Get Going with Growing 6

Vegetables can be pretty too.
Zucchini flower... quite lovely and the zucchini's are tasty too. 

Guess who has been eating our spinach this time??? 

We have! 

And it is great :) The taste of fresh spinach on pizza and in lasagne has been wonderful. 

Spinach waiting to become part of a meal for the family 

This lasagne was SO tasty... fresh and healthy 

We have continued to add to the garden plots... what started as four little boxes three and a half months ago is now eight boxes planted (with two more ready for new plants) and a glasshouse full of food producing plants. The apple trees are full of little apples that are steadily growing which is very exciting. I am quite surprised by how quickly things have grown and thoroughly enjoying the fruits of our labours. 

The original plots

The garden now

The weather has been really changeable which has had its challenges but earlier this week we had some really hot weather followed by warm steady rain showers, I couldn't believe the growth in the garden from that... bean seed that had just broken the surface the day before grew almost two inches over the day. Nature is amazing! 

Webbs Wonderful Lettuce seedlings

I have now planted spinach seeds and lettuce seeds and they will go into the empty plots in time. I am getting better with nursing my seeds to the next step, it is about nurturing them- giving them what they need as they grow and adjusting the care as get bigger and stronger... like any baby really. One thing that has worked for me is using egg cartons as seed trays, it makes transplanting less stressful on the seedlings and they are a little easier to keep moist once the seeds strike. 

Every day there is something new to see and, as always, learn :) 

Broccoli on it's way

Getting Going with Growing No. 5

Another update is well overdue I think.

If you have read my other posts re. gardening (1, 2, 3, 4) you may have figured that our horticultural beginners journey is one of highs and lows, and it continues to be so. 

So far I have identified a couple of 'enemies': 

• Sheep- who loved my cabbage plants but ignored the spinach 
• Weather- hail stones that had no problem with attacking both cabbage and spinach, as well as leaving a considerable frost which killed the pumpkin seedlings that I had planted 

And I have two more to add: 

• Firstly, and I apologise for not mentioning this sooner, but cats can be a bit of a problem in the
  
  garden... one cat in particular for us I fear is our own rather heavy grey feline called Pippin. When I first started preparing the beds I think she misinterpreted my work as creating a sunbed/toilet for her. This did not stop when the first seedlings were planted! We remedied this with placing large netting over the beds as you may see in the background of the image here. 
• Secondly birds! Our first strawberries had ripened about a week ago and I was all ready to share them with my little man as a treat for our evening meal but... I left the glasshouse door open as the day was hot and I wanted to get fresh, cooler 
  
  air moving in the space. I assumed my strawberries were safe in the glasshouse and didn't even think to cover them... I was wrong! Lesson learned. 
• Weather again... this time heat. I was away for work for a couple of days and one of these was particularly warm. I had left instructions for watering in my absence but neither of us had anticipated the impact of heat in the glasshouse on the seedlings. When I came home found that most of my delicate capsicum seedlings had fried in the hot sun. Another lesson learned. 

As you can see our setbacks have been based around nature, and so it seems to me that learning to garden successfully is about learning to live in harmony with nature itself. We are finding our way. 

So let's now focus on the highs of the gardening journey at the moment: 

• Our basil is growing well and I will be thinning it out in the next week or so. 
  
• My last lot of corn planted is growing and the wind break cloth seems to be working with protecting it from some of the harsh winds we have had lately. 
• I have also nursed our last three pumpkin seedlings to ensure they are as healthy as possible and just planted them outside in the last day or so. So far they are looking good, I wonder if I had planted them too early last time? 
• We have little apples beginning to grow on our three old apple trees as well, yum, apples for Autumn. 
• The potatoes have survived the frost and are now showing
  good growth. 
• I have been experimenting with striking seed on dampened paper in plastic lidded containers, so far the beans and peas have responded well. Will keep playing with this method. 
• We have eaten some of our own spinach and it was delicious. It seems to have come away from the hail storm OK, not perfect but OK. 
  
