Seedling Preparation for Spring 2019

As the weather warmed up in Melbourne, I started my batch of seedlings for the 4 beds crop rotation this spring. This year, I didn't prepare too many backup seedlings because I finally figured out the right time to start the seedlings and also to transplant them outside.

The usual suspects are tomatoes and pumpkins.

Tomatoes, seeds planted in the first week of Aug. Photo taken in the second week of September.

These 4 trays are pretty much the only seedlings I prepared this year. They are the vegetables and herbs that we regularly consume, such as pumpkin, capsicum, chili, lettuce, spinach, brocoli,  cabbage, cauliflower, parsley and basil. These were planted in the last week of August and photos were taken in the second week of September.

The pumpkin seeds are the usual early sprouters.

And the lettuce, brocolli, cabbage and cauliflower.

I really hope I will get cauliflower this year, I'm going to plant them at the front garden.

Spring Planting 2017 - November

It's now November, but we still have a few cold morning here in Melbourne.

Some of the seedlings didn't survive and I had to replant some seeds.

Fortunately most of the seedlings had thrived.

All photos taken on 4th November.

Garden Bed 1 - Leafy Vegetables

Succession planting from left to right.

Cauliflower, Choisan, Pakchoi , Lettuce, Herbs, Red Cabbage

Garden Bed 2 - Fruiting Vegetables

The capsicum and chilli seedlings didn't survive the cold September and I'm replanting the seeds indoor at the moment. Hopefully they will be ready in a few weeks time.

Tomatoes, Borage, Corn on the front row.

Zucchini, Pumpkin, Honeydew and Rockmelon at the back row they will be growing against the trellis.

Garden Bed 3 - Root Vegetables

Look how much the radishes and potatoes have grown:

From left to right: the lemongrass is greening up again, radishes in the middle, and Kipfler potatoes on the right.

Garden Bed 4 - Beans

From left to right: Broad beans, Snow Peas (the tallest), Climbing Beans, Snake Beans, Adzuki Beans

The first snow pea had emerged.

The Fruit Trees

Lemon and Lime Tree, with unexpected chilli or capsicum and apple seedlings from kitchen scrap compost.

Mandarin Pipsqueak and unexpected apple seedlings, from kitchen scrap compost.

Mango Alphonso and a few unexpected seedlings, tomatoes and apples, from kitchen scrap compost.

Pomegranate Tree

Rose and Chives Companion Planting

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!!

LittleMsGreenies First Four Beds Crop Rotation - Summer 2016

With the extra space at the back garden, I’ve decided to try out the Four Beds Crop Rotation and split up the areas into 5.

Garden Bed 0, as I call it, is dedicated for the permanently planted trees and bushes. It's not part of the crop rotation.

Photo from left to right: Betel, Bay Tree, Sambung Nyawa, Curry Tree.

Garden Beds 1 to 4 are going to be used for crop rotation and I picked the easiest rotation for a newbie, the plant type rotation. Unfortunately, I started planting a bit late in 2016. We moved in to the new place in early November, and I only started planting in mid November. The Melbourne weather at that time was still a bit cold, I heard the winter lasted a bit longer in 2016. I still had to wear my winter coat when working in the garden in the early morning.

So, here is my Summer 2016 4 Beds Crop Rotation.

Garden Bed 1 is for Beans, currently occupied by Dwarf Round Beans, Broad Beans, Snake Beans, Sweet Peas, and Snow Peas.

The first batch of the round beans was harvested a few weeks ago.

Since then I had tied up the vines to the wooden fence to support the plants.

It looks like they are growing better with support.

Garden Bed 2 is for Leaf Veggies and Herbs, currently occupied by lots of different herbs, Chinese vegetables, Cabbage and Broccoli.

 Seedlings Planting

Growing Plants: Spring Onion, Coriander, Bok Choy

We keep harvesting and planting seeds for this bed, I will need to figure out how to seed save to reduce cost of buying seeds.

They’re a lot of fun to grow.

Broccoli and Cabbage are supposed to be winter crops. I’ve been maintaining it and looking after the young plants, caterpillars are very attracted to these, I guess, they must be very yummy. I’ve been spraying them with a mixture of water, chilies, and garlic to get rid of the pests.

Garden Bed 3 is for Fruit Veggies, currently occupied by Tomatoes, Zucchinis, and Pumpkin. The Chili and Capsicum seeds that I planted had not been a success.

From left to right: rows of tomato plants, very small pumpkin seedlings, and giant zucchini plants.

The Tomatoes were a hit and miss, some grew really well, and we’ve got a good harvest.

But there are some that didn’t grow well.

My guess is probably because I was using old seeds that had been kept for too long.

The Pumpkin was planted from seeds and has been a slow grower, although a few weeks ago a few flowers seemed to emerge. So, I don’t know what is currently happening with it. I’ll have to keep an eye on it.

The Zucchini plants are great producers, I've already harvested 6-8 zucchinis in the last 3 months. 

Garden Bed 4 is for the Root Veggies, was occupied by potatoes. I had a few potatoes that had sprouted and I put them in this garden bed. They grew, flowered, and we have harvested them a few weeks ago. I think we should’ve waited a bit longer before harvesting. We could’ve had bigger potatoes.

This bed is currently occupied by lemongrass, ginger, galangal, Chinese Keys (Temu Kunci), garlic and mini round carrots.

So it began my first year journey in Crop Rotation.

The next rotation will happen in September this year, 2017.
I'm hoping by then, all plants will complete harvest with our last harvest being the garlic.