Bean there done that.

Peas and beens from the last post were planted in the sprouting chambers the next day. 30 of the 40 peas have gerninated. The beans are beginning to germinate too. It appears to happen more slowly with beans than with peas.

Also (last weekend) planted leek seeds and strawberries seeds (seeds saved from last year's crop of alpine strawberried). Both were planted in pots in the green-room and both have started to germinate.

Plonked some old parsnip seeds into the patch along with turnip seeds (white and green).

Went to Nichols to get a small tunnel. After placing it over a small patch of the patch it was clearlt warmer inside than out (when you stick your arm in. To test it properly one of the punnets of 2 squash were transplanted from a pot into the patch under the tunnel. With some luck it'll thrive (the zucchini put into the patch died).

Weekend Pottyness

Five of each of the two tomato varieties (Purple Calabash and Riesentraube) went out of the sprouting chamber and into pots. As did the Thyme, but they are tiny so three plants went into each of three posts. Strawberry Spinach also went into pots, one plant pot.

Soaking large seeds overnight for planting tomorrow:

Peas
Beans (Albenga and Borlotto)
Punpkin (Australian Seed Oil and Jack be Little)

Also planted remaining strawbetty spinach in the patch. The Zucchini in the patch is doing badly. It didn't help that is sonowed today!

Experiments

Ginger! A celebrity chef on TV claimed that if you buy some ginger at the supermarket and plant it deep in a pot it'll grow (in the UK). Got some, planted it. Lets see if it'll work.

Also planted Orangeberry plant (Rubus Pentalobus) in the back by the blackcurrents. The hope is that they'll take over the bank and strengthen it. Strawberries om the same bank that were planted last year are doing well. Sunset Strawberries were going at the price of 6 for $12 at the warehouse. There are now 3 of those plants on the same bank. What happens if white and red strawberries cross over? Dunno yet.

Happenings

Stuff has been happening but no time to blog.

Onions have gone into the vege patch a week ago as did a zucchini - which appears to be suffering already. Found some Cheddar Cauliflowers at the warehouse and got then into the patch too.

Into pots in the green room went miniwhite cauliflowers, zucchini, and riesentrabe tomato. All appear to be doing well.

Germination

The seeds in the germination chamber have done so, and the squash in tops have germinated too. That is...

Squash
Tomato (both types)
Strawberry Spinach
Thyme

but the Coriander has not!

Three zucchini were potted into a large pot in the sun room.

Also planted some carrots, but using old seeds from two and three years ago. Instead of measuring the gaps between them and so on, there were just sprinkled over the surface of the vege patch and covered with a light dusting of soil. As it has been dry the vege patch also got a good watering.

Seed This Done That

Finally manages to get some more seeds into the green-room. This time:

Squash
Tomato (both types)
Strawberry Spinach
Thyme
Coriander

The Zucchini have gerninated as have some of the cucumbers.

DigDug

Dug the second of the three beds. That's two of the three done, the third has cauliflower plants in it (one less as one of the green cauliflowers was had for dinner). Once the cauliflowers are all eaten the third bed will get a good work over as it wasn't dug through last year.

Went to nichols to get some compost. Purchased 10 bags of "Organic Compost". One bag per square meter was put onto the bed that was just dug over. Also used 100g per square meter of lime and 50g per meter of Nitrophospha Blue.

The three bed sizes are: 4.5sqm, 3.6sqm, and 4.7sqm.

Also planted some herbs, Coriander, LemonGrass, and Thyme.

Some Seeds Sewn

Spent the evening getting the seeds of the plants for the sun room this:

Tomato
  Purple Calabash
  Riesentraube
Cucumber
  Mini White
  Marketmore
Watermelon
  Baby Doll

As well as some plants that need to be strong before being planted out:

Eggpant
  Black Beauty
Zucchini
  Black Beauty
Rhubarb
  Glaskings Perpetual
Onion
  Italian Long Keeper

Lets hope germination happens

State of the Onions

The tree onions appear to be doing well. The chives died down and have re-emerged from the soil. The garlic is showing no signes of anything!

Kings Seeds Order Placed

This year's order to Kings Seeds has been placed. Several seeds are left over from last year (such as cauliflowers) and so the order this year complements last years order. Its also time to expand into herbs (for the front garden). This year's "free seeds" are some flowers for pots by the front door

VEGIES:
Onion Italian Long Keeper
Cucumber Mini White
Turnip Tokyo White Cross
Radish German Giant
Tomato Riesentraube
Tomato Purple Calabash
Bean Albenga
Rhubarb Glaskins Perpetual
Carrot Nutri Red
Squash Lunar Selection
Pumpkin Jack be Little

HERBS:
Thyme English Winter
Lemon Balm
Coriander Spicy Asian

FLOWERS:
Dahlia Unwins Ideal Bedding Mix
Viola Pansy Jolly Joker

Tree Onions

I was thrilled to see Red Barn selling Tree Onions. These neat plants grow their bulbs in the air where they grow until they get to big and the plant collapses causign them to bend over and touch the ground where they root!

In went the tree onions, as did some garlic, and some chives that have been sitting in the green room for a few months. I also bunged some sage in the same patch (not the usual vege-patch, this is a new herb-patch).

