Child of the Planet

For the first time, on the the longest day of the year, I didn’t spring out into the garden and pull the bulbs out from the ground ( click here to see last years harvest ). This harvest season, I waited until the green leaves had begun to wilt. This first patch is the garlic I purchased from Moa valley.     Parts of the bed are wilting, but the elephant garlic is still green.     I got halfway through the garlic that I’ve been keeping for seed from last years harvest, when I realised that this garlic might still be growing.     If you can't see the video, click here

I covered the bed with cardboard to choke off any weeds.    Folded some flaps and cut some holes to expose the soil. Cucumbers were planted so they can climb up through the pallet windbreaks     Zucchini went into the top of bed.

Passionfruit are beginning to appear. I’m supposed to wait till they drop to the ground before harvesting. To make it easier to collect the fruit in the weeds under the vines, I’ve laid down some cardboard.     Click here if you don’t see the video

Updating the garden plan ( read about it here ) Garlic is almost due to be harvested. The first garden is due to be planted out. I’m going to build some new wind brecks around the individual beds. I have some initial ideas on what I want to plant.

Took the cover of the garlic today. I'm going to leave them to finish off over the next couple of months.         I'm happy with the size of the plants but disappointed to find that the dreaded rust has swept through the crop.

Moved the seedlings outside into the wood shed.

The garden has been lying fallow all winter.  I dug the mustard through including the leaf mulch which has been composting down at the bottom of the garden ( read about it here ), and buried some more fish bits. I've been cutting the mustard flowers off regularly as I've heard that any nitrogen that the mustard stores in it's roots is used up during flowering. Pulled out any weeds that I could find. Final coating of ash applied to mustard before turning everything over.

Last couple of years, I’ve been protecting individual bunches of grapes with mesh bags ( view previous post here… )     I have some boysenberry appearing so I’m curious to see if this also works on the canes?