Child of the Planet

 As has happened with a lot of garlic crops around Aotearoa this year, my harvest has been very disappointing. Meny of the cloves didn’t sprout at all, and the ones that did, didn’t grow very large. Since I haven't really changed my processes, I’m going to blame it on the weather. Not a great year... I'm thinking that the garage roof might be too hot for the garlic, so I'm curing it in the porch this year. below is a summary of the harvest Click here if you don't see the video above Click here if you don't see the video above click here if you don't see the video above

Tomatoes are doing well, I think. I took the wind breaks down I've trimmed all the lower leaves to get a good flow of air I still have lots of plants that are still developing. I'm hoping to get a good long harvest period. Started to apply seaweed tea as tantaliser Video of the work... click here if you don't see the video above click here if you don't see the video above

 Took up a mesh cover to keep the birds out of the bed. Mulched up some green waste Laid down ash and the mulch    Zucchini and cucumbers have sent up sprouts. click here if you don't see video above

Time to protect the ripening grapes from the birds ( read about how here... ). click here if you don't see the video above

The 'bastard winds' have finally arrived. My mate calls them the Equinox winds and he informs me that they usually arrive in September. They're late... but you know… global warming. I’ve tried several strategies in the past to curb what feels like a blast of air from a thumping great hair dryer positioned just off the coast ( read here ) I’ve dabbled with surrounding the individual beds in previous years, but today I’m going ‘all in’ and surrounding each bed with it’s own pallet barricade..

Bed number one has been under mulch for several months. A friend gave me some fish bits so after I had cleaned out the invading grass, I laid the fishy bits out in the trench. Propped up some willow poles as support for climbers such as peas and cucumbers. Smoothed it all out and wired some fencing to the willow poles. Also planted some zucchini and a capsicum plant. Covered everything with plastic mesh. I like black birds but they make a huge mess out of anything that a human has just touched. I have a suspicion that they watch me from the trees and swoop in as soon as I’ve wandered off. Summary click here if you don't see video above Full length click here if you don't see video above

… has turned out to be POTATOES. I posted the snaps below, to FB and let the ‘group unconsciousness’ speculate.     Turns out, after years of failed attempts to grow spuds in bags, and prepped gardens. What seems to work for me is to throw some random compost into a hole near the apple trees, and ignore it for a couple of years (ha ha)

I think it's pretty much ready to be harvested.     Very bad rust infection on one side of the patch this year. Looked up my garden plan, and it seems that the sparce areas at the top and bottom of the garden bed are the seed garlic from last year. The dense patch in the middle is the fresh seed from the Moa Valley folk.  I'm wondering if leaving the plants in the ground for a bit too long last year has done something to some of the cloves?

 May last garden walkabout was in May click here to view . I like to do these 360 enabled videos to track progress in the garden. I follow the same route each time. Click here if you don't see the video above

Have started to cull out the laterals on the previous plantings. Before After Before After Video summary of planting click here if you don't see the video above Extended video of planting click here if you don't see the video above

Moved the windbreak back a bit and pulled up what's left of the carrots. Left one in that was going 'to seed' to see if I can score some seed for next year. Some of the holes are a bit deep for some of the seedlings, so I'm experimenting with milk bottles with the tops and bottoms cut out to support the sides of the holes and contain the black bird tailings.

This week I opened up the tent and pulled out any seedlings that have grown to a decent height in the pot.  Read about the planting here...       I grabbed some poles out of a collection of bamboo canes saved from last year Digging deep holes for the seedlings. I want to bury them right up to the tips to improve root development. Moved and extended the pallet windbreak to protect the seedlings. The white butterflies have been out and about so once everything is planted, I mix up some BT and sprayed whatever is poking up above ground. click here if you don't see the video above