4. Throw in some worm castings. To find out more about worm farms please check out my earlier post.

5. Mix it all together and you're done.

I have set my mini greenhouse up on my back verandah in a sunny spot. I have peat and plastic pots filled with my new seed raising mix waiting to give birth to lots of wonderful vegetables.

So why go to all this trouble??

• Its a cost effective way to buy seed raising mix - the coir blocks are really cheap. I am lucky to have a bug pile of landscaping sand all ready, otherwise you'd have to buy some.
• There are lots of natural nutrients in the mix from soil, compost and worm castings.
• You can mix it up whenever you want it.
• You can control the level of pesticides/fertilisers.
• According to the packaging coir holds water and heat well.

Happy homepun gardening!

More Sunday gardening

Its cold at my house today with a brisk Southerly wind whistling across the garden. I have done so much gardening lately but its really never enough, there's always more to do. I have used some soil from my big pile but there is still so much to move. We need to topdress and reseed the lawn. The front garden is looking a little overgrown too. So I plunged out into the back yard again. As a resut I finally finished weeding and mulching the vegie garden.

From now on its maintenance and planting seeds and seedlings when the time is right.

This was the last area I had to finish.  I weeded then mulched with newspaper and lucerne hay. This wasn't the best day for it as the August winds have arrived right on time. But I was so keen to get it finished I put up with the wind and got it done.  A lovely little steer came to visit me across the back fence and I resisted the urge to share my lucerne with him. Benny carried on in a ridiculous way but the cow just watched calmly.

This part of the garden didn't take too long so I managed to complete some more tasks. I have turned the compost, added scaps, a bucket of soil, grass clippings and molasses.
I replanted some ferns that my chookie girls had dug up. They are so rough on everything.

I built a coldframe in the vegie garden. I'm having trouble getting seeds to germinate so I'm experimenting. Its a bit messy looking but I have used old pavers and landscaping blocks to build it up. Theoretically the thermal mass in the blocks and the glass window should heat up the space inside and help my seeds. The window is on a slope even though it doesn't look it here.

I have put a tray of beetroot seeds under the glass. I planted them a few weeks back: a couple have germinated already, there are two or three tiny, weeny leaves, but most haven't. They all need a boost.

I am hoping this will work. I have two other trays of seeds outside the coldframe so I can compare.

Today finally I got a good picture of my three darling chookie girls. They stood still long enough for me to snap this, in focus photo. Their attention was well and truly devoted to their first view of a cat. My Lily dashed through the back door and into the garden quicker than I could stop her. She wasn't interested in the chickens and with the dogs hot on her tail she couldn't have got near them. They seemed to think caution was the best approach and watched her keenly until I took her back inside.

The dogs spent several hours running around so now they're tuckered out. I could do with a nap myself.

Seeds all ready for planting

A new order of vegetable, herb and flower seeds arrived in the post today.

I have gone through my old seeds, throw out most of the out of date ones as well as any damp or snail chewed packets.

My seed packets are all arranged neatly in clear plastic boxes in order. One box for A-J and the other for K-Z. Now I can keep track of what I have which is mostly beetroot seeds!