A quick whip around the patch.

I haven’t done a post for a while on what’s happening in the veggie patch/garden. This is most likely because I haven’t really been doing much out there. With us now being into the third season of establishing the garden, we are finding that it is much more about maintenance rather than building new areas. We are still working on developing paths, contemplation spots and have yet to start tackling the front yard so it won’t be all sit back and relax for a while yet.

Peeking into the greenhouse.

I have a couple of sugar baby watermelon seedlings that appear to be happy and growing well. These may just take over the entire greenhouse!

Sugar baby watermelon

One of last years capsicum has over-wintered well and is throwing flowers with some baby caps appearing, this is much earlier than usual.

Capsicum flowering

I have taken some cuttings from the perennial Rocoto chilli and these seem to be quite successful. I’ve used the method similar to planting laterals that are removed from tomatoes that grow so well.

Rocoto cutting

There is a flower on the mature Rocoto Chilli. It was very rude and wouldn’t look at the camera!

Rocoto flower

Out in the Patch

The flowers on my Souvenir de la malmaison rose have suffered badly from the excessive amounts of rain we have experienced but it is growing nicely.

Souvenir de la malmaison Rose

I have however, had some good results from the roses in the laneway but I didn’t get a good photo. The lilac is magnificent! First time flowering this year and I am in love.

Lilac

This years garlic crop is looking terrific.

Garlic 2016

The shiitake mushrooms are giving the best yield in quite a few years. I think the high rain and humidity is just what they demand.

Shiitake

I have some baby figs, YAY!

and some baby apples.

Apple babies

This button lettuce is proving to be a lovely variety. It is working well as a ‘pick as you need’ lettuce and bounces back quickly. The silver beet and kale behind it is all that remains from the last planting. I need space for tomatoes!

In the berry house, the raspberries, loganberries and thornless blackberries are all flowering profusely.

Berry house

and the grapevine is starting to cover the climbing frame on the roof well with lots of grape clusters evident.

Grape vine

I have some pretty little daisies that bees and hoverflies just love and it is making me smile every time I see it.

Happy daisies

All in all, it’s looking pretty good.

I trimmed a lot of the parsley stalks that were threatening to seed, picked some lemons from our new tree, found some beetroot I didn’t know about (too woody for roasting but I think it will be ok as a dip), some new potatoes, some self sown garlic, mint and herbs and we had enough to throw into a salsa verde for tea.

Harvest pickings

A  peek in the new bedroom.

I have decided that I will now continue working in one room at a time and it will be completely finished before I move onto the next (please remind me of my pledge when I stray). We always seem to fall into the trap of saying “we will get back to that” and it takes a very long time to get back, but no more. I am absolutely going to follow through on this! This is the new spare (guest) bedroom that was part of the exteno. Painting is almost finished, carpet is booked for laying,

We have rehung the old kitchen door on this room and that needs to be repaired and painted. Mr ATMT did the skirting in the robe space this afternoon so that now needs painting. I absolutely love this colour. The walls are Taubman’s Raincloud and the ceiling and trim is Dulux Classic White.  I have almost finished painting the window and it is looking great. The radiator that was in the old room before demolition has been cleaned and polished. This was pain, one of those jobs where you use a knitting needle with a cloth over the end to get into all the little nooks and crannies but worth it.I am already becoming aware while I write, that there will be one unfinished part of this room and that is internal fit out of the wardrobe. We will use a set of the shelving units we had in the temporary kitchen  I think. They are really good and will leave some options for the final design.

What jobs do you leave until you put the house on the market?

I proclaim today a P.I.P day!

I’ve decided I’m going to create something called a P.I.P day. That is my acronym for a ‘pig in poop’ day. I have had the best weekend doing exactly what I love doing and that is playing around in the garden and in my greenhouse. So many jobs to do, quite a few ticked off the list too.

Working through the list involved planting all the pot plants, rhizomes, canes, and bulbs that I had purchased over the past few weeks. The cage for the  raspberries is now finished, so in went the last of those. I will add some shelving at the rear of the cage for the strawberries to go on now that it is getting warm enough to take them from the greenhouse.

Planted 2 standard roses either side of the entrance path out the front. This is they first thing we have planted in the front yard since we bought the house. Still not sure if Blue River rose is the right choice, flowering time will tell!

