I spent a great day in the garden today, preparing our backyard for bulbs that I bought during the week along with general work in the veggie garden. All of the plants are doing well, with the exception of a couple of broccoli plants that have been nibbled by what appears to be nocturnal snails! The snow peas are doing incredibly well and I have already begun harvesting lettuce leaves for my weekday lunches. The baby spinach and shallots are also doing well - I spent a bit of time today thinning the spinach seedlings out. They are now spread across four pots so it will be interesting to see how they go. I wasn't sure whether moving them at only two weeks of age would be ok so I have left a heap in the initial pot just in case. I have also taken the top off the makeshift greenhouse now that the seeds have sprouted and covered them with cheesecloth to deter any birds or possums that might want to have a nibble. It was nice to have Arrow and her friend from next door, Mirin, helping out today! Mirin was keen to check out the rolled oats I had put around the broccoli to deter the snails!
So I also planted the first of our bulbs into the garden today, the Dutch Irises, that don't require any chilling prior to planting. I have planted in four sections of the garden, three bulbs per area so it will be interesting to see how they go. We have put a packet of tulips in the crisper in the fridge to chill for at least 4 weeks prior to planting out the front of the house.
It's so nice to be able to get out into the garden, particular on days like we had today. I'm about half way through a great book at the moment in preparation for a course I will be starting next week at CERES - I'm very excited! I'll be doing an Introduction to Permaculture course over two weekends which will be lots of fun. I highly recommend, if you are interested in the topic, reading 'The Basics of Permaculture' by Ross Mars. A very easy but interesting read!
PS Thanks to my boyfriend Dan for taking the photos today!
Its great seeing and reading about the progress of your seedlings. I'm sure you'll find the permaculture course very fulfilling.
ReplyDeleteI like the rolled oats idea, now I have a use for the out of date oats that always seem to appear in the back of the pantry 12 months after a anzac biscuit baking bonanza!! I also use old coffee grind around my nitrogen loving plants as apparently the the coffee grind leaches nitrogen into the soil and the snails hate crawling over it, double the garden goodness!!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good idea! I used the one minute oats we had in the cupboard, but found that they went this weird red colour so not sure what that was! They've broken down after two weeks or so, so I think its time to put another lot on!
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