What's Growing: March 16, 2014

This weekend we were set to feel the effects of Cyclone Lusi. So, we were up late on Friday night dealing with firewood that needed stacking in the shed, and I was planting until it was too dark to see, then again as soon as day broke on Saturday.

 

Then the rains didn't hit until late Saturday evening.... I even managed to dry 2 loads of washing before the weather looked like turning. It was fortunate that Lusi was downgraded to a depression, but the flurry of productivity in the threat of her arrival was pretty amazing.

In the Greenhouse

Currently the greenhouse has the doors closed all day, but the windows open. The taro is thriving, as is the watermelon and cucumber plants. Actually the cucumber plants are covered with baby vegetables, so I think the bees have been doing their thing. The temperature gets well over 30 degrees in the day, and hovers around 12 degrees overnight. Soon we will have to look at closing the windows... And making preparations for warming it in winter.

The tomato to plant moved into the greenhouse from the flower garden is doing super well, so maybe I'll have late tomatoes. The mescaline is going to seed- don't tell the husband as he always pulls plants at this stage. I want it to self seed.... And the lettuce is amazing. Coriander loves the conditions, and yesterday I added peas. We shall see what happens there.

In the Raised Beds

The corn is nearing the end of the season. I'm just waiting for the last few cobs to yellow and that bed will be destroyed. It needs serious manure. I'm not sure what to plant in it for winter, or if I should just mulch and cover it.

The chillies are magnificent. We have already frozen enough for the year, and we have both garnered the staff at our place of employ with chillies to great applause. So definitely a good move. Giving away vegetables is the biggest joy in my mind, as often it's reciprocated. A neighbour gave us carrots and cabbage, which I loved, as our carrots are still wee and the cabbage became a sacrificial crop to the white butterflies.

The pumpkin is growing slowly, so I want soup on my horizon. The leeks are doing well, and I am now trying to just chop the top off, leaving the roots in the ground. According to a thing I saw on Pinterest, this should grow new leeks. I have my doubts, but it does save the other leeks having their roots disturbed. I am tempted to plant more leeks in the greenhouse, as I do love them so.

I was given bird netting to put on my strawberries... But I haven't seen that project through yet.

In the Flower Beds

I discovered before heading to China last year that a garden with edibles in it was more likely to be watered by the man than a garden with just flowers.... So every garden bed will have edibles before too long. There was a neglected bed in the front garden. Neglected as it's full of bulbs, so usually has great blooms with no effort. However, someone decided to cover the garden with grass clippings.... Killing most of the blooms, leaving it looking lacklustre.

Enter a lemon tree, 3 bags of compost, and a whole host of flower seedlings. This is what I was doing into the wee small hours of the night on Friday. During the week I have been pruning back the hedge that fell over a while back, trying to find a shape again... And then weeding. Last nights rain will have done it a great deal of good, as it was in a bad, bad way. The soil was tired and the land so dry. Hopefully it will be a great bed in the end.

Next thing to do is sort out those hanging baskets!

 

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Greenhouse Gardening: Pots verses Planting in the Soil

Greenhouse Gardening is awesome, I will say that much. Everyone with a greenhouse says so, they rave over their crops, and all use them differently, which actually makes is super hard to get good advice.

In a previous post I talked about choosing a greenhouse. This post is all about deciding how to use your greenhouse.



Basically there are three main ways of using a greenhouse:
1- For seed raising and germinating young plants.
2- With pots for extending growing seasons
3- in-ground planting

Each has it's own advantages and disadvantages.

Using a greenhouse for seed raising is brilliant... The seeds germinate quickly and grow in a warm, protected environment. Plants can then be transferred into an outside garden when their true leaves have sprouted. However, this does mean having a lot of shelving, and being super careful not to under or over water the seeds. Also, you have to be really good at labelling plant trays and making sure you don't germinate too many seedlings at once.

Growing in pots is a low maintenance solution. Plants grow quickly and weeding is not an issue. The greenhouse can even have a wooden or concrete floor to reduce workload even more. However, you have to be careful to monitor soil quality in the pots, and watering as there are no natural methods for the plants to gain moisture.

Planting in-ground has the advantage of using the soil, and gaining nutrients and worm activity. It does however mean weeding and having to monitor the condition of the soil. You also have to build a pathway in your greenhouse or some sections can't be easily reached, and no one wants a well trodden veggie patch the ground is also susceptible to cooling over winter and reducing growing periods.

