Spring Seedlings 2020 - Finally time to plant them out in the garden.

Last weekend was the last cold snap in Melbourne, so it was finally time to plant these tiny seedlings in the garden. The weather is warm and gentle enough for the seedlings to survive. And they are so eager to be outdoor, the zucchini and pumpkin seedlings are tall and robust.

Red Russian Kale:

Cimmaron Lettuce:

Cos Lettuce:

Perpetual Spinach:

Beefsteak Tomatoes and Black Beauty Eggplant:

Herbs, parsley, coriander, sage, basil, rosemary and oregano:

Kent Pumpkin and Lebanese Cucumber:

Zucchini and Butternut Pumpkin:

Seedlings Prep for Spring 2020

I finally completed the second and last batch of seedlings prep. This pregnancy surely is different from my previous one. I seem to get tired more easily this time around so I had to stop halfway the seedlings prep a few weeks ago. But, everything's finally done now!! Now I just have to give them lots of TLC. 

These are the seedlings from a few weeks ago, they have sprouted and some have shown true leaves.

Cos Lettuce:

Perpetual Spinach:

Cimmaron Lettuce:

Russian Kale:

Kent Pumpkin and Cucumber:

Zucchini:

The day time weather is warming up slightly in Melbourne. Especially near this large window sill. It's a perfect spot for seedlings.

Mid Winter Leafy Green Vegetables Harvest

We are absolutely loving the various leafy vegetables in our garden. It's mid winter now in Melbourne and they keep giving us nutritious supply for our meal.

I am so happy with the amount of Cos Lettuce plants that I planted in the garden. I planted about a dozen or so all over the place and they provide continuous supply of the greens.

I also planted around 5-6 Russian Kale and Perpetual Spinach. Their leaves are getting bigger and we picked a few leaves regularly so the younger leaves have some space and sun exposure and they can grow bigger.

GentleSoulGnome July 2020 Garden Update

Our garden grew significantly over the last few months despite the lack of maintenance as I battled the all day pregnancy sickness and gardening aversion. I was so relieved when the pregnancy symptoms finally subsided and I can return to the garden. Since then I had managed to complete a few priority maintenance in smaller quantities and shorter time as tiredness seems to be the major hurdle at the moment.

My first priority was to clean up the weeds growing at the front garden because the Tulips and Daffodils had started to grow new shoots. I wanted to clear the area of weeds to give them lots of growing space and minimal nutrition competitor as possibly can. 

Asahi Tulips

Daffodils Tete-a-tete

The Cos Lettuces and Strawberries that I planted at the front garden seemed to thrive and we had since harvested a few of the lettuce leaves.

I have been waiting for the Broccoli seedpods to mature to collect their seeds, but they're taking so long. So I let them be for the time being and besides they are still sprouting, so we've been harvesting them as well. I left quite a few of the yellow flowers for the bees. They love them, I thought I share a little bit happiness with them.

As for the back garden, the Snow Peas and Shelling Peas had grew so tall and a few flowers had blossomed. So, we're hoping it won't be too much longer until we get some harvest.

The leafy vegetables are taking so long to grow from seedlings. Next year I will try continual planting as growing the plants from seedlings are too slow when the temperature dropped. Some of the Kale are looking promising though, I hope I can harvest some soon.

The root vegetables in the third garden bed seemed to be doing well as well. The White and Purple Garlic are looking good. I never successfully grew garlic before, so fingers crossed they will produce this time.

I also never managed to get a single harvest of radish and these ones are not looking promising either. The leaves are bright green and bushy, but I can't see any bulb growing underneath it.

We moved our Lemon tree from the half wine barrel to the ground a few months ago. They survive the move but only time will tell if they will produce better in the new spot. The new spot has more sun exposure which I hope will be more suitable for the tree.

Some more strawberries plants underneath the Lemon tree. They were also transplanted from half wine barrel and survived the move. Some of the plants are showing flowers, so hopefully we have lots more strawberries this year.

I absolutely love our Bay Tree. It obviously survived the big move from Sydney to Melbourne a couple years ago. The tree has reached new height and growing lots of new branches and good looking leaves.

Lastly, we planted 4 bags of potatoes in grow bags. We keep adding more soil as the plants shoot up. It's very exciting indeed, they seem to be growing taller and taller everyday.

Lettuce Harvest December 2019

I found a forgotten photo of one of my lettuce Harvest in December 2019.

We were happy with the harvest. It was probably the biggest lettuce head we had harvested so far.

I planted this particular batch in the raised garden bed, sharing space with the dragonfruit tree and a bunch of sunflower plants.

Spring 2019 Planting Stage 1

With the weather (finally) warming up in Melbourne, I decided to transplant some of the seedlings that look ready.

First are the pumpkins, the below photo was taken 1 week ago. They have grown more true leaves and the roots have grown very long.

They are now at the front garden where they should get ample sunlight during the day.

Second, the cabbages, cauliflower and lettuce seedlings have grown enough number of true leaves, so they were planted at the front garden as well this morning. Also on the photos are lettuce and spinach seedlings.

Photo from 1 week ago. Cabbages (back right), cauliflower (front right), broccoli (back left) and lettuce (front left)

Photo taken yesterday.

The cabbages and cauliflower were planted around the poppies bed where they will get lots of morning sun.

Some of the lettuce seedlings were planted at the front garden as well, since they were doing well on that section last year.

Third, lettuce, spinach and broccoli  seedlings were ready.

The big lettuces were from last winter and new seedlings planted in front of them.

Broccoli also occupy the same spot this spring as last time.

The remaining of lettuce and spinach seedlings were planted in garden bed 3 this year.

Lastly, the tomatoes that I planted in August 2019 were finally ready to meet the outdoor weather.

Garden bed 4 were cleared yesterday to make space for the tomatoes.

New occupants of garden bed 4, with some space left on the right hand side for cucumber, capsicum and beefsteak tomatoes.

All of the seedlings have been covered with with pea straw mulch since the photos were taken.

Garden bed 2 filled with broad beans, long beans, anak beans and all sorts of beans.

Photo taken 2 weeks ago.

Photo from this morning.

With new beans seedlings popping out.

Raspberry bush is back and growing new branches. There are a few flowers already showing and I hope there will be walls of raspberries soon.

Cranberries have grown it's leaves back.