Onion Seeds

After empyting all three seed trays they got a scrub and were submerged in hot water in an effort to kill the green slime that had grown on the edges. They were dried in direct sun light and left there for a while in the hope the sunlight would kill any remaining spores.

One tray was prepared with onions:

20 red onion
20 Borettana Onion

This time the seeds were placed on top of the potting mix and then given a dusting over with a tiny amount of mix. Last time they were burrried an not many germinated. This time the seed tray didn't get a soaking of water from above.

The Onions and Spinach Leek

Transplanted from the seed trays into the vege patch:

2 spinach (the first to germinate here ever!)
1 borettana onion (which within a few hours was mistaken for a week and half-pulled)
6 leek
3 egg plant

The whole patch got a good weeding (it needed it) then a row of root-parsley by the stratwberry spinach (the spinach plants are about the size of my thumb nail!).

Finally, by the turnips went in a row of coloured carrots (niche seeds) then a row of orange carrots (red barron from red barn a few years ago) and finally a row of white turnips (Kaiotes).

Beans
Borlotto fire beans around the bamboo tripod. Zucchini in the middle of the tripod. It looks like the beans are doing well.

Red Onions
These are last year's red onions re-planted. The stems are thick and strong and they are doing well. On the right are the cabbages also doing well




Rhubarb
Pleanty of rhubarb this season. All the plants appear to be doing well but some weller than other.

Carrots
Carrots have germinated, but are tiny.

Pumpk-in

After way too long in the sun room it was time to plant out the pumpkins that have germinated. One giant pumpkin and two shop pumpkin were ready to go. Imagine the surprise when a second seed showed signs of germination just when the tub was turned up-side-down to go into the patch.

So, into the brassica bed (because there was space there) went 1 giant pumpkin, 2 pumkkin, and 2 just germinated pumpkin.

Putting the Brassica to Bed

Time to transplant from the seed trays into the garden. 10 Brussel Sprout plants (3 rows) and 6 purple cauliflower (2 rows) went into the freshly dug over beds. The beds were not composted because after spending a day digging them over the energy to sift compost through a seive was missing. From that seed tray none (that' right, none) of the green cauliflower germinated, all the brussel sprouts germinated and all except one (or was it two) of the purple cauli germinated.

To my total surprise another pumpkin germinated. After however many weeks it has been they were about to get written off as a disaster. There are now 2 pumpkin and 1 giant pumpkin desperately awaiting transplanting into the vege patch.

Neta Rep at Mitre 10 Mega

The strawberries were looking a little sad in the summer heat and as they had not been watered in a few days it was time to extend the irrigation system to include them. As it happened, the strawberries are at the base of the blackcurrents which are on the path from the tap to the vege patch so the black tube already ran through the both! But what to get? They're on a bank with no form of support for up-risers.

Luckily the Neta rep was showing his stuff at Mitre 10 today. One of all the different forms of nozzles they have and telling everyone (well, me and one other person, there wasn't much interest really) how to use it all. A three plastic stakes and a some joiners was all that was needed and $5.41 later they're in the ground. The strawberries should be looking forward to a good drink tonight.

Strawberries

Anyone actually know the etymology of strawberry? There appear to be two theories, both claim Anglo-Saxon origins:

streawberige, meaning "spreading berry" (due to the runners)
streowberige, meaning "hay berry" (due to being ripe at the same time)

Anyone know the origins of my strawberry plants? Got six for a buck a piece at a local primary school fair. The are apparently white strawberries and like a relatively shadey spot. A quick Internet search suggests they are "alpine" strawberries (what ever that might mean), they are bird resistant (because they never go red) and that they flower and fruit all year round (yea, right). No runners so seed collection is a must (Strawberries should be on a 3 year plant replacement rotation).

The plants were planted out tonight on the bank under the blackcurrents as a ground cover.

Garden-Bound

Waiting to go into the garden was 2 white corn, 1 zucchini, and 1 pumpkin (seeds saved from a supermarket pumpkin). They now each have their own little part of the vege patch. With some luck the cold weather is over and they'll survive.

