Garden Update - Mid Summer, 11th January 2018

Happy New Year 2018 everyone :) Wow, how time flies...

This is the first garden snapshot of 2018. It's a full blown summer now here in Melbourne, we had a 41 degrees Celcius day last week, the plants survived.

The most exciting news for this post is the Pomegranate tree. After a long wait, finally, we have fruits!! Five fruits to be exact, I have my fingers and toes crossed as they are still growing. Arrgh, I don't want them to drop!!

The other trees are growing well, but no fruit in sight for the mandarin, lemon and lime.

I planted extra pumpkin seeds a few months ago and have no spot for them, so I transplanted them on the ground behind the gate. Since the temperature had gone up, they seem to grow larger. Maybe we will have pumpkin harvest this year, who knows..

A bunch of new additions to the family, 2 Amla trees (Indian Gooseberry), I'm hoping I can get the berries for consumption and also for my homemade shampoo infusion, 1 Katuk or Sweetleaf plant, Indonesian vegetable that I was looking for ages ago to help increasing breast milk production, and finally, another Indonesian plant, Blimbi, or Belimbing Wuluh, a bit like the starfruit fruit, but the vegetable type, for cooking savoury dishes.

They arrived today from Daley's and currently resting under the shade. It's quite a hot day today.

Another major milestone for this post that we're super excited is the tomato plants.

Unexpectedly, the first one that flowered and produced fruits was the one that grew from compost, next to the mango tree.

The other tomato plants are growing well too, and there are lots of fruits started to form.

These are the ones that I started as seedlings indoor during the late winter.

This is another tomato plant that beats the odd, growing from compost.

I almost pulled this one out, lucky thing I spotted the fruits that had started growing.

This would be the yellow pear cherry tomatoes.

We have had a few harvest of the beans in the last few weeks, they have started to produce after the temperature raised up.

It looks like the harvest is still going on.

Chili plants that I planted at the west side of the garden seemed to love the heat. 

Lots of flowers and there are a few chilies that had already formed.

They occupied this spot with the family of mints.

Last, but not least, out of hundreds of chamomile seeds that I planted, one survived.

And it's been producing lots of flowers, which I have been collecting to make my own chamomile tea.

LittleMsGreenies Garden Update 16th December 2017

Late post from last month, the week before Christmas.

The hot weather arrived rather late this year in Melbourne. By mid December, finally things started to pick up and the plants are finally growing taller.

The tomato plants have finally gained some height and started flowering. Lots of bees and butterflies flying around them, probably because of the blue borage flower in between the rows of tomato plants.

The corn plants have also grown taller in the last few weeks, looks like the heat is helping them a lot.

The nasturtiums haven't stopped flowering. We've been adding their leaves and flowers in our salad. 

And of course, the salad leafy vegetable is also harvested from the garden. The spinach, lettuce, mint and herbs have been providing constant supply. Probably thanks to the succession planting and periodic harvesting.

Lots of different varieties of mint, Spearmint, Basil Mint, Chocolate Mint, Peppermint, and Common Mint.

Garden Update from 22nd Nov

What a difference 2.5 weeks make to a garden in spring.
After a mild struggle to get the seedlings going, because of the colder start in Spring, the plants have finally grown significantly.

By the 22nd Nov, we've got a few good harvest of snow peas.
The Mammoth Melting snow peas is easy to grow and by the looks of it, it's going to keep climbing.

Left photo: 4th November 2017; Right photo: 22nd November 2017

Snowpeas

The leafy vegetables on Garden Bed 1 have grown a lot as well.

 

On 4th November 2017

 

On 22nd November 2017, from left to right: Cauliflower, Spinach, Red Cabbage, Cos Lettuce, Herbs (Parsley, Coriander, and Dill), and succession planting of the same vegetables.

Some of the radishes were ready to harvest.

So, I have a real garden salad for lunch on that day, literally everything from the garden, except the dressing.

The only thing missing is the tomato, which are still growing.
They have grown taller significantly, and so does the borage.

On 4th November 2017

On 22nd November 2017, from left to right: Nasturtium, some rouge Chives from last year, Chili, lots of Tomatoes and Borage, Capsicum and Corn.

The Borage plant is a success, lots of flowers, lots of bees buzzing around them.

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

14th Oct Red Cabbage Harvest

We've been waiting for months to harvest this red cabbage.
And, finally it's ready...

And, we found an unexpected seedlings growing under the pomegranate tree.

I seemed to have deposited cuttings of tomatoes under the pomegranate tree, to compost, and now they have germinated:

We also have an abundance of coriander and parsley growing on the herb basket:

Left photo is 1st Oct, Right photo is 14th Oct.

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!!