Seeds - batch 2

But first, a report on batch 1: Tomato (Russian Red) - wonderful peasant stock! All germinated, all hardy-looking, all coming along nicely Tomato (Green Zebra) - the number that I actually wanted have germinated and have their first true leaves now which is good news Tomato (Gardeners Delight) - as always, the cherry tomatoes are the weaklings of the bunch. They did mostly germinate, but were a bit spindly - still got a couple of more sturdy-looking ones so hopefully they will continue to thrive. Cape Gooseberry - today the first couple of seedlings have poked their heads through, hurrah! Parsley - the problem child of this a particular batch. Still plenty of time to resow though. Chamomile German - fertile wee bunch, and oh so tiny Peppermint - like the Cape Gooseberry, the first couple have just poked their heads through Oregano - we have germination, I am shocked! Now to keep them alive. Marigold (Mexican Mint) - three or four germinated here, will probably need to sow some more as I wanted a big group of these this year. Now on to batch 2: Sown today for the Mexican garden were Chilli (Carribean Blend, hoping for some Scotch Bonnets in here) Chilli (Ancho - as per last year) Tomatillo (as per last year) Epazote (hopefully they will germinate this year). And for the ordinary garden were Pepper (Topepo Rosso) Basil Bergamot Hyssop I have a space and a plan for a proper herb garden this year, just need to get some bricks or something to outline the segments.

Seeds - batch 1

Garlic report - the organic shop didn't have garlic that looked any sturdier than mine, so all eight cloves I planted out were from last year's harvest. All eight have germinated and are coming along nicely.

Seed report - today I sowed the following into seed trays:
Tomato (Russian Red)
Tomato (Green Zebra)
Tomato (Gardeners Delight)
Cape Gooseberry
Parsley
Chamomile German
Peppermint
Oregano
Marigold (Mexican Mint)

This year I've resisted the temptation to plant the more unusual varieties (the Purple Calabash from last year cured me of that, at least for this year!) so I've gone back to some faithful varieties, a red, a green, and a cherry. I'm planning on planting out five of each.

The beginning of another gardening year

The winter solstice snuck up on me a couple of weeks ago, which means another gardening year is here! Time to plant out some garlic. Last year I didn't plant very many so we ended up with the right amount for consumption - however this year that means I only have a few spare cloves to plant out, so I need to visit the organic shop down the road to pick up some more. I also have to decide where I should plant them this year - and, of course, in order to do that, I need to have some idea of what else I'll be planting and where it will all need to go - aaarrgggh!

Summer of 2010 update

Busy with harvest time at the moment.

Tomatoes - loving the cherry tomatoes, and the green zebras (as always). Not so much in love with the Purple Calabash (these don't make good 'eating' tomatoes, and seemed extra attractive to snails and the like so suffered a fair bit of damage) or the yellow plum (which turned out to be cherry-sized, and are good cooked or in sauces but not so tasty to eat fresh), so I probably won't bother with those ones again. I must confess that although I started the season dutifully removing the laterals my routine slipped at some point in December and the tomato patch quickly became an overgrown forest that collapsed in upon itself in places. This was obviously Not A Good Thing, and I had powdery mildew on the branches for the first time. On the plus side, we did grab a couple of triple-stake triangular frames and these gave those couple of plants much more support, so I'll definitely be picking up more and doing all my tomatoes like that next year.

Tomatillos - went in a bit late but are now doing beautifully. A very photogenic plant! Looking forward to them ripening, so we can see what they taste like.


Also in the Mexican garden went some chilli seedlings, but they haven't really grown that much. Now that I have a decent mini-greenhouse I'll be sure to get these started earlier next year. I also planted jamaica flowers - these are used to make a drink. I think these went in a little late as they are only just starting to show the first signs of buds, and again I'll try harder next year to sow these earlier.


Cape Gooseberry - similar lanterns to the tomatillos but much smaller. The first few of these are ripening up now, and we love them - so tasty! A definite to keep in the garden.


Courgettes - the year of the marrowing. This year's variety seemed particularly sneaky and quick!

Herbs - coriander went to seed quite quickly so I've managed to save a lot of seed for next year. Dill and chives were direct-sown in late December, took a long time to germinate and are only now starting to be recognisable. The parsley is doing well (not as over-the-top as last year, thank goodness). The existing plot of sage is continuing to be thick and lush, and one branch of my rosemary has been successfully bent over to grow its own roots so we can now get rid of the giant woody mass that is the old bush. This frees up the corner that I want to be my entire herb garden, not just my rosemary garden.

Carrots - fresh from the soil this morning was this funky fellow. He was a decent size, almost 200grams. Now he's carrot cake :)


I'll also share with you one of my neighbour's sunflowers, which we could see back in December waving at us across the fences.

Roundup

Finally got around to the final sowings today.

Direct-sown into the salad garden was three varieties of lettuce, along with corn salad and spinach. Into the herb garden went chives and dill (I also transplanted in a parley yesterday). And into the Mexican garden went jamaica, a variety of hibiscus that makes a tasty drink. I also sowed another row of peas, and transplanted the watermelon.