Spent some time trying to weed, but until the plants get large enough its hard to tell a carrot from grass. Still, did some, and will do more once it becomes obvious what's what. After the weeding came a feeding (of fertiliser).

Another pumpkin has germinated! Tons of brussel sprouts have germinated, as have a small number of cauliflower. More time is needed before they can go into the vege-patch but all looks good at the moment.

Art Gallery Talk

Lynda Hallinan's talk at the art gallery was as funny as last years. She started with a huge list of stuff she grows in her garden in Auckland (much of which (like organges) won't grow in Dunedin), and went on to give a list of eco-sins including her use of various chemicals. Perhaps the worst sin is driving one mile to work each day (thats the distance from the Unversity to the Octagon).

Just like last year she was giving away goodies. I managed to get a free copy of "Homegrown 3: Harvest Your Own Fresh Herbs". I think it is officially released on Monday. Its full of nice glossy pictures and recipies - but I've not had a chance to read it yet because I'm currently reading Homegrown 1, which arrived through the post a few days ago.

Anyhow, thumbs up for each of the Homegrown books, and if you ever get the chance to hear Hallinan holler, take it.

Brassica

Filled the last seed tray with brassica:
15 brussel sprouts
10 purple cauliflower
15 green cauliflower
all seeds are from last year. the sprouts from Watkins and the others from Kaiotes.

started to dig over the last part of the patch. there are 4 living cauliflower plants so they have been left in place.

Yuck!

Started to dig the final section of the vege patch and its wet, very wet, very wet indeed. Its like a thick muddy goop down there. As a consequence the irrigation system has been turned down from 5 mins a night to 3 mins a night. Everything got a feeding with the organic fertiliser.

Almost everything is growing well. A few things are not: the strawberry spinach is growing very slowly. The parsnips (which are always slow to germinate) are not showing signs of anything and at least one lettuce has died. Parsley hasn't reard its head either.

In the green room a second corn has sprouted as has one pumpkin (seed saved from a supermarket pumpkin) and one zucchini.

The kings radishes have sprouted well and as there were a gap between the rows black-radish from last year was used as a filler.

Cucumber

Cucumber seeds into little pots and placed into the green room. The packet recommended direct planting in clumps so three seeds were planted into the rhubarb beds. The Rhubarb is doing well and all the artichokes that had properly sprouted are doing well (one died). Also planted out the last borlotto and fertalised everything.

One more seed tray went in. This time:

15 * Egg plant
15 * spinach
10 * leek

One of the white corn has sprouted, noting else in the green room is showing signs of anything.

Pic-ing vegetables

Rhubarb
At about week five after divison three of the plants are doing well and the other three are doing reasonably well. Certainly no deaths (yet).

Borlotto Beans
The first of the borlotto bean plants to be planted out. This plant has been in the garden about two weeks and continues to do well.

Cabbage
Relative new-comers to the vege patch, cabbage also seems to be thriving.

Sunday's Sprouted Seeds

Five of the ten Borotto bean seeds that were soaked during day had sprouted and started to grow well. Four of those had done well enough to be planted out into the garden. In total 5 plants are now in the garden.

Also spent a few mintues planting short rows of root-parsley and of watermelon-radishes went into the vege patch on the right by the "yellow" plant.

Pumpkinin

After soaking overnight and through the day (about 36 hours in total) the pumpkin seeds were potted and placed in the green room to sprout. Two types, the giant pumpkin seeds from last year and pumpkin seeds saves from shop pumpkins.

Seeds for pots for $12.00

The Warehouse has sets of 10 little plastic flowerpots for $4.00. Three loads was loads (for $12.00). After soaking zuchini seeds, white corn seeds during the day they went into the posts and got a good soaking.

Also soaked during the day were peas and sunflowers that went into seed trays. The seed tray was then filled with onions and spinach. Pumpkin seeds (saved from the supermarket pumpkin as well as giant pumpkin from last year's seed stock) remain soaking and will (hopefully) get transferred into pots tomorrow.

