Lazy

This is the time of year my blogging seems to drop off. Here's what I wrote about last week, I'll follow with what is happening this week.

Reconciliation time: time to look at the seeds planted and results produced and decide what to keep and what to put away. I chucked the tray where I’d tried to grow cabbage. Only two had sprouted and they had both managed to be eaten inside the greenhouse. By deciding to cull some pots with seed plantings that had been less successful, I made a little more room… for more seeds. Oh, and amongst the pots I was chucking out I found what looks like it may possibly be an aubergine seedling. Considering I planted maybe only one of these, I think that is a good result. I've potted it on, and will keep an eye on it.

The Qld Blue pumpkins have all hatched and so I’ve moved them into bigger pots. I also spent a lot of time putting tomato seedlings into bigger pots (tomato seedlings everywhere! I guess it’s because I used soil from the veggie patch as mixer with bought compost, and that’s where the tomatoes grew last year) and for a couple of plants, they have now graduated to being planted out (into the veggie patch).

All the biggish scarlet kales have been planted out. I planted out a few more lettuce and thinned out the beetroots, distributing the seedlings around the garden. The four miserable chard seedlings that sprouted have gone out too. (And I’ve potted on the bonus tomato seedling that grew in with them).

The biggest of the purple bean seedlings have also been planted out into the area where the peas were shredded by snails last week. I circled the new plantings with slug pellets, despite having a secret belief that these pellets actually attract slugs and snails (as well as killing them). Well I am probably right – this morning there was a gastropod conference going on by the plants but I couldn’t tell if they were dead or not. Hopefully they are dead but hubby is going out today to make sure.

Out of earlier plantings of herbs, I got only one basil plant. This was a very disappointing result so I’ve planted up four more herb pots: basil, thai basil, chives and parsley. If I get a good result this time, I’ll give away any extras to the gardening club show in July.

Also into pots were some more pumpkin seeds, these ones labelled “grey-skinned, good roasting”. They came from the pumpkin we buy from the Jamaican stall at the market. I also planted up a whole packet of sweetcorn. Probably left it too late again but I have to try. The cat, little beserker that he is, tried to eat the dried corn seeds.

The money I spent on chillies from Real Seeds was not best spent. I have got only two sprouts of the pretty-in-purple and none of the Wenks Yellow.

Now to the weekend just passed...
I hit the fruit plants with a spray of dishwashing liquid - I have it in my head that this will work against aphids and kill them. The little blighters are getting big and fat and I hate them.

The sweetcorn is taking off - looks like I will get a good crop of seedlings, but whether I've left it too late for produce only time will tell. I'm going to stick them at the back of the veggie patch when they get big enough.

In a few weeks things will look great as there are lots of flowers with buds ready to break open. Even the teasel which has turned into some kind of monster about 2m tall.

Our rosemary bush has died! The landmark for our property that has guided so many visitors to our front door has up and died after the long cold wet winter. We've offered it to Keith as some kind of barbeque fuel since he cooks on coals, we thought he could do a rosemary scented lamb roast with the dried wood and leaves. In the meantime, I'll have to keep some magic scissors in my pocket and walk the neighbourhood looking for a rosemary bush from which to snip a shoot or two to grow a new plant.

With the onset of warmer weather (some days), I'm going to have to keep a closer eye on the greenhouse and open the door in the morning to let the sun in and stop it from turning into a sauna. I know I want the plants to keep warm but I don't want them to cook. The cucumbers are getting very tall (or at least one of the varieties is) and will need potting on. The rest of the purple beans will need to be planted out somewhere (where?). I gave a few to Amanda along with my spare red kale: she has more luck with beans than I do. I also gave away a few bunches of lettuce seedlings - may as well, I seem to have hundreds and they're likely to die unless I get them into the ground soon.

There are berries on the strawberries, if we get some good sunny days over the next few weeks they might even ripen. Live in hope! There are definitely apples on the apple trees, maybe as many as a dozen between the two. They are fattening up nicely, although it will be many months before we get to enjoy that harvest.

So what will be the first harvest from the garden this year? Could be the red kale and the chinese broccoli. None of the tomatoes (except the shop-bought "Shirley") are near to having flowers yet (and Shirley, despite having flowers, doesn't seem to be enjoying her full sun position). The Chinese broccoli are going a bit leggy - they keep spitting out flowering stems which I'm cutting off to make them branch out. I thought they would be more like asparagus, with thickish stalks, at least that's what I remember from Chinese restaurants. Maybe I have to do some more research on them.

And spring onions - why bother? Am I cursed? I just wanted to grow something that seemed quite simple and easy and was relatively expensive to buy when you only even need one at a time (and supermarkets only sell them in bunches). When I think of all the seeds I've planted over the years that have not grown... grrr....