Into seed trays went: ancho chilli, Marconi red pepper, tomatillo and epazote (all for the Mexican garden), plus basil, bergamot and passionfruit. I'm hoping it's not too late for these Mexican additions, I should really have had these underway a month ago.

A quick trim of the citrus trees to remove some of those lower small branches attracting the whitefly, and done for the day!

Courgette

The two courgette plants have been in the ground for a couple of weeks now. Although they are both Cocozelle, one has variegated leaves while one doesn't!

Into the garden this week

Over the weekend most of the seedlings were planted out in the garden - the cape gooseberry, 11 tomato seedlings, and four Mexican marigolds. I really need to get a wriggle on sowing the remaining late spring/early summer seeds though....Also up from the direct-sown seeds are the peas, beetroot and carrot.

While I wasn't looking whitefly has arrived on the citrus, so the round of spraying with Neem Oil has commenced today. Begone!

First strawberry of the season - already!

You know you want one.

Parsnip

(It doesn't look quite as big in the photo as it does in my head - but still, a triumph compared to the carrots!)

Parsnip!

Thumbs up - the two courgette plants were planted out today, and the direct-sown coriander has emerged.

Thumbs down - No sign of the cumin as yet - at least, I'm pretty sure the things that are popping up are more likely to be weeds than cumin......The tomatoes still aren't quite big enough to be planted out but are coming along nicely in the new "greenhouse" and will probably go in next weekend. No sign of the watermelons - I planted three, two pots are inside and one is outside in the greenhouse as a bit of an experiment to see if the additional heat would help things along, but there's nothing to report as yet (at least a week in).

Harvested today - one big beautiful perfectly formed parsnip. Also three carrots that the perfectly formed parsnip is probably pointing at and laughing. I'll try and grab a photo of the parsnip tomorrow evening.

And I have a guilty conscience over everything else that still hasn't been sown. Must remember to get a tray sorted out tomorrow!

Weekend sowings

On Saturday I finally got around to resowing the seedlings I managed to destroy.

It had been mostly dry all week so on Sunday I was able to do some digging (well, supervise some digging), and some direct sowing. Into the Mexican garden went cumin and coriander, along the fence went peas, and into the root vege garden went carrot, parsnip and beetroot. I also weeded out the strawberry patch - it's looking good in there! The plants have been flowering without me noticing, and there's baby strawberries!

The sad news is that two of the bigger beds have gone from being far too wet to go near, to rock hard dry, within a week. Hopefully today's rain will have evened things out a bit - those are my salad beds in theory!

A rocky start

The potatoes FINALLY made it into the ground last Sunday. They were EXTREMELY well-chitted!

Several seedlings had popped up their heads in my seedling tray. I promptly got overexcited and put the trays outside in the new greenhouse (three-tier, plastic-covered) for the day and cooked them. So I'll be starting again today. There was only one survivor, a Purple Calabash tomato that has subsequently popped up its head in the tray which I hadn't emptied!

A bigger, better garden

At the end of summer we cleared away a big camellia bush in the garden which has freed up a rectangular space (2.5m x 3.8m) - looks enormous compared to the rest of the garden. Hola, my Mexican garden!

It's now early spring, and sown indoors today were:
* five varieties of tomatoes (Yellow Plum, Green Zebra, Purple Calabash, a beefsteak and a cherry tomato)
* Parsley
* Cape Gooseberry
* Mexican marigold

If it stops raining long enough to let the soil dry out a bit I'll be able to get out and do the direct sowing that needs to be done. Right now it's looking a little too boggy.

Heads are forming

The broccoli are progressing!

That one looks like I'd expect. Unfortunately, two out of the three are instead trying to grow as tall as they possibly can. In the last day or two small yellow flowers are forming around the base of the "head". This can't be good - are the top bits still edible and should I just eat them now?

And I have one tiny cauliflower forming a head as well.

New year, new plantings

I have been very neglectful of the garden lately - but in my defence it is winter! There's some broccoli and cauliflower slowly coming along (no sign of any heads forming as yet), four leeks down the end of the garden that appear to be thriving (comparatively speaking of course, my previous efforts being very dismal) a single lettuce to eat, and lemons ripening up. We're eating carrots and parsnips from time to time but it's fair to say they are definitely on the petite side! And the rhubarb has sadly passed away.

Looking forward to the new season, last week the garlic went in. This year I started fresh with new NZ-grown organic garlic from Ceres - one of these looked like it might be elephant garlic rather than ordinary (either that or I've just planted a very strange mutant), and I planted a total of 8 ordinary-looking cloves and 2 mutant ones. Time will tell!

I also visited the garden centre to check out seed potatoes. They had several different varieties, all first earlies, but no Jersey Bennes which I was hoping for. Instead I purchased a bag of Rocket variety and they are now chitting away. These seed potatoes are enormous compared to the Heather variety I had last year....