More Garden Pics

See, I told you this trellis would soon be covered. The runner bean tendrils are coiling up and up. And the cucumbers are also thriving. These pics were taken this morning before work, and it's raining! Which is good news.  

In this pic can be seen tomatoes on the right, pots on the left, and a new box bed of French Marigold seeds in the centre. Some have germinated.

In my main tomato bed the plants have been planted in the standard way, but the two tomato plants above have been planted using a different method. When I bought the plants, which were tall, I laid them on the lawn on their sides, with the stems parallel to the ground. Over the course of a few days, the foliage on these plants turned at right angles, growing towards the sun. I then dug a trench and planted the entire stem and root ball in the ground, leaving the foliage exposed. Roots will then grow out of the entire stem length. The results can be seen above. I must say they look healthier than the standard plantings. In the foreground are capsicum (sweet peppers). I have never had much luck growing capsicum (for whatever reason) but am determined this year to get a decent crop.

My potting table. In the seed tray are basil seeds. Foreground are cucumbers. Behind these are more capsicum. At the back are squash. I mean to plant out the squash this weekend. I only have to find somewhere to plant them (they will need training up a trellis of some kind).

Hope you like my pics. Remember to click on each one for an enlargement.

Garden Update

Hello everybody. It's been a while since my last post, but a lot has been happening in the garden. You can see in the photo above new plantings. From left to right: runner beans on a trellis - very vigorous. Radishes - French Breakfast - surrounding two chilli plants. The chilli plants, contained within housebricks, have lots of fruit. Spicy fruit! Then another upright trellis with two tomato plants. Just behind the tomatoes are 4 capsicum plants. I only planted them yesterday so they won't move for a while yet. Then some open ground, before we get to my teepee trellis. See pic below.

The teepee trellis. On each leg of the trellis is a runner bean plant. Then between the runner beans I have planted a couple of Lebanese cucumber. I have wired netting over the closest three legs, for the cucumbers, but left the far side open so that I can get to the fruit. I suspect that this trelllis will get pretty crowded later on.

Another photo of the established runner bean, radishes and chillies in foreground.

This is my main tomato garden. On the extreme left, in two square pots, are baby carrots. To the left of the carrots, hidden, is a long pot of germinating lettuce seeds. Six tomato plants, all different varieties. Extreme right is a cherry tomato plant. The rest are standard varieties, although one will produce purple tomatoes and one will produce yellow tomatoes. In the bottom left corner, where the soil looks darker and fresher, I have planted sweet basil seeds. I intend to plant some more around other plants, and also plant some French marigold seeds.

Another view of tomatoes. The cardboard is an attempt to suppress weeds. I intend to pave this path (which will be a lot narrower than this wide cardboard) between the rows with decent pavers, but haven't the money nor the time at the moment.

Well, I hope you enjoy seeing my garden. Remember to click on these pics for enlargements.





Typos of the Month

Ok, it's been a while since my last post. After a number of health issues, and general laziness, I'm going to blog more often. And of course our weather is turning warm so it's easier to take some interesting photos.

When I'm out and about in the community I often encounter typographical errors. These are often hand-written, whose erroneous nature is sort of understandable, but are sometimes printed. I find the latter a little inexplicable.  Here are some I snapped in the last month or so:

My local gym. For the pain we about to receive, may be be truly thankful.

Are you going to join the club, or stand apart?

Garden update

It’s been a while since my last post. I don’t post anything from home. I do it from elsewhere and just haven’t got around to taking any photos to show. Anyway, I finally have some more.

A couple of weeks ago we pulled out the scrappy garden bed from the front of the house. The lavender was lovely for a while, then became leggy and unattractive. The whole area was replaced with roses. You can see our first flower above. Gorgeous.

I’m in the back yard. Behind me you can see a nice cabbage in a square pot. It’s thriving well, but has been attacked by snails/slugs lately. The good thing about the pot is that I can pick it up and move it away from the snails. Jasmine grows on the fence. Hopefully it fills up the entire boundary. Is that a new tree to my right? No, it’s my patch of broad beans! Around 7 feet high and cropping heavily. I really don’t know why this year’s crop is a foot taller than last year’s crop, but I’ve had to tie them securely against this month’s strong winds.

Remember to click each pic for an enlargement. Hope you like these photographs. I will post some more soon. Cheers.

Some Funny Pics from the Net

I Have Survived

Last Sunday I was preparing dinner. Spicy meatballs with pasta. I decided to add some chillies. I wasn't concentrating like I should. The knife slipped. The chillies were diced. And two fingers. Well, actually the tips of my second finger and thumb. I laughed it off. But when, two hours later, the bleeding would not stop, my wife insisted I visit the hospital. The photo above was taken in the waiting room, kitchen paper towelling saturated with the red stuff. The result was a couple of days wearing a massive white bandage.
But ... I survived!

Note: after the accident we ate the spicy meatballs and pasta.
Never did find those fingertips.

New Vegetable Bed

It's winter. There's not a lot of planting and harvesting to do in the garden, but I'm still pretty busy. I'm back at work, but had the last two weeks off for holidays (benefits of teaching!). I wanted a raised bed for my vegies, so sourced some hardwood timber railway sleepers. People told me that treated pine would be suitable, but I don't feel comfortable growing food near chemical treatments. And hardwood looks great - weathered and natural. Anyway, I found 4 sleepers and positioned them where I wanted the bed to go: near the house but getting full sun. A raised bed is important since drainage in this location is poor.



Once positioned, I needed to level the timbers. I borrowed a spirit level and removed turf from beneath the sleepers until level. 

 

The corners were fixed. I used galvanised plate and screws. A simple job but effective.

 

I toyed with the idea of digging up the grass turf inside the bed (the bed was set into a lawn). But instead decided to lay sheets of newspaper: quite thickly (but not too thickly). This should kill the turf and deter weeds. Then a sprinkle of blood and bone. Then a thick layer of sugar cane mulch. This mulch is nice to work with. It's finer than pea straw mulch, and opportunistic peas won't be growing in this bed! You can see the result above, with the newspaper clearly visible.

The mulched bed is above. About 8 feet square. So a possible problem will be reaching the centre of the bed from the edge. It's best not to walk on garden beds too much; compression of topsoil is not a good idea.
So I'll be getting some chunky pavers and laying a small path from the edge into the bed.

Leaving room for the path, I lay thick strips of compost over the mulch. In this case 6 strips. See above. Into these strips I planted broad beans. Why broad beans? And why not fill the beds with more compost? Broad beans (and all other legumes) can be used as "green manures" - grown, slashed just prior to pod formation (as the flowers are dropping), left on the surface of the beds (perhaps dug in slightly, but not "turned over"). Broad beans are "nitrogen fixers" - they store nitrogen in nodules on their roots. This nitrogen can then be accessed by subsequent plants grown in these beds. When the beans are about a foot high I'll heap more and more compost around them to encourage root formation. So compost will be added to the bed gradually.
And of course the slashed beans will add to the mulch.

Anyway, this vegetable bed will be ready for spring and summer.

You can see broad beans above, to the right of the picture. This is the rest of my vegetable garden mid-winter. These beans are being grown for food, of course. From extreme left to right - lettuce, row of radish, peas under trellis, 4 cabbage, row of chinese cabbage (slugs and snails love these!), broad beans, jasmine on the fence.
Behind the beans, hidden, are plant pots of cabbage.

Ok, hope this was interesting. Remember you can click on any of the photos above for enlargements.
I'm looking forward to planting out my new spring/summer vegetable bed!