Winter Garden Update

Here’s a bit of a run around the winter garden at the moment

The broccoli seedlings were planted out around the 25th of June and are going gangbusters. No heads have formed yet and only found two caterpillars so far.

There are 40 broad bean plants in the patch this year but so far only one plant has any beans on it. The tempeature has been quite warm for winter. Broad beans need day time temperatures below 21 degrees Centigrade and so far we have only had about three days this winter below that level. Here’s hoping we have a bit of a cold snap.

They were planted as seeds on the 12th of April.

 

I pick the comfrey quite regularly and either throw it into the compost pile or stuff it into a 200 litre barrel filled with water. I use this as a plant drench and tonic. Comfrey has a deep tap root and will drag up minerals from the soil. By composting it and making a comfrey tea with it those minerals are being provided to the other plants in the garden who don’t have such a deep root system able to source the minerals.

Comfrey is also good as a barrier to weeds. The hardest weeds to keep out of the garden are the running weeds like couch and kikuyu. Comfrey will help to stop them running into your garden.

The compost pile. The compost was getting a little out of hand. I had three piles going and was running out of space for the lawnmower guy who supplies me with clippings. Over the last couple of weeks I have been aerating the piles and consolidating them into one location for transfer to the garden. It’s been a bit of a workout.

I was mosying around Northern NSW and ran into Tommy ‘Bamboo’ Lindley. He has a company called Bamboo Creations Australia in Burringbar. I was quite impressed with the bamboo farm he had been creating over the last twenty years and seeing that I was intersted in growing bamboo for eating I bought a couple to see how they would go. It’s a bit of an experiment as I don’t have a clue about bamboo or when to harvest the culms or how to prepare it, but I’m looking forward to discovering how.

I figured that the new fence at the back of the property was the perfect place to give them a bit of support until they can look after themselves. Can’t remember the species of bamboo, but the next time I am down Burringbar way, I will find out.

I am a fan of asparagus. It makes a great side dish stirfried with mushrooms and some bacon. It is another vegetable I have never grown before so it was about time to find out how to grow them. I was in Bunnings and had a wander through the garden department and bought a couple of crowns to see how they would go. So far they are doing it on their own and haven’t been any problem at all.

These two crowns are 12 months old and were transplanted on the first of July

 

 

A punnet of four zucchini was purchase on the 21 June and transplanted the next day. From their growth you wouldn’t know it was a winter garden.

It looks like it is time to harvest the turmeric. I am looking forward to seeing what the rhizome looks like and to try some. I have read amazing claims about the health benefits of turmeric so it will be good to see if any of the claims are anywhere near true.

Since this picture was taken the ginger has been harvested and with the other ginger harvested earlier there was in excess of 8 kilos. I have enough ginger for the next 12 months and for replanting. I have prepared the same bed with two barrowloads of compost, some crusher dust and some lime.I am looking forward to having a go a making some ginger beer.

Here’s a plant that loves the hot weather, the hotter the better. I am surprised to see it grow so well in winter. The catch is that so far none of the flowers have turned into fruit. It is probably the opposite of the broad beans in that it needs temperatures higher than what they are at the moment to set fruit. I will keep persevering and see what happens.

The ground cover under it is supposed to be Dutch coriander, but it doesn’t look anything like a parsley or coriander. It will be interesting to watch what it ends up like and what it tastes like.

 

Talking of parsley, something is agreeing with the parsley as it is growing so well I have to pull handfulls at a time off this bush and feed it to the compost pile.

Must be all the compost it is growing in and the watering system.

 

 

I love volunteer tomatoes. This one has grown out of the old worm bed along with a passionfruit vine, though it is pretty hard to see the passionfruit as the tomatoe is out competing it. I think they are Grosse Lisse variety. They are quite firm and very tasty.

Waiting for the snow peas to climb the trestle work and deliver some peas.

There are a couple of other items I have missed but will do them another day. However the wicking bed needs to be included. I have only filled it the once and it still seems to be moist enough for everything to grow.

At the top are two Black Russian tomatoes, then French beans, cabbage, cauliflower and Chinese and Japanese greens. All the small seedlings were grown from seed directly sown in the bed.

The larger leaf plant in the front are Choy Sum. They were grown in a punnet and transplanted.