Gardening DownUnder - Tis Spring in Oz

[Kylie1969]

Good morning/evening everyone

Today we are going to head out to the garden centres and buy a metal raised garden bed and the soil for it, which we worked out will be about 324 litres that we need

We will then be choosing some herbs and vegetable seedlings on the weekend to put in it

We will be having it out on our patio near the back door so it is easy to get the fresh produce and bring it back to the kitchen

 

[LPBeier]

Good morning/evening everyone

Today we are going to head out to the garden centres and buy a metal raised garden bed and the soil for it, which we worked out will be about 324 litres that we need

We will then be choosing some herbs and vegetable seedlings on the weekend to put in it

We will be having it out on our patio near the back door so it is easy to get the fresh produce and bring it back to the kitchen

I love being able to pick my fresh herbs. I have them in these little boxes that I can bring in during the winter and put in the window sills so they still get the light they need and not the cold.

What herbs did you get?

 

[Kylie1969]

We havent been out yet Laurie...we will go shortly, once we can tear ourselves away from the pcs

We are going to get some flat leaf parsley, basil, coriander, some capsicums (bell peppers) and some tomatoes to start with

 

[Kylie1969]

We ended up buying a garden bed, galvanised iron..it was not in a flat pack, it was already assembled, so we had fun geting that into the car , but we managed

That cost $150.00 pretty decent size though 1400 x 560 x 40 and we got it in a nice cream colour

We decided to put it in the garden, near the house, the only bit of garden space left

We also bought 280 litres of potting soil to fill it up and also some seedlings

We got

Italian Parsley x 2
Coriander x 2
Strawberries x 2
Tabasco Chillies x 2
Capsicums x 2
2 varieties of tomatoes

We are going to get the soil in and plant all the seedlings tomorrow as it is a really hot muggy day here today...29 degrees

 

[Claire]

Kylie, we need to get this moved over to a gardening line, if not already. From your description, it sounds like an old book I have, Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening might work for your system. I had raised beds as you described in both Hawaii (where the soil was so clay-y that just growing in the ground was a pain, picture gardening in red concrete) and Florida (where the soil was pure sand and you needed to add a lot of compost type stuff to make it sustain anything). So had these framed raised beds in both places, buying what seemed like tons of soil. Your year is different from ours, so I'm looking forward to reading how this goes. Where I live, I'm putting my gardens to bed for the year!

 

[Kylie1969]

Kylie, we need to get this moved over to a gardening line, if not already. From your description, it sounds like an old book I have, Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening might work for your system. I had raised beds as you described in both Hawaii (where the soil was so clay-y that just growing in the ground was a pain, picture gardening in red concrete) and Florida (where the soil was pure sand and you needed to add a lot of compost type stuff to make it sustain anything). So had these framed raised beds in both places, buying what seemed like tons of soil. Your year is different from ours, so I'm looking forward to reading how this goes. Where I live, I'm putting my gardens to bed for the year!

Claire, that would be good if this could go into the gardening section

Thank you for your ideas and I will keep you updated on how it all goes

 

[Kylie1969]

Thank you for moving my post Fiona and thank you for suggesting it Claire

Well today we went to another garden centre and bought some iceberg lettuce and some more chillis

We also bought another pot and a Mexican Orange Blossom to put on the patio

Steve and I have planted all the little seedlings this afternoon and we have taken a couple of photos to show you all

 

[PrincessFiona60]

My pleasure and it looks wonderful!

 

[Kylie1969]

Thanks heaps Fiona

We decided to put the strawberries separate as they can get some white powdery stuff on them and it is a bit messy apparently, so we thought we would keep them away from the other seedlings

 

[Whiskadoodle]

That looks like a nifty planter Kylie. Happy Springtime and happy gardening. May your season be long.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Spring is my favorite season. I'm actually a little depressed today because we're having our first snow of the year.

 

[chopper]

Kylie, I love your garden!!! It is so cute! I can't wait to see pictures when the plants start to fill up the space.

 

[Kylie1969]

Thank you Whisk and Chopper

It is quite cute I agree...it was all we had space for really as the rest of our garden is jam packed with trees, plants, shrubs etc

I will certainly keep the photos up to date of how things are growing

 

[Kylie1969]

On one of our tomato plants we have 3 little tomatoes growing

There is also one strawberry flowering and also some chillies

 

[CWS4322]

Kylie--throw in some Italian parsley. Like LP, I bring my herbs in for the winter. I plant Swiss Chard, Kale, and pepper plants among my perenials in my flower garden as well. And, if you can get perennial Greek Oregano, it has lovely purple flowers and will come back year after year (in the perennial flower bed).

That planter looks like a waterer used for horses and cattle. Lovely. I'll be so jealous all winter (here) as we hear about the lovely dishes you'll be making with the things harvested from the garden.

Radishes are great between plants--they only take 21-30 days and you can re-seed several times during the growing season.

 

[Kylie1969]

Thanks CWS

We do have Italian Parsley...we had some in our curry last night...lovely!

Thanks for the idea of radishes, as we really like eating them in salads...will look for them at the garden centre

 

[CWS4322]

Thanks CWS

We do have Italian Parsley...we had some in our curry last night...lovely!

Thanks for the idea of radishes, as we really like eating them in salads...will look for them at the garden centre

I missed the Ital. Parsley in your original post. You can put onions between your plants too (if you get some onion bulbs, you can plant them very close together and pull them as you need as "spring" onions). You could plant peas and eat the pea greens...and, you can eat the radish greens before they get fuzzy.

 

[chopper]

I wish we could take a trip to see your garden. It is so cute.

 

[MrsLMB]

Nice looking garden ! It makes me miss mine

You will have to post pics as it progresses !!!

 

[Kylie1969]

Thanks guys

It is quite dinky

I will certainly take some more photos as they all grow, there has not been a great deal of change yet, but it is getting there

I should upload some photos of our entire garden to show you guys