Onions

An experiment with onions. While on holiday I read about onions needing long daylight hours before the bulbs form, and also that you can get them ready for planting early. So I planted a few punnets of seeds (bolotano and long keeper) to see if it works.

Garlic

Nichols has garlic cloves for $10 a bag, or $2 a clove. There's a free patch in the front garden and as garlic is arguably a herb it can be planted outside of the patch. One clove will go in the empty patch along side some sage (that also came from Nichols).

Fresh Garden Vegies (and a cucumber too)

Parsnips, Carrots, and Turnips for dinner. This is the first parsnip from the garden this season, they take months for grow. Turnips and carrots as usual.

Cucumbers grow well inside in Dunedin. This is the first from the vine, but there is at least one other that will do well, and a total of about 10 in early stages.

Onions

Although not all harvested today, here's this year's onion selection. Red onion on the left and green on the right. The harvest was not as good as it might have been because the cabbages swamped the onions.

Purple Cauli

Dunner during week. Purple Cauliflowers loose their colour when you cook them. Didn't expect to see cauliflowers forming at this time of year - they are more frequently seen in the vege patch in November. There are 2 white cauli on their way and a green one too. This year there's no rabbit to eat them all.

State of the Patch

Strawberries


Cabbage


Beans


Cauliflower

Tonight's Dinner

Tonight's (roast) dinner included the usual bank of roast vegies, tonight from the garden. We have two types of carrots and two types of turnips.

Lynda Hallinan's Cauliflowers...

This week's "get growing" email form Lynda Hallinan has the usual ten things to do this weekend. Number seven is to plant cauliflower. Nothing to write home about, except that Lynda has got her hands on some Cheddar Cauliflower. I saw a seedling of this a few years and have searched Dunedin (and the Internet) many times since, but never seen another seedling. Lynda's came from the "Zealandia" range but, as to be expected, a search of the Internet gets me no closer to finding one. Perhaps the solution is to write to Lynda and ask where she got it from.

Rhubarb Rharvest

Rhubarb from the patch harvested today. 3.5lbs in total, and it hardly made a dent on the plants. 2lbs went into the freezer and 1.5lbs will go into a crumble tomorrow.

Good Bad Ugly

After removing all the green turnips and a ton of weeds the bed on the left was somewhat empty. Of the parsnips planted, only 3 (or was it 4) germinated, all from Niche (none from Yates). Not many carrots had germinated either - perhaps all because the irrigation system had somehow been turned off.

What to do with an empty bed in January - plant with winter crops. A new row of parsnips went in and the spaced between the plants filled with new seeds. The same with the mixed coloured carrots, and a new row of Red Barron orange carrots (thats a row of mixed colours a, a row of orange, and filling the gaps with mixed colours).

The row of white turnips was filled too.

Finally, a few days ago 4 brussel sprout plants were planted out into the brassica bed. It looks like the brassica bed is doing well, lets hope for success over winter and into summer (thankfully the rabbit hasn't been seen all summer).

As for the ugly - the cos lettuce have started to bolt. One more was harvested today. Thats 3 for the season. Seeds in the green room have germinated so more soon (hopefully).

TurnipTime

Four kinds of turnips have been growing in the patch this year, the Red, Green, White, and Purple. Of these the best are the red and white, followed by the purple. None of us like the green much. Here's a pic of the pick.

Onions and Radishes

After getting a fresh bag of Yates Black Magic seed raising mix it was time to see if the cause of the onion germination problems was the potting mix. Other onions this year have been germinated in Yates Thrive. In went one seed tray worth of the borettana onions, 40 seeds in total.

Out of the seed tray of thrive went one borettana and one red onion into the patch. As all the radishes have been eaten, so too did three rows of radishes, two of the watermellon radish and one of the black radish.

On the topic of watermellon, some have germinated as have cucumber. Probably too late for this season but they'll be kept inside in the hope of someting good happening.

Pick of the day

Brasicca Beds
Planted and ready for the winter. With some luck they'll take root and be hardy enough by the time the snow comes.

Rhubarb
Perhaps time to start harbesting?

Borlotto Beans
Flowering is nearly over and the pods are beginning to form.

Zucchini
Finally the first Zucchini is in flower. Lets hope a bee finds a way to do the necessary.

General Comments

Spend the day today (and yesterday) weeking and taking stock of the vege-patch. Here's the run-down:

Nearly everything in with the rhubarb was smothered by the rhubarb. The exceptions being the artichokes which are quite some way from the rhubarb.

We ate the red turnips before going and planted new ones which have germinated.

Carrots are growing slowly.

The strawberry spinach has grown to about the size of a fingernail.

The parsley did nothing and hasn't even germinated.

Finally, planted cauliflower in seed trays before leaving and planted 17 green cauli and 15 snowball cauli into the patch yesterday.

Three of four zucchini germinated and were planted out today.

The black raddish didn't germinate, the othes went to seed, but are good none the less.

Harvested a lettuce today - tates good.

The Story of the One-Pound Turnip

When we left for holiday three weeks ago this turnip wasn't visible above the surface of the soil. On return it has grown to a whapping one pound. There's another in ground about the same size and also ready for eating. The one in the photo is on the oven for tonight's dinner.