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.

Autumn Apple Picking - Paynes Orchard Bacchus Marsh

We were back at Paynes Orchard at Bacchus Marsh this morning, for our fortnightly supply of apples.

Just half an hour from our place, very convenient and easy trip, and lots of fun for kids (and grown ups).

Amazing fresh apples with lots of variety.

First Stop, the Pink Lady Apples.

Fun kids activities for the action packed.

Second Stop, the Granny Smith Apples. These are exceptionally large and (surprisingly) sweet apples.

Not usually our favourite, but we picked a few anyway, because they're yummy.

Last Stop, the Fuji Apples. The large apples were already picked, these ones were small but flavour packed. We picked lots of these.

Our supply for the next 2 weeks!!

They are nearing the end of the picking season now, I asked before we left.

The picking season will start again in Nov this year, with stone fruits, followed by cherries.

And then apple season will start again, until May.

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.

The plants interstate move Part 2 – The Trees

I’ve been growing a few trees on my apartment balcony in the last 3-4 years and I brought them along with me interstate.

The Curry Tree was struggling really badly, to the point that all its leaves dropped.

To my delight, they grew new branches and new leaves within a few weeks.

It had even flowered.

First photo - the struggling Curry Tree, leaves drooping and eventually dropped; Second photo - newly emerged leaves; Third photo - Fresh new leaves, finally growing, and even flowering; I can’t wait for this to grow bigger so I can start using the leaves again.

The Dragonfruit Tree was fine, it’s like nothing happened to it. I just put them on the ground, and new stems are growing out of them.

  

First photo - Right after transplanting; Second photo - Taken a few weeks after transplant, new branches appeared. They’re a bit of a slow grower, don’t they?

The Bay Tree is I think still adjusting, as how the Curry Tree was, the Bay Tree dropped all of its leaves at one stage, but, look now, they’re doing great.

First Photo - Right after transplant, it dropped all its leaves after that; Second photo - Taken 4 months after, in Feb 2017, recovered, after quite a long period.

Just recently, in April, they actually have more leaves than when they were on the balcony.

I still have a lot of store bought dried bay leaves that I haven’t used up. So, I’ll let this grow a bit more before I start picking fresh bay leaves.

The new kids on the block

We bought new fruit trees to be planted on these 3 half wine barrels.

There are Mandarin, Pomegranate, and Lemon Lime Trees from the Citrus Men.

They have been growing quite nicely in the last few months.

Mandarin Pipsqueak

Angel Red Pomegranate

Citrus Splitzer, Lemon and Lime Grafted

This will be our first time owning citrus trees, so we will have to research and learn how to maintain them.

We also managed to source from Green Harvest, Tamarind, Betel, Pandan, and Sambung Nyawa (Life Extender) Trees/Bushes.

All have been growing at a healthy rate.

 

First Photo - Young Tamarind; Second Photo - Betel

First Photo - Pandan; Second Photo - Sambung Nyawa (Life Extender)

The Tamarind is still in a pot, as I think they’re going to be quite a large tree when planted on the ground, so I still am not sure what the plan is in the future.

And we’ve been shopping at Daleys Nursery for more exotic plants. We got Mango, Chinese Keys and Javanese Ginger.

 Mango Tree, and I planted a few Takinogawa Burdock seeds around the Mango (from The Seed Collection)

Mix of Chinese Keys (Temu Kunci) and Javanese Ginger