• The zucchini are doing really well and we will be eating our first one soon. 
• We have little tomatoes on all of our tomato plants. I love the smell of our tomato plants, it brings back fond memories of my dad including one of the last moments I shared with him in his garden when he was ill. He loved his garden and grew the best tasting tomatoes, I hope that my use of the 'ucky' bucket juice (seaweed soup) will help to replicate the flavour a little at least.  

And to close the best and biggest gardening highlight for me...  

The other night we finally had another ripe strawberry, so when my little man came down to tend the garden with me I got him to check the strawberries for me, there was much excitement when he saw the juicy red strawberry sitting there. We picked it and I gave it to him to eat. He took a small bite and the response was one of absolute joy "oh mumma, it tastes soooooo goooood!" He ate it slowly and thoroughly relished every bite. It was wonderful to see and in some ways I wish I had taken a photo but on the other hand I am pleased that I was just able to enjoy the moment with him. 

Getting Going with Growing 4

Gardening is a pursuit that teaches important life lessons... this week resilience, patience and wonder.

After the attack of the killer sheep and the subsequent repairs to the fencing as well as putting up some wind proofing for my latest attempt at growing corn I thought we had catered for just about everything.... but not quite!

Public enemy no 2 has been identified and no it is still not the white butterfly.

This time it was unseasonal weather! Check out the little video clip below to see what hit, literally, our garden earlier this week.

The size of the hailstones were quite spectacular too.

The spinach that survived the attack of the killer sheep did not fare quite as well against the hail stone

bullets that pelted down from above.
Worse still was the unexpected frost from the hailstones overnight as they did not melt away... the potatoes (largely self seeded) did not fare well as the blackened curled leaves here show. I am hoping that they might come away again though... fingers crossed.

The pumpkin plants however do not look like they will come away again. It was so disappointing as this is my second attempt with my pumpkin seedlings and they were looking so good, now they are yellowed, curling up and very sad.

BUT this is gardening, and there's no point moping around about it. This is where resilience comes in, I could chuck it in claiming it is too hard with the pumpkins, the spinach and the brassicas but I have a glasshouse full of growing plants (and I am lucky I still have five pumpkin seedlings in the glasshouse to transplant).
There are seeds coming away that we planted a couple of weeks ago and I thought were not going to strike... they are now popping up all over the place!
The other day I was looking at the bed where I had planted sunflower and sweet pea seeds two weeks ago and there was nothing happening, I had decided I would put nasturtiums in there instead when I got the time... well today I walked past and had a look to water a couple of seedlings I had planted earlier and lo and behold there are a whole heap of little seedlings now coming through, what a difference three days make! A little bit of patience pays off, and if they had been right up when the hail hit, who knows, they might not have fared so well.

Sunflower seedling... exciting! 

On reflection there are lots of life lessons I am getting from gardening, here are a couple from this week:

• very few things in life are ALL bad, focus on what is going right if you can
• don't put all your plants in the one spot, diversification is key
• if at first you don't succeed, look at what you could do differently and have another go 
• it is OK to try something and fail... that is a great place for learning to happen 
• patience is a virtue and nature knows it well

In gardening, as in life, you win some and you lose some. If you are prepared to focus on the wins, work through the losses and approach as much as you can with a sense of wonder then all going well things will bear fruit. 

Getting Going with Growing 3

Well we are another few weeks on from my last gardening blog post and we have actually eaten something from the garden so that deserves a mention among other things.

So here is our first scrumptious offering from our garden, a Great Lakes lettuce, which we have enjoyed for several meals so far. Crunchy leaves for fabulous salads and juicy sandwiches... all the tastier because it has come from our own garden!

One of the great things I am discovering about gardening is that it is an opportunity for ongoing learning through trial and error. I am loving the opportunity to be a bit of a scientist with the garden and trying some new things out.

