Getting ready for Summer

We're only 30 days into the Australian Spring and I'm pretty confident that this is the most prepared I've every been for a summer harvest!  The chooks have settled into their chicken pen, and one has started to lay eggs already.  I suspect it is one of the Leghorns or Isa Browns, but haven't yet caught them in the act.

Chooks lined up ready for the kids to feed them weeds.

Our chook egg on left, shop bought on right.

The kid's patch is coming along nicely.  A few radishes have been picked already, with a bonus that the kids actually like them!  The cherry tomato has had a few flowers blossom, but I doubt that they'll really turn into anything at this early stage.  While the beetroot and strawberries are progressing, the sunflowers have basically just been snail food, and they never get to actually shoot very far before the snails get to them.

Half of the main bed has been set aside for tomato and related plants in a semi-rotational system.  In the photo below are blueberry, blackberry and black currant plants in pots, with tomatoes immediately behind (on the right of photo), and eggplant and chilli behind on left.  The bare dirt between the eggplant and brickwork will be for some Roma tomatoes.  The tomatoes on the right are various heirloom varieties -I figure that we'll end up with cherry tomatoes (from kids and one of my heirlooms), salad tomatoes, saucing/sundried tomatoes (from the Romas) and some green tomatoes (green zebras).  My sister's favourite movie for a while was Fried Green Tomatoes, so I've always wanted to grow green tomatoes just so I can make her one!

The three plants at the back of the garden bed are three of my propogated grape vines.  While I'm not sure which variety they are, a friend works for a liquor wholesaler and he's pretty confident that he'll be able to pick the variety.  Around three quarters of the propogated vines have established themselves, and I've been able to transplant 6 in total to our new house here (another three in pots elsewhere in the garden).  This will be their second season, so hopefully with the warmer weather we will get some fruit this time around!

The Garden is Growing!

Well, I've been a bit quiet logging onto the computer and putting an update in. Virtually all my free time is spent in the garden trying to make sure that I've got everything up and running for the summer growing season, and I think I'm almost there!

The weather's been perfect for planting out - lots of rain mixed with a fair bit of sunshine. We've only harvested minimal amounts so far - a few bunches of rhubarb, a broccoli, some strawberries and one raspberry. Just one, not one cup or one bucket. The chickens are growing well and are now outside. My wife is celebrating that the laundry has been reclaimed for the humans!

I've gone for a semi-no dig garden. I've not been to get the copious amounts of straw and manure to do a fully fledged no dig, but the rough principles are there. This first shot is my potato bed and it's a bit of an experiment itself. We were too late getting seed potatoes from the nursery, but we did have some sprouting potatoes in the pantry. Unable to eat them, they've gone into the patch to see what happens. If it doesn't work, we haven't lost much - next season I'll be prepared for the real thing!

There's two rows of tomatoes next to the potatoes (in the 'old' vegetable garden bed). One of Gross Lisse (for salads etc) and one of Roma (for sauces).

The next bed is roughly Brassica's - at the moment the last of some cabbages and the broccoli. I've planted in some climbing beans in between, and the wood shavings at the bottom are some carrots. Peter Cundall of Gardening Australia talks about how carrots don't always germinate if they dry out too much once you sow the seeds. I'd lost quite a few (out of about 2 metres/yards of seeds I'd had around 3 carrots germinate), so figured this was worth a shot. The seeds are at the bottom of a 'trench' about an inch deep, and then covered in wood shavings. So far so good!

At the back of this photo is the rhubarb, and a row of newer (Gross Lisse) tomatoes.

The next bed along is the corn and I'm growing Baby Corn along with Sweet Corn. I've grown the Baby Corn successfully a year or two ago and ended up getting close to 8 ears off each plant. Apparently if you let the cobs grow to full size you can use the corn as popcorn, so I might try that to see how the kids like that. The beans on the left are Borlotti and are great for drying out and using in soups, stews and possibly baked beans. On the right is a Cherry Tomato - this plant is extremely prolific already and we should have a few tomatoes to pick very soon.

The final bed in this section is for melons or cucurbits. We've got a couple of varieties of Pumpkin, some Cucumbers and some Zucchini (Squash). Hopefully with lots of eggs from the chickens and we'll have endless amounts of quiche over summer!

There's a bit more to the vege garden, but this is the main portion of it. Effectively this part is simply the original dirt garden, with some extensions of the no-dig portions of it. During next winter I'll grow green manure through most of it, and then I'll be able to properly divide the beds and have a proper rotation system happening.

For now the goal is simply to get as much in before the heat of summer kicks in, and then we can have a bumper harvest!