First Compost.

The first batch of finished compost is ready to use, so it went into a new bed made from an old bathtub in the greenhouse. Haven’t quite planned what to plant in it yet, might try some early beans, snow peas and cucumbers.

My stocking up of seedlings to sell at the local massive garage sale day in October is progressing well. Today I potted up (using my great home made potting mix) approx 250 tomato seedlings. Varieties I have planted are San Marzano, Roma, Black Krim, Black Cherry, Grosse lisse, and Yellow mini pear. I stick to common ones for selling but I will try a few different ones for myself. Ran out of the coffee cups and milk cartons I’ve had everyone save for me so I’ll have to put out another wanted call. I also planted out lots of poppy seedlings, some assorted flowers (variety unknown) which I had saved seed from and hadn’t labelled and some lettuces.

We were pleasantly surprised that after the vile, wet week we’ve had that we could get outside to work. GMH started extending the path following the line it will take through the vegie patch. All of this concrete is what has been uncovered on site. With some filling between the slabs I think it will be great! Maybe a water feature in the circular section, yet to be decided.

Harvests this week have been:

Asparagus, broccoli, asian greens, coriander, silver beet and eggs.

Starting to come in thick and fast now!

Edible plantings this week have been:

Raspberries, artichoke, beetroot, strawberries, red currant, blackcurrant, elderflower  and lettuce.

Did pick the first bunch of beautiful cheery flowers too.

Inside action.

We have the plasterers in at the moment, fitting out the master bedroom and re-lining plaster to ceiling in passageway. This is very exciting and means we are one step closer to a job being completed. I dare not list all the other jobs that need attending to as well!

Yep, playing in the garden and in my greenhouse leads me to proclaim it was definitely a P.I.P. day for me. What makes your P.I.P. days?

Weekend wrap

We have done a huge amount of work out in the back yard this weekend but somehow I am left feeling like we have created more mess than beautification! A couple of major tasks to get the final layout in place were necessary, these have been, getting water points in place for the productive garden and chooks and making sure the storm water run off from the new garage was in place. Setting up the raspberry beds with a protective cage  surrounding them to eliminate those pesky birds nicking all the fruit and to install a small garden shed for storing all the ‘stuff’ necessary when working outside that has up until now been in the old greenhouse. Now these jobs have been done we can get into the serious business of bed layout and fencing the area. Now that’s exciting!

Storm water pipe in place to carry water from garage and old stables into drain. Slab for small garden shed in place.

Making a start on permanent berry patch.

The old greenhouse that I bought from my sister years ago which has been used as a temporary shed since we moved into ‘the new old house’  is being re-invented as a protective cage over the raspberry beds. It will be covered in heavy-duty bird net, cable tied to frame and hopefully will do the trick of keeping out the birdies. I am also considering using this space for my shiitake mushroom production but haven’t quite worked out how to integrate that yet. They will be staying in the old hip bath for a while yet!

New garden shed in place. Never mind the fact the slab is a bit too small, nothing that can’t be adjusted! This area will be fairly hidden from view when the grand design is done so plain gal will do just fine.

Canes in the bucket are those I retrieved from existing site, ones on left are newbies.

I retrieved as many canes I could from what I planted last season but they haven’t had a very great start so I also supplemented the planting with some new ones I bought from a local grower. Hopefully we will have enough to ooh and ahh over once they settle in and begin to thrive.

What’s growing out there?

Very happy to announce that the issues I had been having with powdery mildew on the strawberries in the greenhouse seems to have been resolved. I treated the plants with a garlic spray and have been leaving a window open in the greenhouse to ensure good ventilation is achieved. Looking just about ready to eat!

Broccoli ready to start harvesting,

Coriander I planted from a hydroponic pot purchased at a supermarket is doing well and we’ve harvested it for a few feeds in a couple of weeks.

Signs of spring!

This ancient purple magnolia is forming flower heads.

Oooh, now this is exciting! Couple of asparagus starting to shoot.

and the potatoes are all shooting and getting bigger every day.

Harvesting the rewards.

This weekend I have picked silver beet, coriander, lemon-grass, assorted asian greens, broccoli and mint, all of which were used in a lovely chicken stir fry for dinner.

Yep, worth it all! Very nice indeed. What’s growing at your place?