dilly dalley doolittle gardening

Seed potatoes have gone in

On October 14 we planted this year's potato crop (by which I mean the potatoes we'll eat next year). I gave an account of our potato planting process in this post and nothing significant has changed since I wrote this up. In the photo above, Tim is filling a couple of trays with water. We soak the newspapers so that they don't fly around while you lay them down onto the garden bed.

Last year's report included evidence of my children's assitance with potato planting but this year we did not have any children with us. They are old enough now to be left to their own pursuits at home. We are just back from our annual October bushwalk and they are both happy to be at home and do their homely (read electronic devices) connections. I can't tell you how grateful I am to have had a childhood that was pre-computer. I crave the outdoors away from desks and electronics. I love the dirt and the garden and the sky above me. I like listening to the birds and the wind whip across suburban Dunlop and rip across the vegie patches. I don't know what it will be like for this generation of children who went from womb to screen. What do their brains perceive when they are in nature? Is it the same as mine? I don't know. Can they be as connected to nature or are they always craving electronic connections?

Like last year, this year's seed potatoes have once again been purchased from New Gippsland. We have Pontiac, Desiree, Sebago, Coliban, & Nicola.

In the absence of having someone to jot down what order we planted the potatoes, I decided to photograph the bags laid out in the order that they would go on the newspaper (so at the top of the beds are the pontiacs, then the desiree, then the sebago, coliban and finishing with the Nicola). Tim then wanted to place the paper bags under the actual type of potato and photograph the effect - just as an extra piece of photographic documentation. So I distracted myself with gazing at my pea seedlings in the bed next door.

 And lo and behold....husbands are funny creatures aren't they? Charming photo. I guess he thought it was amusing - I think it would be best posted out of context.

Moving right along.....to finish off, the bed was covered in straw then sprinklings of sheep manure, blood and bone and sulphate of potash were added to start the composting effect. The whole pile was watered well and then we walked away.

Previous posts

Potato bed - mid Summer (January 2012)

Potato bed - early summer (December 2011)

Potatoes are up (November 2011)

Planting seed potatoes (October 2011)

Buying seed potatoes (September 2011)

Leek and potato soup (May 2011)

More on the potato harvest (March 2011)

Potatoes and leeks (March 2011)

Potato bed - update late summer (February 2008)

Potato bed - early summer (December 2007)

Peas are up

We came back from our holiday and were pleased to see the peas up. We planted these September 23rd - so these photos were taken 3 weeks later on 13th October.

I checked my blog from last year and it seems I prepared the ground for the peas on Sept 14 but then didn't sow the seeds until Oct 8 and then around mid-Nov they were half way up the frame. We'll see if getting the seeds in a few weeks earlier makes any difference.

There are a couple of little gaps in the row but nothing really dramatic. We were away for 9 days so there would have been no water to them in that period, except for rainfall :-) of course!

 

Previous posts

Sowing peas: Spring 2012 (September 2012)

Beans, beans, beans (Feb 2012)

Pea and bean bed - mid summer (Jan 2012)

Shelling peas - summer 2011 (Dec 2011)

Pea and bean bed - early Summer 2011 (Dec 2011)

Pea and bean bed - Spring 2011 (Nov 2011)

Spring vegetables and sowing peas (Oct 2011)

Planting peas - preparing the trench (September 2011)

Bean bed - update - end of summer (February 2008)

Bean bed - early summer (December 2007)

Seed saving - beans blue lake (May 2007)

Seed saving - beans (April 2007)

Sowing peas: Spring 2012

On Sunday the 23rd September we headed down to the garden to get the Spring on. This bed was planted with tomatoes last summer and now it will be the legumes and brassicas.

The garden was quiet when we arrived and at first we three were the only ones there despite the glorious weather. Having said that, it was super windy. My hat blew off many times. The start of Spring in our community plot was a three person event. I did the weeding, then Tim did the digging, then Nick helped lay the straw and manure. We've received our Gunning Gold sheep poo order as evidenced by the bright yellow bags in the background.