Venturing out

The seeds from the seed trays had been there a little too long and the time had come for them to venture from the home into the world (well, the vege patch anyway). All three of the seed trays were emptied into the garden which included:

Onions: Both the longkeepers and the sweet red did well with most seeds gernimating and growing. The Borettana did badly with only about 2 sprouting and only one making it into the vege patch.

Articokes were a similar disaster. One Imperial Star sprouted and amde it into the garden whereas about 6 of the gren globe made the transition.

Lettuce (cox) and the strawberry spinach. The strawberry spinach are tiny brittle weak littl plants; it'll be interesting to see if they survive a Dunedin summer.

Also finished the sprinkler sytem by laying the last few meters, burying it, adding uprights and so on.

All in all a good weekend.

Been there

Last year the red onions didn't grow very large and at the end of the season were brought in from the cold. About half a dozen survivedin a bowel in the kitchen and one was showing signs of life so they were all planted back out in the vege patch.

Also took the time to plant out the borlotto bean plant that had sprouted. The other 4 still have not sprouted.

The rhubard appears to be doing well with all 6 plants still living.

Soaking Wet

Beans, that is, not the weather. Things in the seed trays are sprouting. One borlotto bean sprouted (they grow quickly), but 5 were planted. In an effort to get a few more beans sprouting 10 borlotto beans were soaked during the working day and then planted in seed rising mix and put in the green room. With some luck some will sprout and we'll get some beans (later in the season).

Seeded

With 25c-30cm between rows you don't get many rows in a vege-patch. Luckily the rows are long. Starting from then end that is adjacent to the rhubarb, one row was sewn yesterday and 4 rows today. The rows (from the rhubarb end) are now:

Parsnips (Yatesnips)
Parsnips (Niche)
Turnip Red Round (Kings)
Turnip Golden Ball (Kings)
Carrot (a mix of red, white, yellow, purple from Kaiotes and Red Barron from The Red Barn)

Of course the Yates, Kaiotes, and Red Barn seeds are from last (and previous) years.

Dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig

Spend the weekend digging. Then once the digging was over spent it seiving the compost heap and then digging again. The (old) left hand side vege patch is now dug over, compost added (1 inch of compost for the top 4 of soil) and ready to go.

The compost heap was very wet, very woody, and very wormy. So wormy that it looks like the entire Dunedin worm population is hanging out there. While seiving many of the worms were hand picked into the seived load while others were left in the hard-woody gunk that went back into the compost heap. Once moved into the vege-patch they quickly set to digging, hopefully good news.

Niche at Mitre-10 ($27.38 later)

A trip to Mitre-10 to get some irrigation pipes ended up costing $27.38. Mostly in an effort to avoid a second trip later to get the missing bits, but partly because a whole load more up-rights were needed due the the back edge being put on the parch.

Those Niche seeds that came from Oamaru last year are not available in Mitre-10 too. One packet of parsnips later ($5.96) there'll be something to plant tomorrow.

Tickets at Nichols Garden Center

Tickets to the November 1 talk by Lynda Hallinan are available at Nichols - so we went and got one. Her talk last year was very funny and well worth the price.

Rest & Relaxation: Seed Sewing

After a busy day digging the vege patch (and not even finishing one bed), rest and relaxation took over. That is, an evening spend sewing seeds into seed trays. The 2 new trays are now in action and in the green room (which is cold tonight).

First tray:
15 * Artichokes Imperial Star F1
15 * Artichoked Green Glove Improved
10 * Cabbage Copenhagen Market

Second tray:
15 * Spinach Bloomsdale
15 * Strawberry Spinach
10 * Lettuce Cos.

The strawberry spinach seeds are the finest seeds I've ever seen and were hard to work with.

Finally, in an effort to get the Borlotto Beans up and running

5 * Borlotto Beans

Planted in seperate pots. The beans were not soaked overnight, which apparently helps.

Rhubarb Rhizomes

Uprooted last year's rhubarb - there were two of them. One was small and so it was planted in the new "extended" part of the vege patch. The other had 5 buds coming out of the rhizome so I sliced it into 5 separate buds and planted each in the new "extended" part of the vege patch. That's 6 rhubarb plants in total. Well spaced - in an effort to avoid overcrowding in that part of the patch.

