spring vegie patch

In the last couple of busy weeks I have managed to snatch a couple of days to devote to planting this years veggie crop in my patch at home. After being somewhat fully neglected over the winter (apart from some spinach, broccoli and beetroot) I needed to devote almost a full day just to weeding, as the patch has become overrun with mainly Sorrel (Acetosella vulgaris) which I remember Laurie saying is an indicator of acidic soil and would fit with our sandy soil here. Also there is lots of grass and the odd Narrow Leaf Plantain (Plantago lanceolata). Now I've completed my weeds unit - it's amazing how many weeds I notice now! For example a few tiny Petty Spurge (Euphorbia peplus) are popping up in the roots bed and I find myself reciting it's botanical name out loud before I prise it from it's spot. Unfortunately no one was around to be impressed by my new found knowledge. The majority of the weeds are growing in the wood chip paths, rather than the beds, and the best thing to do is hand pull so I get to it. Sorrel grows on runners that are bright orange and very easy to pull up in the soft bark. I know I will be back doing the same thing next year though, as it's impossible to get every tiny bit and the broken root sections will re-shoot. I do prefer this to spraying poisons around my organic patch however! After clearing the paths I top up the wood chips from a pile of chips we had done from a felled Blue Gum we had to remove, that is now breaking down nicely for later use. 

My veggie patch.

This is my forth year of veggie growing. The first few have been a real learning curve but I am feeling more confident and a bit more ambitious now, applying my failures and successes from previous years. The soil is getting better each year after regular applications of manures and compost and green manures and is now riddled with big fat worms and has good aggregates. 

The four main beds are organised loosely into a rotation system. I don't really know what I'm doing but I think the main thing to follow is not to plant the same crop in the same position in successive years. After readinhg numerous books and talking to Adam sat RTBG I have decided to stick to this loose formula: 

Bed One - Potatoes - has had a green manure and then topped with compost, straw and horse manure.

Bed Two - Legumes - has had a green manure over winter, topped with compost.

Bed Three - Miscellaneous - topped with compost.

Bed Four - Roots - (carrots, leeks, onions - members of the APIACEAE family) no compost.

Next year - Bed One will move to Bed Four and so on in a counter clockwise direction.

Other permanent beds include:

Raspberries - Along the back wall. Pruned, weeded and compost added. Shoots removed from path.

Blueberries - Weeded, blood and bone and mulch (had a load of compost last year)

Asparagus - Planted and mulched this winter in raised rows (see earlier post), now sprouted and just needing a light weed and fertilise.
Rhubarb - is planted outside the patch as the wallabies don't eat it.

And two smaller overflow beds this year used for:

Strawberries - These were planted at the start of winter and mulched with our Plane Tree leaf litter.  These will be moved again every 3 years.

No-Dig Bed - Has had a green manure crop, now with Lettuce and Pumpkin.
Tomatoes - will be grown in pots by the front door which is the warmest north facing sheltered position for them until the our polytunnel is constructed. This year I am trying an old fashioned favourite KY1 and a tommy toe for the kids to graze on. Last year's Grosse Lisse didn't ripen but we did have some fantastic green tomato chutney from it.

Bed One - Potatoes ( a bit late this year! Too busy studying!!)
Pinkeyes and Dutch Cream.

Bed Two - Sugarsnap and Snowpeas against a trellis,
yellow and green french bush beans, A block of sweetcorn
and zucchinis (one needed, three planted for insurance)

In bed three - winter broccoli, mini and globe beetroot,
dwarf beans (separate crop to bed 2 for insurance against the slugs)
some lettuce and cream marigolds.

Bed four - Orange and purple carrots, radish
garlic, leeks, chives, parsley and spring onions 
and the odd flower seedling tucked into the corners.

I decide to put my new found course knowledge into practise this year and convert one of the beds into a no-dig. I use 3 layers of spent grass hay, chicken manure pellets and dolerite rock dust, sprinkled with compost. Each layer is thoroughly soaked with the hose. Into pockets of compost go some heirloom lettuce and two Kent pumpkin seedlings. I only need one plant but have planted another for insurance (something I learnt from losing seedlings to the slugs last year) This will be allowed to trail down off the bed and along the side wall. I may even gently tie it to the fence to keep it neat.

My first No-Dig!
And check it out Marcus.... I even made hay sausages!

In the centre of my patch I have a tiered herb garden with a standardised bay tree in a pot at the top. The idea was to provide a designated area for companion flowers and herbs in a central position. On the sunny side I plant all the sun loving herbs like rosemary, oregano, sage and thyme. On the back shaded side I plant common mint and chocolate mint. For flowers this year I have planted Portulacas in the base of the pot. Dahlias in the first tier (they remind me fondly of my grandfather) and a row of cream marigolds at the bottom. I have also dotted a few different seedling punnets of flowers throughout the other beds to attract beneficials. I have also filled an old metal wheelbarrow with some foxgloves, celosia (for cut flowers) and asters for some more colour and attraction. The outside two edges of the tiers have English Lavender trimmed into spheres for interest.

Herbs and flowers.

When i first planted strawberries I can't remember which types I brought 3 yrs ago. I remember planting Tioga, Red Gauntlet and one other and forgot to label them clearly (lesson for the future!) Two out of the three were favoured by slugs and got quite a bit of grey mould. The third variety was fantastic. Hardly touched by the slugs and fruited prolifically with smaller sweet fruit. Consequently I only saved offshoot runners from this one for transplanting to the new bed and pulled the rest out and threw them away.

New strawberry bed mulched with leaf litter.
Asparagus bed beyond this planted with successive heirloom varieties
brought from the Froghollow Nursery Stall at the RTBG winter festival.
Only two more years  to wait before yummy spring asparagus soup.

My gorgeous kid Otto trying to sneak into my healthy
broccoli shot! These have been slowly grown (not Otto - he has shot up fast!)
with just rainfall over winter and there is not a slug or snail hole in them!
Not quite sure why they haven't touched them but they look fantastic!  

A few other happenings in my garden include some succulent propagation (isn't that the world's easiest propagation?) and some corms I brought from Voglevry at the market in winter are starting to flower. I love this time of year.

My succulent propagation efforts doing well.
Tucked in some Pansy seedlings for colour soon.

Some of my favourite ruby Ranunculus have just come out.

And hot of the press, I managed to score an original Huon pine laundry trough from the local antique dealer for a bargain price yesterday. Greg is keen to restore it to it's former golden glory and mount it on a nice frame in the patch as a feature to use for washing the dirt off the veggies before bringing them inside. The water used will drain into a bucket that will be recycled back into liquid feeds onto the garden. Here is a 'before' shot -will post an 'after' shot as soon as it's complete. :)

Our Huon pine restoration project.