• We have grown seeds in individual pods using empty toilet rolls. We have filled them with dirt (seed raising mix) and have placed one or two capsicum seeds in them. To be honest I was beginning to despair that nothing was going to happen but in the last day or so some shoots are coming up. We have planted both seeds from a packet and some I harvested from a capsicum we had eaten so it will be interesting to see what grows, 
• We are now using our 'ucky bucket' seaweed water to feed new and transplanted plants. We water this down so it looks
  
  like weak tea and use this when we are planting... at the moment most plants have responded. 
• We have had a go at planting onions from onions that have sprouted in the cupboard. I found this blog post and thought I would give it a go. So far they seem to be growing, well they haven't withered and died so that's a good start! (http://www.anktangle.com/2011/03/growing-sprouted-onions.html) 
• We have planted our second lot of pumpkin seedlings, this time in a new plot with some slightly different soil so here's hoping this time they don't die! 
• I am still to master the mixed plantings with flowering plants, I have had some success with nasturtiums but my marigolds are pathetic. We will work it out eventually. 

• We have also had a little go at a slightly different planting arrangement inspired by the 1 metre squared garden concept. It gives a little bit of a patchwork effect and so it looks good at the moment. I have sown carrot seeds on the side plots, brassicas in the corners and corn in the middle. We are trying the corn again, but this time in different soil and with a little more protection from the wind we hope. (http://www.tuigarden.co.nz/howtoguide/square-metre-gardening-guide) 
• I continue with the broken eggshell slug protection system and whilst I think that is working I have discovered an even more vicious enemy of our humble brassicas... read on... 

This week public enemy number one of the garden became... SHEEP! 

Oh they look very innocent back in their paddock now but the results of their ruminating in my garden was quite obvious. Clearly they don't love spinach but have a thing for cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower! 

One of the cabbages that were savaged but still in the ground. 

The spinach that lived to tell the tale

We have put in some measures to deter the sheep from doing any more damage with some additional fencing at the bottom of the garden and hope that proves as effective as the cat proof netting over the garden plots has. 

So for now I have forgiven the sheep, as long as they stay on their side of the fence!

It is getting exciting as some of the plants are beginning to fruit so I will leave you with some images of new fruit coming... the anticipation of a fruitful summer is a wonderful thing. Happy growing folks. 

Zucchinis....

Strawberries....

 

Little grapes!

Getting going with growing Part 2

Last time I wrote about our garden we had just started getting established.

A month later and the garden is growing in many ways, as are the gardeners! We have had our ups and downs of course but there is enough success to keep me going ;) I am learning to be more in tune with nature, more observant and responsive. I am learning through doing, trial and error, which is really quite motivating, although the thought of eating our own lettuce sandwiches real soon is quite motivating in itself of course!

I am also finding the time in the garden really quite rejuvenating. It is like a quiet break for my brain and even weeding is not a real chore. My little man was quite unwell for a week or two so time in the garden was limited and I did find that I actually missed it... we haven't had the garden for that long but it is already becoming a habit.


Here's the round up:

The highs:

• the lettuces are growing beautifully and hearting up, I am just about to put another lot of lettuce seedlings so we can keep it going
• the tomato plants are also doing really well, I have staked them up and they now have flowers on them too 
• the strawberry plants in the glasshouse are much bigger than those outside but both have flowers and are doing fine
• we have planted some pepper, cabbage, cauliflower and spinach plants, all of which are doing well 
• the garlic in the glasshouse is going well and the onions outside are now looking stable 
• the wire over the outside beds is working well at keeping the cat from sunbathing in the garden beds 
• we have collected enough eggshells to create the slug equivalent of barbed wire fencing to help protect our leafy greens 
• I have also shifted a little lemon tree and so far it looks as though it is thriving in it's new spot 
  
• the compost bin is working well and we have a great seaweed soup working away... hopefully we will have some lovely homemade fertilizer to use soon (I stir this regularly and have just added some more water to the mix too) 

The lessons: 

