Thursday 10 August 2017

Spring 2017 - Companion Planting

I'm trialling the idea of companion planting this year in my garden.
It sounds like a fun thing to do, and I can imagine how pretty the vegetable garden will look like with a combination of greens and flowers and also the herbs smell.

The plan for this year is to have rows of Marigold flowers as garden beds separator. And also to plant the Marigold on the border of the Roses plants at the front garden.

The Marigold seedlings.

At each corner of the garden beds, there will be Nasturtium plants that are going to be trained to grow vertically along the fence.
The Nasturtium seedlings - they are planted a few days ago.

At the bottom of the tomatoes plants, there will be basil and parsley planted. Also, there will be Borage planted near the tomato plants.

Parsley and Basil Seedlings - And I'll be starting more of these in baskets.

The Borage seedlings had just emerged, they were planted a few days ago.



2017 Planting - Starting Seedlings Indoor

This spring is going to be my second attempt of Four Beds Crop Rotation. The last year attempt was below my original expectation. There was a significant crop of zucchini, not so much of the tomatoes and beans. However, we got a good result from the 2 lemongrass stalks that I planted on the ground. There are about 10-15 lemongrass stalk stored in the fridge.

In preparation for this year's planting, that is going to start in September, I started a lot of seedlings indoor, since the 1st July.
The initial placement of the seedling tray was not ideal. The seedlings became really leggy because of lack of light.
After that batch became unsuccessful, I immediately moved them to a warmer site next to a really bright window sill. They began improving immediately.

The allocation of garden beds will be shifted this year, with:
- Garden Bed 1, previously occupied by Beans, this year will be occupied by Leafy Vegetables.
- Garden Bed 2, previously occupied by Leafy Vegetables, this year will be occupied by Fruiting Vegetables.
- Garden Bed 3, previously occupied by Fruiting Vegetables, this year will be occupied by Root Vegetables.
- And lastly, Garden Bed 4, previously occupied by the Root Vegetables, this year will be occupied by the Beans.

The plan for this year is to ensure a continuous supply of green vegetables, carrots, and radishes.
That's why I have multiple batches of seedlings started in 1-2 weeks gap.

These 2 trays are the first batch that I planted. There are the green vegetables, such as spinach, pakchoi, choisan; The carrots and radishes; There are the one of plants, for the tomatoes, chilies, capsicum, corn, cucumber, honeydew, pumpkin, and zucchinis.


The zucchinis had to be moved out, because they became too big and covering the other plants.

Corn Seedlings. The plan is to have 16 corn plants growing on Garden Bed 2, where the fruiting vegetables are. I'm starting them 4 at a time every 2 weeks, so we get continuous supply. I'm hoping that will work out.

Choisan, Pakchoi, Spinach, Cauliflower, and Cabbage Seedlings - The frequency of starting the seedlings for the Choisan, Pakchoi, and Spinach are 3-6 seedlings weekly. The Cauliflower and Cabbage seedlings are started 1 seed per 2 weeks.

 Radish Seedlings - The frequency of starting the seedlings are 12 weekly. The photo on the right hand side is the seedlings with true leaves growing.

These are the tomatoes. There are 4 types of tomatoes this year: Black Russian, San Marzano, Tommy Toe, and Magic Mix. All of these were leftover seeds from at least 2 years ago. So, I'm not sure how the crop is going to turn out. Fingers crossed it will be a good result this year.

These are the Butternut Pumpkins, Cucumber, and Honeydew Seedlings. I only planted 4 for each of them, 2 for backup purpose.


These are the Bell Chilies, Jalapeno Chilies, and Serrano Chilies Seedlings. Another Chili type, the Sichuan Chilies, have not germinated yet so far. So, I may start another batch this week.

These are the capsicum seedlings, so far I have Orange and Purple Capsicum seedlings growing.
The Red Capsicum seeds have not germinated yet. Again, I'm going to start another batch this week.



Nature Flower Arrangement - Flowering Nasturtium Trellis Border

The Nasturtium trellis is flowering. They look so pretty. This is what I see when I look out the window to my backyard. I can't believe ...