New brocks

A new set of broccoli seeds into a tray for winter. Premium green F1.

Also transplanted zucchini and pumpkin into the patch alongside onions and leeks. It may be too late for the alums... but worth a crack anyway.

Patching the Christmas dinner

Veggies in today's dinner were brought to you be the letter v (for vege-patch). Photos below. The potatooze were apparently very good, but not all of us eat them. The carrots, turnips and broccoli (not shown) were excellent with the Havoc ham.

Radish Christmas

Planted two half rows of radish by the peas. One row of German Giant, the other of French Breakfast. Between the half rows in went tow very short rows of the French Breakfast.

They should all be ready by Christmas.

Seeding is believing

Time to get some more seeds in since the weather is so bad today:

4 pottles with:
Zucchini - ambasador f1

3 pottles with:
Pumpkin - spooki

A tray of:
Leek - winter giant

6 each of:
Cabbage - Copenhagen market
Spinach - winter giant
Kohlrabi -early purple Vienna

Pics

Potatoes in the patch.


Brassica (broccoli and cauliflower) in the patch.


A small clump of garlic in the patch.

More Lettuces

One of the lettuces in the patch died. The others are doing well. The Paris White Cos that had been growing in pots was transplanted into the patch. With some luck and good weather there'll be a supply of lettuce leaves soon.

Note the 3 rows of lettuces in the back and 2 rows of cos at the front (and looking rather sad). Behind the lettuces are leeks.

Weedy Carrots

Gardening time has been spent removing every last weed from the carrot beds. In the gaps in the rows were planted more seeds of the appropriate kinds.

The rows now look like professional ones. All straight with good spaces between most carrots. The clumps and bare patches were probably due to the cats - who spent the evening watching the weeding!


Carrot beds after weeding but before reseeding.

Squashed Butternut

From the green room to the garden... Done!

Blasted snow

The cold blast and snow have confused the onions. Several started to flower. A. Ee tray of Italian long keeper has been down in an effort to recover the season.

BeetIt

In went the sugarbeet along with white turnips. While I was at it also transplanted the green mignette lettuces of which 6 had survived. None of the cos germinated!

The butternut squash are lifting their heads. The tomato in the big pots still live but one cucumber of four has died.

Tomatumber

Planted Roma tomatoes into their final resting place and while I was at it I also did the same with cucumbers. In total 4 of each.

Potatopside

The red potatoes are sticking through in several places. Presumably the white ones will soon too.

22 Cauliflower

There in the soil, down below, by the broccoli

See-you-cumber

Cucumbers are showing signs of breaking out too.

Germinatomatoes

Tomatoes have germinated. These are the Roma tomatoes.

Broccoli for Moc-or-me

Planted out 4 rows of the broccoli green f1. Since it's now dark I'm not sure how many plants in total, but about 30. They are in the del, close to the hedge in the now extended patch down there.

Carrots are the new carrots

Planted 2 rows each of, and in order of right to left with your back to the house, Paris Market, Purple Dragon, Lubyana, and Solar Yellow.

That is, one iteration in a long row then another iteration in short rows. The remainder of the short row is therm up with peas.

Sage advice

The sage had started to germinate with one or two just showing their heads at the surface.

Let us germinate

Turned and hosed down the compost heap. Watered the broccoli, and noticed that the lettuces had raised their heads - some of the minunrttes but none of the cos.

When wet outside plant inside

Planted 24 tomato seeds. 6 each of Roma (Yates, from Nichols), Tommy Toe, Beefsteak Select, and 6 seeds given to me by another member of the Dunedin Vegetable Growers Club. These are apparently some form of Russian tomato. For convenience I'll call these David's Russian Tomato.

Also in went 6 Lemon Cucumber, and 6 capsicum from a mixed variety called Colour Salad Selection from Yates.

Oh, and the lettuce has started to sprout.

Digging day

Dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig.

Oh, and then dig some more.

Who ever it was that put a two inch layer of clay on top of the topsoil at the bottom of the del has a lot to answer for. Separating clay from soil us hard on the hands. Hopefully the remaining soil will highly fertile due to nutrient leaching out of the clay.

Let-2-se

Just put some lettuce sees into a tray to germinate. 20 cos from Yates which apparently expired in August 2009. And 20 green mignonette from Mr. Fothergill's which also expired in August 2009. It seems unlikely that either won't germinate but if not then it'll be time to nip down to Taste Nature or Nichols for some new lettuce seed.

Near 100% germination

Germination is complete. They new need time to grow. Shown here is the cauliflower, broccoli is similar.

No sign of anything happening with the sage.

Brassicade

Into seed trays went orange cauliflower and green broccoli. The trays then went into the green room. Should only be a few days before they germinate.