To my amazement the larger rhizome was huge. I expected something the size of my hand but got something more the size of swede. A good strong kitchen knife cut through it easily enough. It was a beautiful woody colour inside. The roots I expected to be small but the larger roots coming out of the rhizome were as thick as my thumb!

Also been digging over the patch that was the left patch (but is now second from the left). This is the patch were the rhubarb was - and remnants remain. The reason they say to keep the plants 3 feet from each other is that the roots are huge and go a long way - easily a meter.

They say rhubarb is hard to kill, but of the 6 that went in I expect at least 2 to die. We'll see.

Not Spring Onions

First sewing of seeds for the season. The old seed tray from last year (that's right I've got 3 now) has been filled with potting mix and 40 seeds planted in it.

15 * Onion Borettana
15 * Onion Pukekohe Longkeeper
10 * Onion Sweet Red

Last season's Pukekohe Longkeeper produced excellent "normal" onions. Several were given away but a winter's worth were kept and used. We don't eat many (less than one a week) but did have one in tonight's casserole (and it was good). They continue to keep well (in the kitchen). They were harvested when the tops tipped over

Last season's Sweet Red produced tiny onions. They are also in the kitchen but will get planted back out shortly. They were harvested too easly, the tops had not tipped.

The Borettana are new so no experience there.

Leeks from last year produced badly. One was left in the garden and it had continued to grow over the winter and it now quite respectable.

M-10 Out. But $85.25 spent!

Went to Mitre-10 today to get tickets for tomorrow night, but they are sold out. Had to make do with some plastic irrigation pipe and some joiners for the vege patch (total cost of $11.28). Add to this some potting mix and 2 new seed propagators from Nichol's (total cost of $73.97) and its been an expensive week.

As this is the vege patch blog and not the herb patch blog little discussion will be given of the planting of rosemary, mint, and some potting mix for an old whisky barrel - currently with nothing in it.

Downgoing and Upcoming

The vege patch has just gotten a little larger. Its taken all winter but finally the last few (about 6) feet have been added to the end of the vege patch. At first it looked like an easy job, but after digging down a centimeter it turned out that the reason it was a well draining spot was that there wasn't any soil. What must have been a dozen wheelbarrow loads of broken (half) bricks were buried in the garden. Removing these and sifting in soil took days - and since it never stopped raining all winter there weren't many suitable (weekend) days. Finding spare top-spoil in the garden wasn't too difficult but moving it is hard work.

As the vege patch is now at its maximum extent a wooden border was added around the whole site. The wood was rotting in the shed and is now rotting at the edge of the vege patch - and it looks better then it did before.

Upcoming events... On Thursday Mitre-10 is having a seminar on growing food. Lynda Hallinan is coming to Dunedin for the Rhododendron festival and will talk about her second year of living off of her vegetable patch. Will try to get to both events, Lynda's first talk was very funny.

Worth every penny (cent)?

On Friday the seeds from Kings arrived, the order was filled exactly and completely along with the 2 "free" packets. The dates on the packets are long - 2010 and 2011. Seeds from the local gardening shops have often had shorter dates.

Reading about the species I've never grown on the Internet is interesting. The Eggplant is a potato relative (the flowers look very similar) and is perennial (comes back each year) but usually grown as an annual (grows and dies in one year). It is temperature sensative so will be grown inside in the first year to see how it does.

The root parsley really is the root of parsley. I've had problems with parsley going to seed in Dunedin before (and taking over the whole garden) so care will be taken (especially as the leaves don't taste good to me!).

The "Spinach Strawberry" is neither strawberry nor spinach. It is "Chenopodium foliosum" - which aparently does produce red fruit. I didn't look too hard but also didn't find any comment on the taste of either the leaves or the fruit.

$40.15 + postage

After reading the (somewhat funny) special issue of NZ gardener "Homegrown 2: Live off your land for less" (which is cheaper direct than at the supermarket) I was inspired to grow borlotti beans - the photo in the magazine is of these fantasticly coloured spotty beans and pods. It turns out theyre actually called borlotto beans, demonstrating that the editor can't spell (but consistently can't spell).

