Springtime at Colliwat

Spring has been gaining momentum over the last few weeks.  The vegies are all producing nicely and flowers are coming into bloom left, right and centre.  Some unusual spring rain about a week ago really got everything growing.  Here are some photos of what's currently in the potager and some of the flowers that are out.  More flowers are in bud so we will have some more for you very soon.  

Enjoy!

Borlotti beans - no beanfly so far

Broccolini flowers

First broccoli

Nasturtium

Purple vanda

Begonia

Peas - took a while to get started

Root crops - schallots, garlic, beetroot, swedes and carrots

Rosemary

Tall marigold (?Mexican)

Strawberries from runners transplanted from Black Ram Lodge

Potager Progress Part 2

We've been busy about the garden trying to complete and plant up the potager  beds before winter sets in.  Autumn is one of the main growing seasons here but there has been disappointingly little rain this year; although that did buy us some more time to get going on the beds.

After digging the top main bed, we've noticed the feeder roots from the gumtrees have responded by coming up through the new topsoil and sucking away all the moisture.  Luckily we hadn't done the rest of the beds before finding this out, which means that we've gone with no dig beds layered with cardboard, sugarcane or soybean mulch and mushroom compost with composted cow poo for nutrients.  We had enough cardboard left from furniture packaging to complete three main beds and one of the side beds that will shortly be planted out with strawberry runners.

Here's the run down of the beds:

Bed 1: Legumes
- Peas "Greenfeast," Dwarf beans, Snowpeas, Broad beans, with succession Peas "Greenfeast," Climbing beans, Snowpeas
Bed 2: Brassicas
- Kale "Red Russian," Red Cabbage, Broccoli, Wombok
Bed 5: Cucurbits and Corn
- Yellow zucchini
Bed 6: Solanaceae
- Yellow Roma tomatoes, French Marigold, Eggplant, 2 transplanted volunteer tomatoes from around the rest of the garden

See here for more details on crop rotation.  Autumn seems the most appropriate time for rotation so far.

Over half way complete!

The seeds are starting to come up in all the beds and today marked the first succession sowing of peas and beans as the first lot of peas poke their heads above the soil.  Unfortunately some of the seeds haven't come up which is most likely due to a couple of reasons: 1st: they're old and 2nd: they've been stored in the shed which does get hot during the day (they've since been moved to the laundry).  Here's hoping they just need a bit more time.

We finally had some very decent rain last week with a couple of stormy days with heavy falls bringing back the Colliwat Cascades, filling the tanks and creating a few ruts in the driveway.  The cold snap has arrived this week with all the mornings since Sunday being 7 degrees.  Hopefully we're not too late getting things planted.

View from across the dam

First harvest from the potager

Over the weekend we had our first harvest from the new vegie patch.  The tiny seedlings planted out a few weeks ago are thriving despite the dry and hot weather.  We've been watering nearly every day to keep everything going in anticipation of some rain.

We had a single day of light rain and a flash storm last week but barely enough rain to put any water in the tanks.  Showers are forecast for the rest of the week but the hope of rain and any sign of a puff off cloud seems to dissipate on a daily basis.

We hadn't had much success with asian greens at our old place - ending up with bitter leaves that were inedible.  I'm not sure what was causing it - lack of water, harvesting to late or some nutrient deficiency or imbalance.  A lovely friend raised some seedlings in a tray for us and these are from her plants.  The leaves were lovely and crunchy with a beautiful green flavour.  We added them in right at the end to our stirfry on Sunday night along with some mustard leaves which also came from the garden.  It's so good to have homegrown vegies again.

A special thank you to Erin for raising the pak choy seedlings for us (and the pumpkin too)

We have rainbow chard, tomatoes, yacon, corn, rocket and pumpkin all on the way too so we're looking forward to some yummy dinners in the next month or so.

Potager progress

It's about time I updated everyone on how the potager is progressing.  It's been plodding along quite slowly but it's getting there and the general idea is starting to take shape.  Planting seedlings in containers has given the project the nudge it needs as the beds have to be ready in time for the plants to have somewhere to continue growing.

The first corner bed.  It will eventually be for herbs and flowers but to start with it will most likely have some vegie seedlings in it until the main beds are done.

The asparagus needed planting first as these two crowns were transplanted from the old place and were threatening to shrivel away while trying to shoot in a bucket in the garage.  I planted herbs and seeds around them but so far only the cosmos has come up.  The edging rock is basalt which was already on the property and the landscape supply man tells me it's from Beaudesert.

Completed beds in grey.

Now to find some materials for the first archway.  One of the winged beans is up so it will be the first climber to go in.  I can't wait until we have fresh vegies again, straight from the garden.