Blooms for my Birthday

The snow peas have started flowering - what a lovely birthday present!

Hawthorn Garden Update - Week 6

I was very spoilt on the weekend, and splurged on two citrus plants for the garden!  Well, truth be told, its my birthday on Tuesday and had been sent some money to spend on something I would love, so this is it!  We will be making two smaller containers for the citrus, probably 600x600 that can be moved back and forth around the garden as well.  I'm so excited!

We also finished building the second main planter that Dan had started during the week!  It took two of us to transfer the snow peas from their containers, whilst making sure they were still attached to their climbing frame, but all was good and they are happily planted in their own larger planter box which is great.  The roots had already started circling the bottom of the pot so hopefully they will be happier in their new home.  I was a bit worried about moving them about with them being as established as they are, but they seem pretty happy where they are now so all good.  I also moved the spinach seedlings into the pot - I'm sure they'll be happier in the larger pot too!  So all of the small pots are gone now, with the spring onions to be transpanted at the plot next weekend :)

Double grafted Eureka Lemon / Tahitian Lime and an Emperor Mandarin 

Another planter constructed and plants relocated! 

(Notice the two little nasturtium plants next to the catnip as well!  I moved them earlier in the week)

Another wonderful purchase on the weekend was a potting / storage table for our little garden shed!  Such a bargain - they're on sale at Bunnings Hawthorn at the moment for about $80!  I also bought a mushroom kit that will live in the shed over winter! 

So organised! 

So much storage area!

Luscombe Street - Week 4 Update

Prior to heading out to CERES on Saturday, I popped past the Luscombe Street plot to see how thing are going.  All of the beds are going well, things are going a bit slow but all the plants are very healthy which is a great sign!  More of the radish seeds have sprouted and will need to be thinned next week to make sure there is enough room for them all to grow.  I planted one of the nasturtium seedlings in this bed as well as a few chrysthaninum seeds in the Allium bed - go the companion planting!

The broad beans have sprouted but not popped to the surface yet so hopefully next week they will be up and growing well!  I'm debating as to whether I should pop a few seedlings from CERES in as well to have two staggered plantings of the beans.  I might just wait to see how the seeds go next week!

I planted out the kale seedlings into the Brassica plot so this bed is chock-a-block and will be yielding heaps of yummy goodies in the months to come!  With the amount of work we had on this weekend I have left the spring onions to be planted out next weekend when there is more time!  We have a working bee on Sunday so will be out there again to help out :)

 Root / Fruit bed

Allium Bed 

Brassica Bed

Legume Bed

Worm Farm Update

The wormies are going very, very well in their new home and munching away on all sorts of goodies that we have put in there.  Lots of raw veggie scraps, old bananas, lint from the clothes dryer and the egg carton that had the catnip seeds that didn't sprout.  The worms are less active in winter so I'm going to leave the amount of food in there (about 2cm worth) and wait until they have eaten it all up before I add any more.

Happy wormies!

Aphids Going Wild!

I went outside yesterday to have a look at the garden, and my goodness, we have been invaded by all species of aphids suckering on the Pittosporum hedge.  The new growth has been inundated by green and black aphids both with and without wings, they're all getting into it!  So, I decided to take some action, as they had started eating the sprouts on the iris bulbs in the ground as well, and doused them with EcoOil and squished as many I can.  Take a look at the photo below - its crazy! 

So many aphids!  This was taken after I had sprayed...

I'll be following up the treatment in 5 days and will see how effective it has been.  I have also planted two of the nasturtium seedlings into the first planter to attract the aphids away from the vegetables we have planted.  Apparently nasturtium is really easy to grow and aphids just love the leaves so they can be utilised as sacrificial plants in the garden to keep the aphids away from your precious veggies.

Relocatable Timber Planter

We had the best day today making the first timber planter on wheels for the courtyard - gone are the black plastic pots for us!  I'm so proud that we designed and constructed this all ourselves with fence pailings, treated pine 7x3.5cm sections, a few wheels, nails and screws all from the local hardware store!  It only took us 4 hours or so to cut and build the one today so we'll be building another two for the yard, along with a 60x60cm version for a double grafted lemon / lime tree from CERES!

The photos below show the process we undertook to make our fantastic timber planter!

All the pieces cut - fence pailings for sides and base, and treated pine section cut for the base and uprights in the corners

Dan screwing the uprights to the base sections ...

Side pailings nailed in place - starting to look good!

Dan screwing in another base section...

Nailing in the bottom pailings...

 Measuring up for predrilling holes for the castor wheels

 

Wheels screwed in!

 

Last minute trimming...

Nailing in the black plastic liner...

Plastic liner in!

Soil in!

Planter in elevation - look at the wheels!  They also have brakes on them to stop the planter from rolling about...

And the finished product!  We planted the Broccoli and Spring Onions into this one.  And of course some Catnip for kitty just near her cat door!

So proud!  Looking forward to making the next three!

It's going to be so great being able to move the planters around the garden, not only for the plants following the path of the sun during the year but for when we're entertaining.  We can just move them out of the way if need be!  A great solution for a courtyard garden :)  I'm so proud we made such a beautiful thing!

Hawthorn Garden Update - Week 5

The propagating hot house is alive with activity at the moment.  The Kale seeds continue to grow very well, and the Nasturtium seeds have also sprouted!  It looks like three out of the four seeds have germinated which is fantastic.  I haven't had as much luck with the Catnip seeds that for some reason got completely waterlogged and were subsequently chucked in the worm farm!  I think it must have been the huge amount of rain that we have had that was dripping through the holes in the roof of the hot house onto the seeds.  Oh well, lesson learned!  I bought an established plant for kitty at CERES yesteday instead!

It will be interesting to see whether the Warrigal Greens and Radishes sprout.  The Radishes in the Luscombe Street patch have already sprouted so maybe these ones have been given a little bit too much water!

 The Hot House - Parsley seeds are almost germinated, Kale doing well, and Catnip seeds have been given to the worms!

 Kale seedlings are going really well

Nasturtium seeds have germinated