After getting a price from Trademe I (to ammuse myself) compared the price to Kings Seeds's price. It wasn't amusing, Kings was a fraction of the trademe price. So I got inspired by the Kings web site and was up until late choosing seeds (consider me a Kings convert). It didn't help that you get 2 free packets of seeds if you spend $40 (so I did). Here's what I got:

Broccoli Italian Precoce
Cabbage Copenhagen Market
Cauliflower Green Macerata
Cauliflower Violet Sicilian
Pumpkin Austrian Oil Seed
Radish Oriental Watermelon
Spinach Bloomsdale
Turnip Tokyo White Cross F1
Turnip Red Round
Bean Borlotto Fire Tongue
Eggplant Black Beauty
Zucchini Black Beauty
Turnip Golden Ball
Cauliflower Snowball Improved
Spinach Strawberry

And for my free packets I chose:

PARSLEY BARTOWICH LONG - this is a kind of root vegetable
ONION BORETTANA

This should do for seeds for the whole season - but then again those yellow zucchini look good, as do the multi-coloured squash.

Carrots

The rabbit has stopped eating the brassica (because there aren't many left) and has moved on to the carrots - luckily it only eats the tops and not the roots. That said, no leaves leaves little carrots - and here they are. Several varieties, orange, purple, yellow, white. The best tasting are the purple and the orange ones. Yellow are a little tasteless (but still better than shop ones).

Capsicum

Capsicum grow well inside in Dunedin. These three demonstrate that green turns to yellow. There were harvested over the weekend and, since we don't eat many, given to parens.

Fresh Pumpkin Smells

The two little (of the four) garden pumpkins

Wow! Never before has the kitchen smelled so good. Cut into a fresh pumpkin from the garden and the smell is fantastic. These two (and one other) were harvested and left for a few days to dry. We had the larger one between 4 adults and one child and it did more than one meal. The colour, the small and the taste were unbelievable. Vegies from the garden taste great, but this one topped the lot.

Pumpkins

Here's one of the four pumpkins stull growing. As this is the first pumpkin it remains a mystery as to when to harvest them.

This is what is mean by pumpkin

Just to clarify, this is what is mean by pumpkin. Although this is the largest, there are a total of 4 of comprable size. Not sure when to harvest them so until there are signs that its time they get to stay where they are.

Purple brocolli. As suspected, if planted too early they flower before the plants get big and produce little heads. This one survived the rabbit (how has not been seen for a few weeks)

Zucchini for dinner

Zucchini for dinner tonight. This is the first one from the garden ever and it tasted great. Very moist, very firm. There are also 4 decent sized pumpkin, just waiting for them the mature before picking and drying.

More Tomatoes

Both tomato plants are now in fruit. The first plant to fruit has stopped flowering but is still growing fruit, the second is still flowering. Water consumption has decreased substantially, they used to take 3 litre between them each day and they now seem to be taking about half that. This is the third week of harvest and there are tons of fruit (see photo). The previous two weeks summed to about this many also. There remains many more weeks of fruit on the vines.

Rhubarb?

After planting many rhubarb seeds, one sprouted after about 10 days and another after about twice that. Here's a photo of one. Its growing very slowly and it isn't obvious (yet) that it is rhubarb. Once it grows a bit it might be a lot more obvious what, exectly this plant is (rhubarb or not).

The outside rhubarb is doing very well. It seems to have branched several times with what look to be about 4 centeres. Over winter it will be necessary to seperate these out and re-plant them for next year.

Tomatoes for Dinner

The books all say that vine ripened tomatoes taste far better than artificially ripened tomatoes from the shop. These ones taste good. Normally we don't eat many, these were grown for our daughter - shame she turned out to have an tomato allergy!

Into the Patch

Onion group out of the sprouting chamber and into the vege-patch. This time it was 10 Onions, 10 Red Onions, 6 Leeks, and 4 Spring Onions. It looks like the Spring Onion are hard to sprout and the regular onions are easy.

Managed to find a packet of Kings Globe Artichoke seeds at the Blueskin-Bay Garden Centre. They expire in 2010 so pleanty of time before they have to be sewn.