Various Harvest February 2018

We had variety of different harvest earlier this month, the most exciting harvest was the French Marigold seeds.

I planted lots of this little seeds earlier in spring, but didn't have too much success in germinating them. So, to my amazement, the little success had produced abundant of seeds, which I went ahead and planted all over the front garden bed.

It's very satisfying collecting these seeds, there are lots in each of the dead flower head.

There are lots of new seedlings of French Marigold. I'm hoping it will be a success this time. I'd like to make them into border of the front garden bed. The companion planting for my roses seems to work this year.

Also, from earlier of the month, the adzuki beans pods had started to grow and then dried up. I wasn't looking for these little treasure, so it was a pleasant surprise to see them. We've collected quite a few already and we can see new green pods started appearing. 

So, we're on the lookout for dried up pods.

The Spinach Perpetual Gator has been an amazing supply of greens for this home. This is probably the 4th or 5th harvest to this amount since December. I bought my seeds from The Seed Collection.

We'll be coming back for more next year.

And, lastly, the snake beans had finally arrived!! This is the first harvest that we had last week.

It's so exciting, as we can see lots of flowers and little snake beans everywhere. We're going to have abundant of this. Look at the size of it!

LittleMsGreenies Garden Update February 2018

Summer is well underway here in Melbourne, the weather is warm (sometimes even hot), with cool mornings and nights.
The fruits are finally starting to ripen up and harvest had even started already, especially the tomatoes. Lots of activities going on in my garden in the last few weeks. Lots of harvesting, tidying up, and replanting flower seeds.
It's definitely a nice feeling seeing the garden beds looking lush and green.
All photos were taken on 2nd and 5th February 2018.

On the Garden Bed 0, the bay tree keeps on growing new leaves, I'm confident that it had survived the winter. It looks like I will have a good supply of bay leaves as well in the coming months. Lots of herbs on this garden bed, we have tarragon, oregano (not visible on the photo), sage (not visible on the photo), and stevia. The dahlia is finally flowering, we've already seen light orange, purple and dark purple coloured flowers. I'm still waiting for the sign of seeds from these flowers. The random apple trees seedlings (from last winter's compost) still survive. I didn't have the heart to pull them out, so, you'll see lots of apple seedlings throughout the photos today.

On Garden Bed 1, things are well underway, the cabbage and brocolli are growing significantly and I'm checking every few days for signs of florets. We have had a good harvest of spinach, lettuce, and the herbs from this bed. Definitely excellent types of leafy vegetables that I will plant again next spring. The nasturtium plant is growing up steadily and it is an excellent companion planting as they attracted the caterpillar, so the other plants don't get attacked too much.

The look in Garden Bed 2 was not very pretty at the end of January. Melbourne's windy weather had proven challenging for the tomatoes to grow neatly on the allocated sticks. So, after a few hours of hard work, I managed to untangle the vines and run them properly up the sticks.

We have had ongoing harvest of tomatoes, left right and center.

Also on the Garden Bed 2, the corn and chilies are growing, I even saw capsicum flowers started to bloom this morning. It's going to be exciting time ahead.

The corn plants are showing the corn. It's my first time planting corn, so, I can't wait to see how this will turn out.

On Garden Bed 3, the radishes that I planted earlier had bolted. We collected the seeds and replanted them. It looks like they have started sprouting. I'm giving them another chance, not giving up on them yet. We shall see how this batch turns out. 

The carrots are slow growing on this bed for some reason, we haven't had any good harvest yet.

But, I planted some more seeds in there, hoping they will turn out successful.

The Kipfler potatoes were a good harvest, it was a bit challenging to dig them out without bruising them, but we tried to be as gentle as we can (as gentle as a 3 year old boy can be, that is).

Some of the smaller potatoes were planted back.

On Garden Bed 4, the beans are so glorious, indeed they enjoy the sun. They grow bushier when there was a hot day. 

We have had a few harvest of the green and purple beans. And now starting to see the snake beans and adzuki beans being ready for harvest.

The large photo on the top left corner is one of the many surprised tomato plants that grew in the garden. They grew from the tomato kitchen scrap that I planted as compost material around the garden last winter. Look at the size of it. Not bad for a freebie!

The pomegranate has 4 fruits, that are still green.

Bell Chilies are gigantic, I bet they really love heat, these 2 are positioned on the west side of the garden.

The photo on the bottom right hand side is the mandarin pipsqueak with a surprised tomato plants (again), apple tree seedling (also from kitchen scrap, apple core), and spinach cutting.

I have some excess pumpkin seedlings this spring, so, on top of the climbing pumpkin on Garden Bed 2, I planted the extra seedlings on the unused part of the garden. The soil on that area is not good, but, it looks like they are thriving in there. Lots of male flowers already appearing. I keep on checking every morning to see if there is any female flower.

The flowers on the front garden is in full bloom now. We have lots of solitary bees fluttering about from flower to flower, mostly the lavender, sunflower and zinnia. I hope there will be more bees here, but I've only seen one or two at the same time in the garden.

A few days after these photos were taken, I planted some borage seeds on this section, hoping to attract more bees.

Sapphire and Ruby Lou Potato Harvest 23rd Jan 2018

This is a late post from end of Jan, it was finally the time to harvest the potatoes that were planted in the bags.

It's my first time using this bag planting technique, and I was keen to see the result.

Overall, the harvesting method is very easy, extremely manageable, and you definitely won't miss any potato, unlike when they are planted on the ground.

However, I had an issue with drainage at the bottom of the bag. The soil at the bottom of the bag is soggy and I found a few bad potatoes at the bottom of the bag. I did torn up large rips at the bottom and the sides of the bag for drainage, but I think that wasn't sufficient.

And, I think I also over watered them, which may led to the rot at the bottom of the bag.

I used a large degradable clear plastic bag for this planting.

In this bag, I planted Sapphire potatoes (purple skin, white flesh).

Because I was experimenting with different types of bag, the next potatoes bag that I harvested was planted in the plastic woven rice bag. The result was much better, I didn't make additional drainage for this bag, but the soil seems to be dry overall and the potatoes were a lot bigger.

In this bag, I planted Ruby Lou potatoes (reddish skin, bright yellow flesh).

This bag is probably the closest version to the commercial potato planter bags that I saw online, so, I think I may use these bags again the next time.

One thing for sure, the commercial seed potatoes definitely produce better yield. I bought mine from Garden Express when they were on sale at that time.

All of the potatoes harvested had been transformed into roast potatoes and stew :)

I definitely will plant potatoes again next spring, easy to plant, easy to grow, and large yield.

Sunflower Seeds Harvest 19th January 2018 with little helper

This is a late post, because we're too busy enjoying the late arriving summer here in Melbourne.

A few weeks ago, after weeks of anticipation, the sunflower seeds were ready for harvest.

So, I thought it would be a good activity for toddler and luckily for me he was keen to help.

We got lots of seeds, some were planted back and the rest were stored for next year.

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