• the corn I planted has died (well it is yellowed and mostly lying flat)... combination of not planting as soon as I got it, stormy weather hitting after it was planted, our unscheduled week away in hospital where watering was sporadic... and I am wondering if the soil was unsuitable, perhaps needed more compost and less sheep poo? Will protect it better next time too 
• my bean seedlings wilted and died... I left them in the seedling tray too long and they dried out then I overwatered them... note to self, prepare the beds before you need them to reduce delays when plants are ready for planting 
• my pumpkin seedlings that I planted did not do well either, they were planted at the same time and in the same bed as the corn so I need to investigate that a little with the next lot 
• my marigolds that I am planting with the vegies don't seem to be thriving but the plants are so I will wear that 

So I still have to learn about nursing those small seedlings that I have grown from seeds, the striking of seeds has never been a problem and my father used to take the seedlings for the next step so now I have to find out how to do it right... we will get there, this is all part of the adventure of the beginner gardener. 

Getting going with growing!

It is spring time here and I have started vegetable gardening this season with the vision of slowly building up skill and hopefully crops over the coming months.

We are blessed with the space to create our garden but have decided to start small with raised plots so we can manage our plants better and experiment with mixed plantings and different soils. We have also refined our compost bin and have got seaweed breaking down for a homemade fertiliser (I am not sure what else my father did but I know he used seaweed and had the most amazing tasting tomatoes ever so we'll see if it was the seaweed in time)

We are growing some plant from seeds and have also purchased some seedlings. The seeds are doing really well at the moment (my father used to get me to strike seed for him as I was good at that bit but nuturing the seedlings as they harden off was where I used to struggle... I hope this time round I can manage to get our seeds past that delicate stage, if so we will have a bumper crop of pumpkins!)

As you can see I am getting quite inspired by this gardening thing. It seems to be the right time, place and space to get growing for a number of reasons:

1. Growing your own vegetables means you are better informed about what products have been used on and around them. This can impact on the flavour and potential health benefits. We are experimenting with using natural products and techniques (like spreading egg shell and wood ash around plants to ward off slugs) 
2. It gets me out of the house, away from the computer (unless I am looking up information about gardening!) and working with nature. It gives me a new place to let my mind wander or to practice mindfulness depending on what I am needing at the time. It improves health and wellbeing before we even get to eating!
3. Our little boy is building an understanding and appreciation of where food can come from. He is learning about nurturing the plants to help them grow. It is another way that he can contribute to our family and hopefully share with others too. 
4. It brings me closer to my dad. Dad was a great gardener and we always had a bounty of fresh vegetables from his garden which I never fully appreciated until recently. 
5. It brings our little family closer together. We are all involved in building up our garden and on good days we are all working together in and around the garden. I am looking forward to eating our food together too.    
6. It is cost effective, especially with the pumpkins I am growing as the seed came from a pumpkin we ate recently! As I learn to harvest seed from our plants this will be more so in coming years I hope. 
7. It is providing me with an opportunity to reuse/recycle/repurpose. We have used old trays to make square vegetable plots/beds. We have also used some trays and other wood off cuts to make a shelf/table for potting and seed raising. Plastic bags have been used to provide a warm cover for seed trays and also as a temporary fix for a couple of broken glass panes in the glasshouse. We have used my father's old drum for making our seaweed fertiliser in and are reusing one of his compost bins too. 
8. There are many small successes to celebrate on the way to getting something to eat out of the garden. Seeing a plot planted out, seeds coming up, plants growing, weeds abating a little... all the little things help to make you feel like you are achieving something and that is good for the soul. 

For all the reasons above and probably many more, I encourage any would be gardeners to give it a go. We are going with trial and error, using some companion planting and other methods to reduce pesticides (and for aesthetics too, putting marigolds in with the vegetable plots looks pretty). There is a wealth of information online and people in our communities with a wealth of knowledge too. 

If all you have is a small patch of ground that is OK, you might only have a window sill but wherever you are if you can and feel inspired to give it a go I say go for it... the outcomes of your efforts are healthy in a number of ways and potentially very delicious :)