Growth

Arriving back at the vege garden this morning the day began with visits to a number of nearby friends, coffee, chat and a generally enjoyable time. What a great way to start work. Some hours later I wandered into the garden to see what had happened over the last week and was pleased to se the new growth. There had been some warmer days plus a storm. The area which wasn’t covered by the black plastic over the dormant years has considerably more weeds than the rest. The plastic doesn’t seem to have degraded the soil at all, it is more like hibernation.

The beans have grown 10cm from just sprouting a week ago with very few weeds:

The tomatoes are looking particularly healthy and will soon need to be tied to the stakes. The only plant that was a bit small is catching up nicely. The basil which was a bit doubtful last week in now looking much better most likely thanks to the warmer weather:

Sunshine, well, an hour or so

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The morning started off clear and sunny, there was a soft ground-hugging mist among the trees, one of natures finest moments, to this human at least.
Once again the morning started off with all the intentions of work but wound up having coffee & chat with friends a couple of idle hours which included a look thru an artist’s studio. This is what a tree change is like – random serendipity.
When work resumed I planted two rows of potatoes just using sprouting ones from the pantry. Every time I work this soil I am amazed at it’s excellent texture. The mineral content should be close to optimal by now so the organic material is the next component for attention.
Here are the potato trenches, look at the soil texture:

A pleasant morning of serendipity.

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There is a noticeable silence among the trees, it comes after a long period of rain. nature is waiting. There as about one hour of sun this morning, enough to really get me moving and into the garden.

Arriving at the garden shed I was ready to spread a bale of organic sugar cane mulch when a neighbour, Kay called out and said that there was circle dancing on. That was the end of the work as I spent about an hour relearning the dances I had not done for ten years or more.

The thought process tried to remember the steps but when I stopped doing that, the memory re-emerged and the dance in me flowed.

On the way back I ran into Barry, another neighbour and we had an interesting conversation about some of the teachings of the Buddha. What a pleasant morning, this is what a real tree change is all about – a big dose of serendipity (Serendipity: The faculty of making happy discoveries by accident).

After that busy morning I had lunch and then ventured into the vege garden. The tomatoes had doubled in size since I as last here but the carrots, spring onions and beetroot are still small. The English spinach didn’t germinate well so I will replace it with silver beet.

The daytime temperatures have been around 15 degrees and down to ten degrees at night time so until the average soil temperature gets to twenty degrees, there will not be much movement from the plants.

The tomatoes with some powdered rock:

The sweet corn is coming along although the cool, wet weather has slowed it down somewhat. I spread some organic sugar cane mulch around it with a dressing of dynamic lifter. I can’t wait to stat eating the cobs.

Here is a picture of the garden shed, it is a good size although it needs a bench inside:

So ends another day in Charlie’s garden.

Waiting for the rain to stop

I am not sure how much rain there has been, it must be around 200mm and the daytime temperature here has been around 13 degrees. The garden is at 600 meters elevation so the cooler months last longer.

I continue to be amazed at the change in the soil, it is so soft and friable now after the gypsum plus rain. It had been covered with black plastic for several years.

Looking around the garden shed I continue to find goodies left by the previous gardeners, blood & bone, tools, etc. I noticed that there were no mouse droppings and the old blood and bone bags hadn’t been nibbled so the shed is completely mouse proof.

Having been away from the garden for a couple of weeks due to the rain I was pleasantly surprised to see that the weeds had not grown much but unfortunately, neither had the seeds although the sweet corn is making a move.

The tomatoes are looking good, it liked all that rain but the basil is booking a bit off. It may recover now that the sun is shining every day:

A quick dig with the three pronged hoe and the fledgling weds are all gone

I have noticed that the weeds on the pathways require little attention to keep them under control, just walking on them seems to do the trick although If they do become a problem i will try some herbicide I saw on Gardening Australia

Also planted some dwarf beans and also some turnip seed I had in an old packet. That’s blood & bone on the rows.

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Front entrance colour

Here is a colourful display next to my front door. There are 48 flowers on this single pansy:

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Half the garden planted

There has been some more rain in fact it has been a very good season, I have not needed to water the seeds much at all. The moisture has helped to break down the ‘road-base’ texture of the middle garden and it is now looking very good.
 

This is what it looked like a couple of weeks ago:

Here is the official inspection. All is ok.

About half the garden is now planted. There is going to be lots of sweet corn, plenty for me and lots to share around.

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