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.