August 2007

1st August

Abbie laid her first blue egg for the season - Spring is well and trully on our doorstep

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2nd August

Today I extended the bottom vegie garden out to meet the path. My hubby has FINALLY given the go ahead to loose the lawn - so I thought I'd better get out there and start digging before he changed his mind I am trying something different this year, instead of planting wherever and stepping carefully, I am doing the lot in rows. Each row is quite narrow, but as I have dug the path between the rows, I have hilled the dirt up on top for better drainage. I am surprised at the condition of the dirt. Once the couch grass is removed, the soil underneath is quite lovely. It's only been clay in a few spots on the paths as I have dug down.

So I planted out the five rows dug as such:

1st row - left bare, it has thich leaf mulch and will be home to the pigeon peas later on
2nd row - Radish and Lettuce seeds
3rd row - Lettuce seeds
4th row - Rocket seeds
5th row - Pak Choi and Mustard seeds

They are all quick growers and will hopefully keep the soil covered until I get some straw
mulch

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3rd August

Harmony escaped. At least I know that clipping both of Bob's wings has worked There goes the seed cover though....

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5th August

I pulled up everything in the bottom vegie patch. Which is less scary than it sounds All that was left there were mainly stunted carrots and leeks that had self seeded too clost together.

They have been replanted into the bottom vegie patch extension as such:

1st row - n/a
2nd row - carrots
3rd row - carrots/leeks/silverbeet
4th row - parsnip/1 radish
5th row - nothing

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6th August

I dug another row today. Then I covered all the rows in straw, which would have been a LOT easier if the mulch was laid BEFORE the seedlings were put in. I then sprinkled some Detroit Globe Beetroot seeds across the remainder of the 4th row and the entire 5th row.

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7th August

My daughter and I pulled up all the potates today. Just as I had suspected - the chooks had had many a fine meal on them. For some strange reason chickens seem to LOVE baby spuds. So we planted all of them back into the bottom vegie patch.

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11th August

The Almond and Golden Queen Peach trees look as though they are about to flower. I suspect the Almond will flower first.

As for planting, this is what I did today:

*Planted seedling lettuces (varieties: Red &Green Mix, Cos and Great Lakes) into 6th row of the new vegie patch
*Pulled up most of the coloured silverbeet seedlings that I had planted way to close together in the top vegie patch and replanted them in the second row of the bottom vegie patch (is it confusing enough yet?!)
*Planted seedling shallots and heirloom carrots into the first row of the bottom vegie patch *Planted seedling nastursiums and Russell Lupins along the top fence
*Dug another row into the new vegie patch I noticed the mustard and/or the pak choi had germinated

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14th August

There was frost this morning. I discovered frozen silverbeet seedlings tossed about everywhere. The blackbird must have pulled them all up yesterday and they froze over night. I replanted them - I dunno how they will fare {shrugs} The ground was frozen down to about half a centimetre.

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15th August

There was frost again this morning though it was no where near as severe as yesterday, it had dissapated by the time we left to walk to school.

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16th August

Today I planted the following seeds and put them into the hothouse.

*Sweetie tomatoes and cucumber into a hanging basket (this will go outside my kitchen window eventually)
*Into punnets I planted Cos, Red & Green and Great Lakes lettuce seeds, as well as grey seeded and black seeded sunflower seeds
*Into the green seedling trays I planted 8 yellow squash, 4 chilayayle squash, 4 Moon & Stars Watermelon and 8 cotton seeds
*Into a black meat tray I planted 20 Fordhook Silverbeet, many Italian Basil and 12 Five Colour Silverbeet seeds

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18th August

Bought seeds today - I just couldn't help myself. I have more than enough seeds to keep us in food, but I STILL find the need to buy more. From the Reject Shop I bought Lebanese cucumbers as they cucumbers I planted the other day may not be viable. Then at Bunnings I also bought some Pickling Gerkin seeds as well as some seedlings (upon my husbands request) of Perpetual Spinach, Rainbow Beetroot, Celery and Mini Cauliflowers.

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19th August

We went to our local market today and came home with a bare rooted Packham Pear - at only $12 we just couldn't leave it there! Eden seeds also had stall there so I bought some Green Globe Artichoke seeds to try as a couch grass barrier. My hubby aslo convinced me we had to try mushrooms again (the last lot we kept forgetting to water), so we came home with a mixed box of Button and Swiss Brown - Yum!

*I planted the following seeds into poly boxes and put them into the pineapple hothouse: Pumpkin, Cucumber, Artichoke and Pickling Gerkin
*I also started planting the perpetual Sinach along the wire in the top vegie patch - Boy, I didn't realise how many plants were in the punnet! At $3.95 for the punnet I got 20 - 30 seedlings - great value for money
*My hubby planted the Packham Pear and I can safely say we now only have room to replace the hazelnuts that the dought killed last year - there really isn't any more room for trees in our yard He also fertilised everything with Dynamic Lifter (with the help of our little green thumb daughter)

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23rd August

I got out there today and finally planted the rest of the Perpetual Spinach. All the seedlings bought on the weekend went in also. Looks like I'm gonna have to keep replanting the Rainbow Beetroot though as the blackbird is rather partial to pulling them out. I don't know what would make me crosser, the bird just pulling them out for fun, or it eating the seedlings - GRRR. I also noticed that most of the frosted silverbeet seedlings had died

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26th August

After throwing Bob and Harmony back into the chicken yard this morning (they had managed to work their way through a small gap in the fence and eat all the Nastursium and Lupin seedlings ) I dug another row in the new vegie patch. I covered it with Dynamic Lifter and Straw and now it can wait until I can be bothered planting something into it.

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27th August

The Golden Queen, Almond and Nectarine all have their first flowers today!! FINALLY And I was right, the Almond was the first to burst, it had actually opened up late yesterday afternoon. Today was also the hottest August day since 1982. Conincidently, 1982 was the year the last big dought broke, so does that mean we are gonna get a lot more rain all of a sudden, or will it be another scarily hot Summer again?

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28th August

I planted two types of Butternut Pumpkin today into a two stack of polyboxes. The seeds will be kept nice and warm and when they grow they will cover the chicken wire fence between the vegie patches and the chook yard. Something ate the Celery right down to ground level last night In the hothousees I have a lot of seeds starting to sprout now. I thought maybe I had planted them too early and they had rotted, but luckily they are all starting off now since the hottest August day.

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29th August

{whisper} I planted tomato seedlings today. Only one punnet of Amish Paste that I have been growing inside on my kitchen windowsill. {whisper again} I also used snail bait - there is no way I'm gonna loose these seedlings. I plan to have masses of tomatoes this year. So I also covered them in plastic to keep them warm over night. I aslo started collecting greywater from our washing machine. The ground is already starting to crack in places.