We spent my day off this week making some new plant purchases, followed by lunch with my parents and then finally when it began to pour rain, we got around to putting the plants in. I was determined, rain or not to get everything we purchased planted as often I buy seedlings and then don't get around to planting them, and come my next day off they are laying dead, eaten or gone to seed!
We had a fairly big buy up this time, as I am behind in my gardens & spring has already well & truly sprung! Knowing that time would be limited I decided not to raise my own seedlings from scratch although I have had ok success with this before (some people have said that they find it really hard to grow from seed), and just bought in a variety of bits I wanted.
Last week on my day off I managed to get my seeded sebago potatoes (these have been waiting to plant out so long that the pontiac's I bought at the same time have actually already been harvested!) I don't know how successful they'll end up being after all this time, but they've grown about a foot in height in the week & are looking good. Last week I also put in 4 zucchini & 4 squash seedlings (I was hesitant as I've failed miserably with these to date!) which are still surviving although not looking like they've grown any. Part of the reason I think I've failed with these before is probably lack of pollination, because the flowers grow, but no vegies result. To assist with this, I've planted some alyssum and a couple of nasturtium seedlings around them in the hope of attracting the bees.
Near this garden is a big ghost gum in front of which I've been piling up a bit of a compost heap. Into this I've dug a couple of small holes that have been filled with a mixture of worm tea soaked coir & rich potting mix and then planted with cucumber. Again I've popped in some nasturtium seedlings to keep these company. I'm not sure whether it will be successful or not, as the tree does seem to leach goodness away from anything near it, but the ground has slowly been getting richer so fingers crossed! On the other side of the tree I've popped in some rosella's. My nanna use to grow them & make jam, but the last of her bushes died off & she had no more seed left, so it's a bit of nostalgia more than anything that's behind this.
Along the fence line I've put in 4 rockmelon seedlings, two either side of the raspberry canes. Eventually I want this space exclusively for raspberries, but in the meantime I figure I may as well use the area.
To the herb garden in the front yard today I've added; lemon thyme, coriander, a curry plant & 4 butter lettuce seedlings ( I have had good success with lettuce amongst the herbs out front before so I figured I'd give them a go there again).
We bought a tangerine, an orange and a tangelo tree & have planted them into big black plastic tubs for the time being until hubby finishes the garden fencing and then they'll probably be planted along what will one day be the driveway to the garage. For the time being the pots should be big enough to give them plenty of room to grow. I've underplanted two of these with a couple of strawberries and some alyssum to attrack the bees once they start to flower.
I've also put in more rhubard ( this is my third lot & it keeps dying off). This time I've put some into the herb garden and some more near the lemonade tree and some into my original eggplant patch. Now we wait & see...
Unfortunately no pictures because of the rain, but hopefully when the weekend comes I can get some shots of everything progressing nicely.