Also put some sage into pots in the green room. They need to grow good and strong before going into the garden.

The Potato Underground

Put the potato idea to bed. That is, into a bed. Both types The purple potatoes downhill from the white ones. Now the waiting starts.

Spudnic

Absolutely no evidence that the seed potatoes have some anything other than get a week older! Perhaps the weather needs to turn good first!

Spudz

Trying a new crop this year, potatos! Got a bag of Jersey Benes and a bag of Purple Heart from CRT. $10 a bag.

Currently have them layer out on the table in the green room to sprout stems. Then they go into throw garden - hopefully once the bad weather is over.

The manufacturer was Morton Smith-Dave.

A King's Ransom

This year's order with King's Seeds is:

Cucumber, Lemon
Radish, French Breakfast
Sage, Common
Cress, Moss Curled
Sugar Beet
Carrot, Solar Yellow
Cauliflower, Giant of Naples
Cauliflower, Orange Bouquet F1
Squash, Butternut Chieftain
Onion, Red Amposta
Pumpkin, Spookie
Tomato, Tommy Toe
Tomato, Beefsteak Select
Zucchini, Ambassador F1

To the grand total of $47.00 including postage.

Plant on the Shortest Day

A few weeks ago a new (sadly south facing)bed was dug. It was relatively easy to rip it the grass which came up as a large mat. The area was then dug over and left. The compost heap was sieved last week and the compost piled on the new bed ready to be dug in. Today it was dug in and two whole garlic bulbs were planted into it.

Garlic should be planted on the shortest day and harvested on the longest. A bit late on the shortest day, but only by a week or so.

Yes Peas

There was a large section of the vege patch stripped empty because the last of the turnips came out. At the back of that section are some cabbages. Now what... what to plant over winter in the hope of anything, and it cannot be brassica?

Well, in went some peas. Soaked overnight and then planted out about 24 hours later.

The last loads of brassica were left in the green room too long and dried out. They'll make their way to the compost heap.

Germination and Onions

The onions have germinated. The germination rate of the cabbage and cauliflower is very bad - perhaps they got too wet?

Germination and Onions

The Copenhagen Market cabbage and All The Year Round cauliflower have started to germinate. The germination rates are low, the cauliflower rate is so low that the seeds are essentially non viable.

Also planted some Red Wing F1 and Italian Longkeeper onions in trays. According to the Tui NZ Vegetable Garden, you can plant onion seeds February - July.

And the Winner is... Vege Patch

The Otago-Taieri A&P Society Show was today. Last week I phoned up and placed an entry in the "Any other Vegetable not Specified" category. Yesterday I went into the vege patch and chose the best 2 turnips, cleaned them up and took them to the showgrounds. Today I returned to discover a red ticket - first place! Vege Patch turnips are the best turnips on the region! For a whole year I can make the claim that I (officially) grow the best turnips around!

Germination

The Kohlrabi have germinated (4 days) and the beetroot in the tunnel appear to be germinating (9 days).

Cauliflower Ears

I've (nearly) got cauliflowers comeing out of my ears. All the Cheddar Cauliflower (except 1) have already been turned into dinners, one of the white cauli was eaten over the last two days and now this one and 4 more like it coming over the next few days.

It also looks as though the carrots under the poly-tunnel are beginning to poke through the surface - or it might just be weeds. Its hard to tell because carrot shoots look like grass shoots!

Leeks

The leeks have started to germinate. Over the weekend I put the asparagus to bed outside in the vege patch. Left it too late, but now its done.

Brassica Fantatisica

Spend the evening planting cauliflower (all the year round), cabbage (copenhagen market), and Kohlrabi (purple and green), into seed trays. In total 20 of each being 2 seed trays.

Unexpected Ginger

Just when I was about to give up on the ginger... here it is. This is a day (or two) growth, its about an inch above the surface. Fresh ginger here we come!

Capsicum

Capsicum are supposed to flower when they have 7-13 leaves (which these do). Apparently the first flower will fail (the bud's a dud) and the fruit will produce on subsequent flowers.

Fast Growing Sprouts

Its just amazing how quickly brussel sprouts grow. One seed was planted per section, all of them germinated and they have grown to this size in just 6 days.

Plant in summer for harvest in winter

Its time to start worrying about planting for winter. Apparently the best things to plant now are brassica and beet. So in went some.

In an effort to keep the cats off of the seedlings up went the polytunnel. Its only a small one but it now protects beet and carrot seeds. With some luck the added heat will also help germination and growth.

Yesterday in went some brussel sprout seeds into seed trays and into the green room. Also in went some winter leeks. Then there's the strawberry experiment with the tiny red strawberry seeds from my parent's place.

strawberries

Mashed, Seived, Dried, Planted some strawberries from my father's garden.