Woo-Hoo! I Scored the Spring Flush

All of the seedlings I planted from the last post have sprung from the ground at such a rate that you would suspect steriods were involved. Somehow I managed to get lucky and plant them all just before the spring flush. This occurs every year, but since I had missed it every time, it had taken on a mythical, urban legend feeling to me. But no, it exists! And as a result I have vines now instead of seedlings. They are still quite small, but considering I only planted them a week or so ago, it appears that a miracle has been performed in my garden.

With all this wonderful growth has also come the October rains. Yes, I know it's November, but every year here we get rains late in October. They just came little later this year. With all the talk of an especially bad bush fire season, it was only to be expected that they would be delayed - or nonexistant. I'm just glad it's not the later option :-)

But with all this wonderful plant growth has come the realisation that I will have to hook up my greywater system this weekend. It consists of a long black hose that leads from my laundry tub, out the window and down into a green wheelie bin. Because our laundry is up so high, I only have the option of saving the entire load of water everytime. This is not ideal for vegie gardens because of the high contaminant levels in the first lot of water. So long as I water only the ground and don't splash any water up onto the plants, it all should be fine. I can understand why people shy away from encourageing greywater use on food gardens, but so long as people are really careful in what they are doing, then there shouldn't be a problem. Of course, if anyone in the family gets ill why we are using greywater, then their clothes are washed seperately and the water in not used on the garden.

Planting Frenzy

The other day I ever so quietly snuck out into the garden. In one hand I had a small spade, and in the other a handful of pumpkin seedlings. While no one was watching I planted them in a mad flurry. Shhh...next in went some spaghetti squashes and ten cucumber seedlings. Heaven's knows what we will do with TEN vines of cucumbers come February. Especially since the next lot of seedlings to go in were 8 Lebanese cucumbers!!

Yes, it is THAT time of year again. I am planting like it is going out of style. Like a silent maniac I also planted the following:

*Hale's best rock melon (6 seedlings)
*Sugar baby watermelon (8 seedlings)
*Fenugreek (loads)
*Luffa (6 seedlings)
*Romanesco zucchini (only 1 seedling, but next to 9 other established ones)
*Amish paste tomatoes (5 seedlings)
*Nigella (about 6 or so)
*Cos lettuce (12 seedlings)
*Some more lettuce, but this lot from the neighbour (LOADS of these went in)

I think that if the recession really does hit, I just may be able to feed the ENTIRE street. Well, I would like to think so anyway :-)

As I gardened, I noticed that my broccoli has started to head. I had to smile at this. Everyone told me I was planting them at the wrong time of the year. For two years running I have planted broccoli at the 'right' time of the year. Each time it resulted in no crop what so ever. So I went with my gut instinct this year and planted them when ever I damn well felt like it!

Tomorrow I think I will plant some more. I still have basil and apple cucumbers and poppies and more lettuces and tomatoes and...

Cold Snap

Last Saturday it was 32 degrees! Ever since then it has been cold enough to have to turn the heater on of an evening. Ditto the electric blanket.

Of course this is typical, you see on the weekend I planted out all my Curcurbitae seedlings. So now for the entire week I have been torn between rushing out of a morning to check on my precious little babies and desperately hiding away and hoping that by not looking at them they won't die.

Every year this seems to happen. The last frost passes and I get the urge to plant, and then a cold snap hits. So far, I haven't lost anything, but I'm not entirely convinced that they will all survive if the cold weather lasts much longer.

Today I am looking out at sunshine (even though I still had the heater on until 10.00am this morning), I feel bad to be smiling at the heat, because in all this cold weather, we actually had very little rain. The ground is so dry out there that even with the overcast skies and the morning dews, I was still watering seedlings that were sagging in the parched ground.

{sigh} I guess it's only human nature that we are never happy with what we have...

True Love!

I know now that there is no one else for me - not after my hubby spoilt me rotten. Most women prefer diamonds or flowers. Me, well I prefer what my husband came home with on the weekend - a basket full of vegetable seedlings! I had been busy planting seedlings I had raised from seed so that I could fill the seed trays with even more seeds. Right at the moment when I decided that it would be nice to be planting out tomato plants that were bigger than an inch tall, in walks my hubby with two flowering Black Russian and one Beefsteak tomato. He also bought me two more Hokawase strawberry plants and a small Habenaro chilli. Heaven!

Besides planting vegetables, I have also been weeding my herb patch. It has been the best year ever for Borage and as a result, I have had to clear the entire herb garden of its wonderful blue flowers. Now I have room to plant out all the spices I have attempted to grow after raiding my spice jars in the kitchen. My SIL was amazed the other day when I handed her kids a bag full of kidney beans. She thought you could only eat the ones you bought from the supermarket. But using seed purchased from the supermarket is often an excellent way to obtain cheap seed. Mustard can be grown from the seed from the shops, so can lentils and caraway and lima beans. In fact, after raiding hte spice rack, I am attempting to grow: Cumin, Green Pepper, Fenugreek (this is sprouting after only two days), Cardamon, Fennel, Caraway, Poppy, Coriander and Nigella.

And So The Insanity Continues...

It was wonderfully warm today - warm enough to wear a t shirt at 8.30 in the morning. Warm enough to lay in the grass and make pictures in the clouds. And warm enough to bury my hands in the dirt once again. I planted the following seeds today:

*Sweet delight capsicum
*Hot chilli pepper
*Dill
*Bush champion cucumber
*Hale's best rockmelon
*Sweetie tomatoes

I finally finished weeding the monster weeds down the back and planted in all my pumpkin seeds: Jen's bush pumpkin, Kent and an unknown variety that I saved from a pumpkin a few years back.

The celery seedlings got planted, so did my one remaining passionfruit and two alpine strawberries. Last, but not least, I planted out two heads of garlic.

Now I just need to hook up my greywater system to the washing machine, and I should have enough water for it all...

Seedlings, Seedlings Everywhere

On the weekend we went to our local market. It's a lovely place, situated on the side of a hill and in amongst a carpark (I know that doesn't make it sound anywhere near as lovely as what it really us). Anyway, we were on the hunt for a new Nelly Kelly passionfruit vine - hopefully one that I can't kill this year ;-) But what we ended up coming home with was ten enormous brocolli seedlings. They are just beautiful! I mentioned recently that I was missing the wonderful taste of homegrown brocolli, and once I saw these beauties, i just knew i had to have them. They are big enough that the snails won't devour them before I do :-)

On the way home we called into my inlaws to collect some bricks for our outdoor oven. In the process, my father inlaw gave me some celery seedlings - more yummo! Three days later and the snails still haven't noticed them, so maybe I will also get lucky with these ones.

My husband also came across the most beautiful door for our oven too. It has come off an old woodfire oven that was ready for the scrapheap. The door though is perfect, not a spot of rust anywhere. It actually has two doors on it, one with a flat tray - so that will be perfect for my Naan bread.

So overall - we had a really lucky weekend!