Some rain, some frost and a bit of planting

Broccoli and cabbages had a bit of a growth spurt

Coriander, peas and silverbeet in little FB's garden

It was really wet and cold last week. Not that I'm complaining. My water tank is full and the garden looks like it's had a nice drink. Saturday was nice enough for me to get out and so some work. I planted some seeds (parsley and lettuce) in bare corners near the peas and lemon tree, pulled out the last of the basil plants, and dug some cow manure into the new bed near the new fence in preparation for potatoes. The soil isn't all that good here so I'm going to experiment with growing some of them "above ground" by layering with straw and compost.

Sad looking bok choi. Happy snails.

I'm having a bit of a battle with slug and snails: they love the bok choi and they are the main suspects for my severely nibbled passionfruit leaves. I've put down snail pellets (the non-toxic to chickens kind) but they don;t seem to be working all that well. Might have to try beer traps next. Actually maybe I should just look up what Loo Houbein says in her book- One Magic Square which I got out of the library last week. It's based on the idea that you can grow a productive foo garden in one, or a series of 1 metre squares providing that the soil is good. It's an interesting concept.

The start of winter

I've got all my winter veggies in now. Some are doing quite well, some less so but I guess that's how it goes when you are a novice gardener. I've been picking and eating lettuce, spring onions and silverbeet and the chooks have been getting some turnip tops - they love then! It's been such a dry autumn in Melbourne though so I think things are off to a bit of slow start. Here is an update of what is where.

Bed 1: onions, leeks and garlic chives (these haven't grown all that much since I planted them about a month ago), turnips, parsnips and spring onions.

Bed 2: Broccoli (green and purple sprouting), cabbage and cauliflower, rocket and radishes. The broccoli and cabbages were planted about a month ago and are doing too badly apart from where the chickens escaped and had a good peck.

Bed 3: Lettuce (cos, yellow and green and red varieties), silverbeet and baby spinach. Just sown more lettuce seeds. Shallots.


Bed 4: snow peas (sown about a month ago), climbing peas and broad beans (sown last week). Bok Choi.
Bed 5: preparing to sow potatoes in August.

Little FB's garden is doing well. The slugs and snails had a field day on his bok choi but the peas and silverbeet look good. My parsley and baby spinach are doing well in the pot too.