Bags of Potatoes

I'm attempting to plant potatoes in bags this year.
In a hope to simplify the harvest.

Small Bags of Potatoes:

1st Oct 2017

One month after, 4th Nov 2017

One big bag of potatoes:

1st Oct 2017

4th Nov 2017

Newly planted bags of potatoes, just a few weeks ago:

4th Nov 2017

They grow really fast, and I'm hoping for a really good harvest this year.

The new bunch, the berries.

I found new occupants for my spare pots. I placed them in the sunny spot of the back garden.
Can't wait until the berries come up.

Thornless Blackberry

Boysenberry:

 Raspberry:

And, Red Currant:

All photos taken on 1st Oct 2017.

The Start of Spring 2017 Planting in September (Late Post)

Good Day Everyone!!

This is a late post from September, when the weather should have started warming up here in Melbourne. The seedlings that I started indoor had flourished well, and I have started planting them out.
I think I may have been too keen, and should have probably waited a few more weeks before doing so. We had a few cold days, and I'm not sure if the seedlings will make it or not.
But, things are really warming up, according to the temperature stats and forecast, so, I'm hoping I haven't done too much damage to the seedlings.

Garden Bed 1 - Green Leafy Veggies

Lots of seedlings here, I planted Choisan, Pakchoi, Spinach, Cos Lettuce, annual herbs that I don't use for companion planting, such as Dill, Coriander and Lemon Basil.

There's going to be more seedlings gradually being planted on this space. I'm hoping I can do succession planting, to get continuous supply of green veggies.

Garden Bed 2 - Fruiting Vegetables

I put together a makeshift trellis using strong garden string, hoping to grow the Zucchini, Butternut Pumpkin, Rockmelon, Honeydew. There are chilies and capsicum seedlings already planted. There are 4 types of tomatoes (on the 4 trellises), from left to right: Roma San Marzano, Black Russian, Cherry Tomato Tommy Toes, and Tomato Magic Mix. In the inside circle of the tomatoes, I planted Italian and Curly Parsley and Sweet Basil. And, in between the tomatoes, I planted rows of Borage, for companion planting.

Borage - Companion Planting of Tomatoes

This year, I'm attempting to plant corn. When I bought seeds last year, I got free corn seeds, so I thought I give it a go this year.

Garden Bed 3 - The Root Vegetables

In this space, I planted Kipfler Potatoes. There are other potatoes planted in bags, I found them easier to harvest when planted in bags.
Since the last few weeks, I've started planting Radish Champion and Carrot Paris Market seedlings.
These two are new types of plants that I'm trialling this year. Hopefully they will give me a good harvest. Again, succession planting to get ongoing supply of fresh radishes and carrots from our own backyard.

Kipfler Potatoes

Radish

Garden Bed 4 - The Beans!!

Beans trellises were installed and the seeds were planted. There are 5 trellises this year, from left to right: Broad Beans (climbing) and Bush Bean Royal Burgundy at the bottom; Snow Peas Mammoth Melting (climbing) and Bush Pea Greenfest at the bottom; Blue Lake Beans (climbing) and Dwarf Bush Beans at the bottom; Adzuki Beans; and last trellis, Snake Beans.
So far, the seeds on the second trellis had emerged, the snow peas and the bush pea. The broad beans had started to emerged as well.

Broad Beans and Snow Peas

Can't wait until they grow bigger. The dream for this year is to have lush green vegetable garden and be self sufficient enough for our daily consumption.

Come on weather, get warmer already!!

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.

Melbourne City Rooftop Honey

This week, my Rooftop Honey finally arrived, super happy!!

A few months ago I was researching about keeping bees and I came across this website, Melbourne City Rooftop Honey. I'm still a bit reluctant to keep bees myself, so this initiative is just perfect for me.
This concept is based on sponsorship for people who don't want to keep bees themselves. The bees are looked after on your behalf and you get rewarded with the honey at the end of honey collecting season. It works brilliantly if you're into local produce (and you love bees 😊).

I'm loving this city more and more each day.

Rooftop Honey, 3kg. And freebies of Sunflower and Daisy seeds.

My treasured honey :)

LittleMsGreenies Hair Donation 2017

Finally, D-day had come. After a long 3 years of growing my hair, it's time to "harvest" it.
This time it goes to Variety Children's Charity for wig, for cancer patients or any other illnesses that caused hair loss.

So obviously since our move to Melbourne, I haven't gone to a hairdresser yet. Luckily, there is a hairdresser in Camberwell, close to where I work, that looks really promising. Heading Out hairdresser, winner of AHFA Hairdresser of the Year 2016. I decided to go ahead and book an appointment with them. They did an awesome job and very accomodating to my request for the hair donation.

The new hair do feels very light and super easy maintenance too.

The new Short Bob cut with a bit of layer.

The hair, before posted to Variety.