Month: April 2009
Good backyard vegetable gardening blogs?
Setting up a blog is second nature to us both, so this seemed to be an easy thing to do. But it’s nice to have company, and to learn from others on the same journey. Problem is, it’s quite hard to find other similar blogs, with a Google search returning many commercial sites, mostly selling plants or gardening equipment.
So: any recommendations on blogs we should be following? Just add a comment…
Gardenate: online gardening calendar
I’ve just stumbled across the Gardenate site, which provides a free planting calendar for multiple climactic zones in Australia, NZ and the UK. Super easy to use, a wonderful resource!
Chippendale food fair urban farming
We recently moved from Chippendale, where I lived for over a decade. In recent times, there had been a big transformation, driven by Michael Mobbs, the owner of the well-known “Sustainable House”. Tree and veges appeared in the nature strip, and a weekly food box organised (which we get and love!).
Michael is in part responsible for our current sustainability activities, and I continue to be amazed by his energy for spawning new initiatives. Thanks Michael, keep up the great work!
Cabbages are bedded in
I’m excited by the rows of cabbages, both chinese and western. They should provide quite a crop!
Autumn planting: round two
Now that all four garden beds are in place, I could plant out the bottom two beds:
- Snow peas
- Cabbage, Chinese
- Cabbage, Savoy King
- Onions, red
- Onions, white
- Broccoli, Gamblers (from seed)
- Broccoli, Bambino (a single plant)
- Cauliflower, baby white
(Since I’ve left it a bit late, I’ve planted out all these from punnets rather than seed, with the one exception noted above.)
I’ve also got most of the rest of my kitchen herbs going:
- Rosemary
- Lemon thyme
- Oregano
- Chives
For some reason the parsley seeds haven’t come up, so I’ll give them another week and then might have to get a punnet instead.
Peas are growing strongly
It’s amazing to see the sugar snap peas add about a centimetre of height every day.
Autumn planting: an addition
There was a small gap in my second bed, so I planted red pak choy seeds. Amazingly, these sprouted in only two days, and are growing strongly.
Planting our bay tree in the nature strip
I’ve had a bay tree for 3+ years, and it’s been happily growing on my balcony in the old unit. Without full sun, it was getting a bit scrawny, but it nonetheless provided plenty of bay leaves for cooking.
With the move to Lewisham, the time was right to give it a proper home in soil. With space at a premium, the solution was obvious: a bit of “guerilla gardening”.
Just before Easter I went out and dug a big hole in the clay soil of the nature strip. This was filled with a rich mix of cow manure and soil, and the bay tree planted in. No need to ask permission, much better just to do it!
I’m looking forward to seeing it grow, and will put a sign on it once it’s settled in saying: “bay tree, feel free to pick some leaves for your cooking!”.
PS. I blame Michael Mobbs for encouraging this sort of behaviour! Having planted trees, herbs and vegetables down Myrtle St in Chippendale, a clear example has been set for all to follow. 🙂
Lewisham House and Farm 