Luscombe Street - Week 9 Update

Wet, wet, wet...that's all I can say!  Whilst the plants have received more than enough water, I still make sure I pop on out every weekend and give them some well earned food (either Fish Emulsion or Seaweed Solution).  I thought it would be nice to take some closer shots of the seedlings as they're all starting to grow their mature leaves which is exciting!  The Bok Choi, Radish and Coriander are all doing really well...

 Legume Bed

 Brassica Bed

 Allium Bed

 Root / Fruit Bed

 Radishes and Carrotts

 Coriander Seedlings

Bok Choi Seedlings

Week 4 Veggie Garden Update

So whilst all of the other exciting things have been happening, the garden at home has been going well!  The snow peas are steadily growing along with the lettuce and the spinach and spring onion seedlings have been taken out of the hot house to harden off prior to planting out in the new patch!  The broccoli plants are going well too, but have suffered a bit of an attack from what I think are moths.  The oats have now started breaking down so the culprit may be snails I'm not sure.  I'm thinking about whether or not I should plant the broccoli in the new patch or whether they should be kept in the pots at home.  I guess it will depend on what else I decide to grow out in the patch over the next week!  You will notice that the spinach seedlings have been thinned out and a few moved into separate pots.  I'm not exactly sure how thicky baby spinach can be planted so thought I would give both a densely planted and sparsely planted pots a go this season.  Lets see how it goes!

I bought a range of seeds from CERES on the weekend and have planted a few out and put them in the hot house ready for germination.  For the kitties in the neighbourhood I have planted some Catnip seeds (shown in the egg carton on the top), some parsley for the plot (small black containers), Kale seeds in the toilet rolls (a great propogating tool - no need to disturb roots when planting out! Just plant straight in the soil...) and some radish, Warrigal Greens and Nasturtium plants in the middle egg carton for planting at Luscombe Street.

A very exciting weekend...

So many exciting things happened this weekend that it is hard to know where to start!  Early Saturday morning I made my way down to CERES to do the weekly vegetable shop prior to heading down for the first session of the Introduction to Permaculture course with Justin Caverley.  What an amazing day.  We were introduced to the basic principals of permaculture, and provided with a huge amount of practical information on gardening and sustainable living in general.  What I have found most interesting so far is the overarching, completely inclusive nature of permaculture principals, focussing on cyclical and efficient behaviour that just makes so much sense.  I also love the fact that a lot of the work that needs to be undertaken in gardening is purely observational, that we need to slow down and actually observe the activity that is happening in the garden.  We spent most of the afternoon wandering around CERES looking at the gardening systems in place there that work so well, and tasting a plethora of bush foods that grow onsite.  I'm really looking forward to undertaking an assessment of our backyard as a permaculture design exercise and exploring it further at next week's class.  I met a great group of like minded people that also took part in the session, one new friend who introduced me to a great new community garden that is being set up in East Brunswick...

Fast forward a day and I am now the proud owner of a community plot at the Luscombe Street Community Garden in Brunswick!  I had prepared myself for a twelve month plus wait for a plot down the road from home in Hawthorn and now, very excitingly, have my own little space in Brunswick.  It will work really well as I enjoy heading to CERES on a Saturday morning to gather our fruit and veg for the week and will pop past to tend to the garden on the way home!

The new garden is located on a vacant block on Luscombe Street and is run by two Brunswick residents that live next door to the block.  They are renting the property and have gained permission from the landlord (who also owns the block next door) to utilise the vacant land for a community garden until they obtain planning approval to develop the site.  So it may be that we will only be able to stay onsite for a limited time but the owner has said that he will give us fair notice when he decides to develop the site, and is really supportive of the community garden onsite.

After raising money earlier in the year to purchase apple crates and nine cubic metres of soil to fill the garden beds, the crates were delivered last Thursday ready for setup this weekend.  Today was spent moving the crates and filling them with soil ready to plant out.  It was hard work but well worthwhile as we all have ready made tall beds that we can grow our own vegetables in!  Hot diggity!

My plot is located right in the centre of nine planters so will hopefully receive an even amount of sunlight which is great.  It will mean that a lot of the plants that I propagate at home I can bring out to the garden and grow.  I will still be growing a few varieties at home but will try to maintain a larger crop in Brunswick to feed us through the seasons.  Very exciting!

Week 2-3 Veggie Garden Update

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!

Week 1 Veggie Garden

So we start in early April, Autumn in Melbourne.  Melbourne's climate is quite well suited to Autumn planting - quite different to Canberra where frosts are frequent meaning that many vegetables cannot be grown during this time.  Well, they probably could be grown but would need a lot of care to ensure they weren't frost bitten and received enough sunlight throughout the day.

I went down to CERES over the weekend for the first time - I'm not sure how many of you might have heard about this wonderful place before?  It's such an inspiring place and I urge you all to head down there if you live in Melbourne.

http://www.ceres.org.au/

They have a wonderful food market on Saturdays selling organic vegetables that they have grown onsite along with vegetables grown by other local organic gardeners.  They also have an organic food shop, supplying a variety of grains, eggs, and other organic store cupboard items.  What interested me the most this weekend was their nursery - my mission was to buy a selection of seedlings to plant to get my autumn gardening up and going.  They sell not only organic seedling produced onsite, but other seedlings for a vast array of vegetables and flowers.

I love snow peas, and was determined to give them a go in the garden.  I have had success with them before in Canberra, but haven't grown them in pots before.  As long as they have a trellace to grow on apparently they are very easy to grow in pots and only require a weekly feeding of seaweed solution to grow happily and healthily.

We had a spare polystyrene box that was perfect to slide the pots in and to hold a sheet of metal mesh to act as a trellace for the vines.  I hear that it isn't wise to grow plants directly in polystyrene boxes as nasy chemicals leech out into the soil - not sure about this as many people do grow in them?  I had picked up a few free pots from CERES anyway so thought it best to just grow in them instead.  Another tip that I thought was great was to plant a quick growing veggie alongside your peas, like lettuce, that will provide whilst the peas are growing (I planted some butter lettuce!).

The other vegetable that I love and thought would be worth trying in Autumn is broccoli!  CERES have grown their own broccoli and snow pea seedlings so I thought it would be great to get a head start and plant these straight in the ground.  Two to a pot - it will be interesting to see whether they are overcrowded in the pots?  Time will tell!  We're really lucky to have a north facing courtyard, so I have tried my best to position the pots in spots that receive the most amount of light during the day.  With a two storey townhouse nextdoor to us it can be tricky to find areas that aren't in shade for the majority of the day.  The peas are in prime position, with the broccoli positioned to the west receiving most of the morning sun up until about 12-1pm in the afternoon.

The following weekend I went down to Bunnings and bought a couple of packets of seeds and have had them germinating in a make-shift hot house made from a clear storage container with holes drilled in the top and bottom for drainage and ventilation.  It has worked a treat and as you can see the seeds have already sprouted!  I have planted spring onions and baby spinach, both of which we eat a lot of which is great.  I think its really important to have a steady supply of the vegetables you know you already eat, along with a few different vegetables that you would like to try.  My aim is to grow most of the vegetables we eat all the time, and dapple with a few different varieties here and there.

You can see the large sprouts are the baby spinach that sprouted in less than 5 days (the packet said they would in 10-14 days!).  I think the hot house is definitely doing its job!  The spring onions have only just started peeping their heads up a week after sowing.  The pictures below are of the broccoli, snow peas and lettuce a week after planting - they're doing well.  No sign of pests yet (only a few nibbles here and there).  I have tried to water all of the seedlings everyday and provided them with a seasol feed once a week as well.