The next step

Planting.

We let our prepared vegetable garden bed sit for 1 month (I know, I know it should have been longer) but can I tell you something? When I went to plant out our new seedlings I was AMAZED!!! The soil was so different. Light and loose (sorry I don't know the correct soil terminology here) I was so happy, straight away, I had a good feeling about our growing season to come.



As usual, I went just a little bit crazy at the markets. Here is what I bought and what I have planted:

• cherry tomatoes
• black russian tomatoes
• roma tomatoes
• purple russian kale
• curly kale
• cavolo nero (more kale)
• strawberries
• snow peas
• beans
• silver beet
• leeks
• capsicum
• cucumber (the old fashioned kind)
• eggplant
• lebanese eggplant
• mizuna
• tatsoi
• beetroot
• butter lettuce
• mixed lettuce
• rocket
• rhubarb

• flat leaf parsley
• dill
• sage
• thyme
• coriander
• upward cress (a bit like watercress)
• stinging nettle
• borage
• dandelion


And with a bit of permaculture influence, I have planted both comfrey and marigolds throughout the vegie patch as well.



I knew that our 1m x 5m vegetable patch (in part shade) was not going to give us all that we wanted in the way of produce this year. So it was time to start thinking differently. I had been inspired by this article in the Organic Gardener magazine, to use styrofoam boxes from my fruit shop as containers for my vegetables.

At the front of our house are two very unsightly underground concrete tanks. With only the tops showing we have always wanted to deck over them, but never seem to have the money. We have cleverly tried to hide them with our planting (from the road at least), but basically it is a wasted and ugly space. The front of the house faces north, so it has full sun all day. It was time to put this space to better use. So by using every spare pot we could find and eight styrofoam boxes (bought: 2 for $3.00) we set about planting our seedlings. We used a good potting mix that was recommended by our local nursery.

But not long into the planting I realised (yes, only then!) that I had bought too many plants. We didn't really have room for them. However, we needed to get them into the ground, some of the seedlings were planted directly into that front garden, in a garden where the soil had not been prepared, where the soil was really - clay.

They needed to be planted that week, because we were going on holidays. Tomorrow I will post photos of what is happening in our garden right now, another month on.



Things that I learnt on this planting day were:

• I do not have an acre of land, more restraint is needed when shopping at the markets
• that vegetables that have a fruit; eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc must have full sun all day, while leafy vegetables; lettuces, kale, etc will be OK with part shade.

Thank-you to the ladies who offered their invaluable advice on my post yesterday.

All of this learning is very exciting.

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