After the soil was covered, Tim put the frames in; one for peas, one for beans. I wont sow the bean seeds until October. They really do not like frosts and we are still due any number of frosts before the baking heat is well and truly here.

After the frames went in, I sowed the pea seeds. I've owned up before to being a ramshackle kind of seed saver. Half the frame was sown with Sugar Snap Peas from Green Harvest. The other half the frame came from a paper bag labelled 'PEAS' in a young person's handwriting.

So you will note that it is a mixture of seeds...brown ones, green ones, white ones...some really plump, others wrinkled...that sit waiting to be encased in rich black dirt. In a few months we'll know who these creatures are when the pod up.

 

 

Previous posts

Beans, beans, beans (Feb 2012)

Pea and bean bed - mid summer (Jan 2012)

Shelling peas - summer 2011 (Dec 2011)

Pea and bean bed - early Summer 2011 (Dec 2011)

Pea and bean bed - Spring 2011 (Nov 2011)

Spring vegetables and sowing peas (Oct 2011)

Planting peas - preparing the trench (September 2011)

Bean bed - update - end of summer (February 2008)

Bean bed - early summer (December 2007)

Seed saving - beans blue lake (May 2007)

Seed saving - beans (April 2007)

Pumpkin harvest

We finished harvesting our pumpkins mid-April. Technically after the frosts...which according to Peter Cundall is best avoided. The vines certainly died off after two nights of killer frosts and all the pumpkins were sitting there ...just sitting. No one seemed harmed. So we took the trailer down and scooped them up.

more and....

 

Where do you want these? And what are you going to do with them all?

They will be stored in the garage, which is nestled into our sloping block and is reasonably cool throughout summer. In the past, I've managed to have pumpkins get all the way through to the end of the next summer. I've never got through a whole year. Not that it matters, by the time summer is here, the spring crops are starting to feed everyone and we're all well and truly sick of pumpkin and other winter vegies.

He's tossing them. The big bloke is laughing and the photographer and all round nervous nelly is finger wagging and telling them to 'stop, it isn't funny, I planted those...'.

He did point out that he thought we had enough and if the teenager dropped one...well, damn hey. This one is waiting at the front door to be made into soup. Shssh. Don't tell him. He thinks he's being a still life with succulents.

 

Previous posts

Pumpkin bed - late Summer (April 2012)

Pumpkin bed - mid Summer (Jan 2012)

Before the 12 months is over (March 2009)

Pumpkin bed - update late Summer (Feb 2008)

Pumpkin bed - early summer (Dec 2007)

Pumpkin harvest (June 2007)

Check for frosts (April 2007)

Stumbling on melons (February 2007)

Tomato bed 2 - mid Feb 2012

Tomato bed 2 had the overflow tomato plants ...like 30 plants in tomato bed 1 wasn't enough?  I just can't say no when there is space and dirt, so why not plant. But it also has the eggplants and capsicums and cucumbers (which I didn't manage to photograph this year). Below are some smallish looking eggplant plants, though they really were quite productive.

Can you see the glossy black of the eggplant hiding in the photo below? Love.

Again, the overflowing tomato plants. I am unruly. They like to be free and abundant. It is the way it is.

These went in later than the tomato plants in bed 1 and this was a good thing. Later cropping, later picking was helpful with the tomato processing. Again this year we have a cupboard full of tomato passata.

Previous posts

Tomato bed 2 - update (Jan 2012)

Tomato bed 1 - mid Feb 2012

Okay. Can you tell where the bed stops and starts? Where exactly is the path.

February 19th, 2012. We do like to plant the cherry tomatoes variety, though I wish this year we had planted just a few more of the Romas or larger tomatoes. In a future post, I can show you why we like the cherries but it does make picking fiddly.

Having a jungle of tomato plants sprawling all over the bed also makes picking a fiddly job. It is thus best undertaken by the farmer responsible for the jungle. If non-planters are asked to do picking, a protest flag is always raised above the bed. Sometimes I can look the other way and not even notice that flag. Mainly because one does need help with the harvest in times of plenty.