So it's a lot to weigh up. Firstly, decide how you are going to user he greenhouse. We decided we wanted to grow a wider range of crops, and for a longer period (eg, all year). To this end, we opted for planting in-ground. We did how ever decide to build a raised garden inside the greenhouse to try and limit the cooling of the soil over winter. Time will tell if we are right.



We do need to water daily, and keep an eye on the temperature inside the greenhouse. Often the doors and windows are all left open, and he temperature is still over 30 degrees Celsius inside. We bought a thermometer... And in winter we may invest in a heat pad to keep the temperature up, as we have planted subtropical tamarillo and a taro inside.



We are also planning on installing a seed raising shelf soon. This will attach to he interior wall, rather than stand on the ground. We have chosen low lying crops for below the shelf and the taller crops on the opposite side.


Hopefully this post will give you some ideas about how to use your greenhouse.

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What's Growing: February 2014

It's all go in the garden at the moment. There's hardly room to move for vege that needs harvesting or a weedy that needs pulling.



The cucumbers are in fine swing, and the corn has been doing magnificently. There is nothing better than attacking the garden for salad or dinner or lunch ingredients. It makes all the hard work worthwhile. The tomatoes are just coming along, with the first being used in some 'everything from the garden' tabouli.



Last weekend I sorted out the strawberries. With much chagrin I did in fact remove the runners, planting them in the greenhouse to strike. It was hard, normally I just let them go, but I do want more berries this year. Then they got all weeded and spread with pea straw after a jolly good watering.

The greenhouse is sooooooo hot at the moment. We have to keep opening it, and watering things so often in there. We planted a taro plant and watermelon seeds, which have germinated just over the last 2 weeks. I hope they do well,a a I would love watermelon for the effort. The strawberries are there too, and the lettuce and mescaline doing great - and they were only planted there because I needed to put them somewhere.









In my new garden bed the tops of carrots, beet root and rocket can be seen, and radishes sprung up almost overnight.



We harvested about 2 kilos of chilies the other day, so well ahead of schedule.



Soon there will be passion fruit and apples ready, and I do need to do something with the bok choi as it's doing really well.


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Greenhouse Gardening - Making a start

We bought a greenhouse! It was one of those, "I've always wanted a greenhouse".... Followed by a "hey look, this one is for sale".... Then some googling alternatives, and picking one.



It's awesome. However, I have noted that the internet is limited about advice on actually greenhouse gardening, so I will be making a series based on our experiences, and hopefully helping others to learn from where we went right and wrong....

To start we picked a polycarbonate greenhouse. These are basically like a super strong, UV treated, plastic paneled greenhouse. We have dogs and high winds... So the idea of glass or a plastic tunnel house was out right away. This one is concreted into the ground using the 6 feet on the structure... It is also about 2 1/2m wide and 3m long... So it's pretty big.



Then assembling the damn thing... My husband described it as a divorce inducing process. The instructions were..... Lacking. So I ended up in tears, the husband frustrated, the mother and father both called in, and eventually, a greenhouse set up.


Divorce averted. Today.

Then I decided we would grow things in slightly raised beds inside the greenhouse. I build a 6x2 raised edge, bolted together, (like my tutorial on building a small raised bed). This was filled with mushroom compost, though any compost will do. This means that we get the benefit of planting in the ground from worms, water etc, as well as the benefit of increased temperature by raising it off the ground within the greenhouse.

I also put in a pathway... Mainly to be pretty....



So far we have planted a tamarillo tree which we hope will fruit... And some lettuce and watermelon. Mainly, as it is summer, and it's too hot in there to grow many things. Everything I have read indicates that summer is the time to replace compost, to clean the greenhouse, and to prepare for autumn plantings. We however want to get something going, so we are trying subtropicals. I will be buying taro and a banana plant to attempt that. I am a huge believer in companion planting, so I'll be carrying that on in here. So far I have marigolds to keep out bad bugs, and lobelia and alyssum to attract the bees.



The greenhouse still needs a lot of water at this point, mainly because the compost is still decomposing into soil, and the ground below the greenhouse was super dry when we erected the structure.

Hopefully I'll have another update soon on how we are reworking it to our needs.


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