Carrots!

Well, not just yet. Can't quite remember when (the Monday before Christmas I think? so 21st December), but I did some direct sowing of beetroot, carrots (new!), parsnips (new!), peas, spring onions and red spring onions (new!), rocket, lettuce and mesclun. I've been having to hose the garden every other morning as it's been relatively dry, but there's germination now from everything with the stubborn exception of the Danyelle lettuce - this is the second sowing of this and absolutely nothing. The success of the Cos lettuce makes up for it though, these are lovely and crisp and look great in the ground as well on the plate.

I think next year I will ditch the mixed mesclun and just sow the few things we like within that mix - if only I can figure out what they are! Baby spinach is definitely one, and a buttercrunch-type. That, along with the cos and the rocket, should cover our lettuce needs.

I never got around to removing that first pea plant that died - and oddly enough, several days after my last post it suddenly decided to send up fresh new shoots from its base! I'm waiting until these new shoots are tall enough to reach my first "rung" of string before trimming off the old dead growth, and there's already a tiny pod in the new growth. There's also three new pea plants from the pre-Christmas sowing, so things are looking up on the pea front.

The potatoes taste awesome, by the way.

This weekend in the garden

Yesterday - transplanted tomatoes - 2 x Tigerella, 2 x Green Zebra, 2 x Watermouth, 2 x Dali. Also transplanted a rhubarb.

Today - transplanted 3 x eggplant, sowed a row of mesclun, row of cos lettuce, row of Danyelle lettuce. Also sowed the poppy seeds.

The germination isn't going that well. It doesn't look like we'll end up with any cherry tomatoes this year, none of the two sowings of Mexican Midgets have taken although a single Dwarf Cherry has emerged this week - a bit late, but hopefully I can keep it going and get it in the ground. There's also two basil, well down on the dozen or so I planted out last year! I've even left space around the tomatoes for a full border of basil.......

Also germinated this week is an Alma paprika pepper that I really hope survives, although it doesn't look like any of the other peppers are interested - might try germinating them directly outside where it's warmer than indoors.

Still to do today - melon and watermelon.

Leek

After two years of trying to get leeks to germinate, and then thrive, I finally have one single solitary leek that was today transplanted into the garden. Hurrah! Hopefully it will continue to thrive.

In other surprising developments, my Jingle Belles capsicum seedling (that germinated late and was therefore going to winter indoors before being planted out in late spring), has decided to attempt to grow some capsicums. They're about 5mm across.

No sign yet of any lettuce and mesclun seedlings - I'm pretty sure everything green in that patch of the garden is a weed but I'm leaving them there just to be on the safe side.

Lettuce

After a special request from the management I've sprinkled more mesclun seed this evening, along with Paris White Cos Lettuce and Danyelle Lettuce (both organic seeds from Kings Seeds).

I'm sure the urge for lettuce will have passed long before they're ready, and that's assuming they don't end up drowned in a wet autumn!

Thar she bolts

These both came from the organic mesclun seed - they've gotten away on me a bit.

Mesclun

The mixed mesclun's been going well. We've been eating our way through the outer leaves and it just keeps going. There's also a few plants from the second sowing coming through (although not of the varieties that we like), and I did a third sowing this week - although I've had to water it several times to keep that patch of earth from turning into a dustbowl.

Dinner

Mmmm, strawberry! One single solitary 90% ripe strawberry.

(and also a second lot of mesclun - I must investigate what each leaf is, some are quite spicy!)

Labour Weekend part 2

The courgette has been safely transplanted, but I decided to hold off on the tomato seedlings as it was still quite windy - I had some of them sitting out on the ground and one ended up with some exposed roots so I'll wait another weekend. On Monday we had a BBQ complete with a small selection of mesclun leaves, at day 37 and big enough to eat - assuming you prefer baby leaves of course. First harvest of the season!




And here's the strawberry I'm so proud of, looking like it's been dipped in ink (and is subsequently looking like a bird may have had an experimental peck).

Labour Weekend part 1

Finally, a long weekend! Sadly it's the traditional rubbish weather - and so far has been too wet and far too windy to get anything done in the garden. I have a courgette and several tomatoes ready to transplant, and I'm also planning to move the catnip plant (from last summer) outside as it's taking over the kitchen bench.

All that I've actually done so far this weekend though is sow a dozen or so more mesclun seeds. The existing plants have some leaves big enough to tuck into now, but I'm saving them for our BBQ lunch tomorrow.

Everything is currently outdoors in the mini greenhouse except two pots of flat leaf parsley seedlings, still too little to move from inside, and a new courgette seedling to replace the one that didn't make it. The only other update this week is a couple of Detroit beetroot seedlings sown a week ago that I spotted today.

Mesclun day 21

Today in the garden I also put down some Tui pelletised pea straw as mulch around the garlic and strawberries (and I see that there are strawberry flowers on three of the four strawberry plants in the second planter now, hurray!), and sprayed a circle of Wally's Liquid Copper on the soil around the broccoli - this is supposed to keep slugs and snails away.

Insects

I have noticed a few more pests around this week. As well as the snails that have been snacking on my lone broccoli (not that I've ever managed to catch any at it), there was a teeny weeny green caterpillar that I squashed yesterday. Checking around today, I've also spotted what might be black aphids on some of my garlic (well, they might be black aphids, I really need to track down a good book about NZ pests with really good photos in it!), and a tiny red spider thingy on the flowering strawberry plant which I'm assuming is a red spider mite. So everything got a good drenching with Neem Oil this evening.

I've just been to inspect the onion patch for any sign of life - there's a whole three seedlings there now, of the two dozen or so seeds I sowed. Doesn't bode well really. I've also got one spring onion out of the six sown, and still only a couple of Detroit beetroot and a couple of Albino beetroot out of the 12 of each sown. On the bright side, there's quite a few mesclun plants now that are recognisably seedlings rather than weeds.

I definitely have more luck with transplantable seeds rather than direct sown ones, so I'm off to pot up some of those seedlings into their intermediate pots.

Weekly roundup

It's been a week since I did the first big sowing indoors and out.

Out in the garden some mesclun seedlings have popped up (at least I think they're mesclun, they could always turn out to be weeds or grass but it looks good at this stage). The rocket sown indoors in a seed tray is also up.

In the tomato tray, I have three Green Zebra, four Roma, four San Marzano and two Watermouth up. No sign of the Russian Reds as yet though.....

And in the same seed tray, there's now two coriander, but alas no parsley.

I used those compartmentalised propagation trays - one seed per compartment, that way when/if the seedlings are ready to move out of the tray (either out into the garden or into an intermediate-stage pot) I can just lift the contents of each compartment out on a teaspoon and into its new home without any disturbance.

And not a peep out of the two courgette and two watermelon sitting in their own pots. I think I'll add a bit more water and cover them up to see if that gets them going.

Signs of life

Today I spotted the first sign of some flowers on the strawberry plants in one of the planters - little white petals peeking through the green.

I also sowed the onion seed (straightforward) and mesclun seed which wasn't quite so orderly - staring at the pile of seed, staring at the bed, abandoning any pretence of sowing neatly at 5cm apart, scattering over the approximate area, then waving the hoe through it all to hopefully bury the seeds a bit!

Mesclun

This one's an organic mix from Kings Seeds.

Germinates in soil temperatures of 12-20°, direct sow 5cm apart (and i'm guessing quite shallow), takes 6 to 8 days to germinate. From there, I guess we see what happens! I imagine it's pretty variable depending on exact mix and exact conditions.

I'll be popping these in the BBQ patch, as it's convenient to pop out and harvest from there.