11 April, 2011

The Great Garden Makeover - Part 2

Yesterday I decided that the garden had been given as much resting time as I could afford to give. I wasn't planning on watching my beautiful home grown seedlings die while I waited the full 2 weeks. So I mulched the vege garden and deepened a section of the front garden in readiness for planting. The seeds I planted a few weeks ago were in desperate need of planting, so I got in and planted out all the corn into the front garden. I also went to the nursery and bought lettuce, onion and snow pea seedlings (didn't have seeds for last two and lettuce seeds taking a while to grow).


Then I punched holes in the bottom of a couple of polystyrene boxes and filled them with potting mix. Into them I've planted two cherry tomato seedlings each and am planning on tying them to the wire mesh to keep them from spilling all over the place. I saw on an episode of Gardening Australia where this Italian bloke kept all his tomato plants tied up and stopped them from branching too much, which meant they grew really tall and fruited a lot. So that is what I'll try to do. They are under shade cloth too, so they shouldn't get too affected by frosts when they hit.


 Next I planted out my very late zucchini and cucumbers...I figure it is still warm enough and maybe I'll get a few off each one and if not - it's only cost me a couple of seeds. I also planted out the cabbage seedlings and beetroot seedlings.


 In the blurry photo below the cucumbers are along the back near the shade cloth, with cabbages and beetroots in the front.


Snow pea and lettuce seedlings which will need planting tomorrow, but need to decide where to put them. I'm thinking I'll put the snow peas out the front and the lettuces in the back vege garden.


This the next batch of seedlings - silverbeet, cauliflower and tomatoes. I also planted sweet pea seeds and peas.


Well getting my hands in the dirt has made me very happy! I can't wait to start harvesting. I am hoping I get lots of small cucumbers before it gets too cold. My hubbie is a big gerkin fan and I'm planning to preserve a batch for him. I also have a great recipe for preserving beetroot which mum and I used last year. Oh so yummy!!!

Emily xoxo
PS. I've worked so hard over the last few days that my poor back muscles spent the night screaming at me and I had a full 1 hour of sleep. Needless to say I am not at school today, I am instead going to try and catch up on some sleep and enjoy the overcast and drizzly day that it is.

PPS. I'm terribly excited that I planted out all my seedlings at the perfect time - a day before some lovely gentle rain. Oh I can hear them singing out in thanks from inside...yep I'm just a little bit insane....

1 comment:

  1. Well done Emily. Shame about the back though. But it is a great day for being in and relaxing. I have been sewing and loving it.

    Deb

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