 

 

Previous posts

Tomato bed - lots of growth, flowers, small tomatoes (Jan 2012)

Tomato bed 1 planted (November 2011)

Tomato bed - mid summer (January 2008)

Tomato bed - early summer (December 2007)

Tomato bed prep (November 2007)

Beans, beans, beans

Bean harvests from February 2012. Another in the series of catch-up posts. Brought to you by the letter A for 'absent' and B for 'beauty'.

Beans Blue Lake on the left, Dwarf beans in the middle, yellow runner beans on the right.

Previous posts

Pea and bean bed - mid summer (Jan 2012)

Shelling peas - summer 2011 (Dec 2011)

Pea and bean bed - early Summer 2011 (Dec 2011)

Pea and bean bed - Spring 2011 (Nov 2011)

Spring vegetables and sowing peas (Oct 2011)

Planting peas - preparing the trench (September 2011)

Bean bed - update - end of summer (February 2008)

Bean bed - early summer (December 2007)

Seed saving - beans blue lake (May 2007)

Seed saving - beans (April 2007)

Pumpkin bed - late Summer

I mentioned previously that I am a bit behind in my blogging. I'm going to spend the next couple of posts updating my blog with photos from Summer. I appreciate this could be frustrating for any locals who are actually experiencing the full blown effects of the frost from last week (hint: the creatures below hate frost!). It would seem so odd to see these images when outside looks so different. Apologies. I do like to look back at my own photo record for inspiration, memories, ideas, information...so it serves some purpose for me to update this (my blog). Summer was but a brief and wet time this past year.

 These photos were taken in February 2012.

 That pumpkin vine below was allowed to cross over the path into the adjoining bed. I must have turned my back on him for a moment and he was off.

 

Previous posts

Pumpkin bed - mid Summer (Jan 2012)

Before the 12 months is over (March 2009)

Pumpkin bed - update late Summer (Feb 2008)

Pumpkin bed - early summer (Dec 2007)

Pumpkin harvest (June 2007)

Check for frosts (April 2007)

Stumbling on melons (February 2007)

January harvests: where have I been?

I occasionally bump into people or receive emails from people who read my blog and after I've been quiet for awhile on the blog, they often ask am I still gardening? I think being absent from a gardening blog is kind of odd, because unlike other hobbies or pursuits, the garden didn't wait patiently while I 'got on with other things'. It kept growing and producing and needing the farmer to move it along into the next season. Or else it would go its own merry way and produce an abundance of beautiful but non-edible produce (aka weeds).

I can reassure readers who care - that I rarely abandon my garden but I do find that over the years I have had gaps in my blogging. So, while I have been quiet, the tomatoes have been growing, have been picked, have been made into passata and put in the cupboard. The apple crop has finished. The pumpkins are manic. We have received more rain than I am used to. The garden has mostly loved it. The days have grown shorter, the mornings are getting chilly, the winter beds need attention. The earth has continued its seasonal cycle. Time and gardens wait for no blogger.

A photo from January 2012.....beans and tomatoes and zucchinis.

I will be resuming normal transmission soon. I have a backlog of photos, posts and stories to tell myself and the world. I began blogging years ago, mainly for myself but also for the connections that it forms. It is a hobby though and I do have a range of other things I need to do: raise children, keep a home, work for a few dollars, maintain real live friendships and family connections. Most recently my work has been noisy and demanding. I am just about to put it back into its box and tell it to behave with more perspective. I am looking forward to being back here and focussing on nature and nurture.

Thanks for your concern and enquiries.

Tomato bed 2 - update

Because of my 8-year rotation plan, I sometimes have two beds dedicated to solanums (tomatoes, eggplant, capsicum). This is one of those years. In future years, I'll loose this bed and gain an extra pumpkin bed (where I can plant melons) or an extra root bed (where I can plant onions and garlic).

In the main tomato bed, I have, well, tomatoes. In this the second 'tomato bed' I have a few tomatoes, but mainly eggplant and capsicum and some basil.