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Life on two acres of arid dirt, on the edge of the Australian outback.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Spring Time in the Garden

Hello dear friends,

It has been a while I know, but I thought it was time for an update on the vegie garden.

Spring has been a long time coming with cold nights still around and lots of rain falling.  There has been a lot more rain than usual for this time of year. Because of the colder days and nights the plants have been rather sluggish in taking off. Normally this time of year it would be getting quite warm to hot.

This silver beet is from last season and is starting to go to seed. Hopefully the seeds will spread and come up by themselves. The chooks love to eat the silver beet leaves, this is why I grow them.

The strawberries have sent out runners and established themselves along the edge of the bath. I am really pleased at how well these are growing considering I have neglected them terribly through winter. They are loaded with strawberries.



I decided to plant more kale this year. This is great added to smoothies during summer.



The silver beet has been neglected too but look at how well it is growing.


I am wanting to grow apple cucumbers, but couldn't find any seedlings so have planted these ones for now. They are cucumber spacemaster and are dark skinned. I am going to look through my seed collection and see if there are any apple cucumber seeds I can plant out.I pulled out the old capsicum plants.  I was going to chop them back but thought starting with fresh plants was a better way to go.  The ones I planted last season produced good fruit right though winter.


 With all the rain we have had there are celery plants popping up everywhere. This is one of the easiest plants to grow.


The rhubarb I transferred to this wicking barrel is looking very healthy. The rain has done wonders.

I am waiting for my tomato seeds to come up.  I buried some of the old tomatoes from last year and hoping they will germinate soon. 
In the meantime I found these Stupice tomatoes at a farmers market recently. Apparently these grow well in cooler weather so I am going to give them a trail run to see how they fare.

The spring onions grew well in a wicking barrel.  They have gone to seed and once dry I will spread the seeds over the soil so some new plants can grow.

I was very pleased to see some native bees buzzing around the flowers. Last year there didn't seem to be many bees around.


This is how the vegie garden is looking.  It is early days yet, but I am looking forward to having a bountiful season.



I am going to get hubby to help me relocate these baths to the other part of the garden. Then the plants will be all contained in one area.  Not sure what I will do with this side yet but have been thinking maybe cover over and make into a green house. Hint,hint! 

 This is where the baths are going to be put. We have started removing the soil from this old bed and then will take the posts away and place the baths along the fence.

The weather is warming up this week.  This past week we have had terrible storms and power outages. Hopefully there wont be much more of that sort of weather. Our power was out for over twenty four hours, but other places were out for much longer. The strong winds brought down trees and flattened power poles. It also brought more rain for some areas and caused flooding.  Mother nature is grand isn't she?

How is your garden preparation going? What are you attempting to grow this season?

Take care everyone,

17 comments:

  1. All looking great! The storms have been incredible, haven't they? We are still flooding - and it is still raining!
    I have some apple cucumbers seeds (the yellow ones) that I can send you, if you can't find yours.
    Hope you get your greenhouse. Hubby gave me a 'voucher' for my birthday in July to build me a greenhouse. Hopefully soon! I just have some little plastic ones from eBay at the moment, but they are doing the job.

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  2. Definitely once in a life time storms Jayne. We were pretty lucky here as we didn't sustain any damage, but others weren't so fortunate. On the up side we have been able to get about one year worth of wood from fallen trees.

    Hubby has promised to make me a green house for many years now Jayne, but I am still patiently waiting lol!

    It was great to hear from you again.

    xTania

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for the offer of seeds. I will get back to you about that :)

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  3. Glad you are okay, Tania. What terrible weather. Good to see you blogging again.

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    1. Hi Nanna Chel,

      Everything is fine here, I just have been more than busy with extras in our house.

      I am going to try and fit in blogging more often as I miss it so.

      Have fun on your trip to the outback and enjoy your grand-babies.

      xTania

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  4. Soooooooooo exciting to see a new post from you. Made my day :-)

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    Replies
    1. Aww thank you Phil. I have missed this little place a lot. I hope to return to normal blogging very soon.

      xTania

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  5. Hi Tania. It looks like you'll be eating lots of great food from your very own garden! Here, we've haven't had any wild weather but have had some lovely Spring rains so everything is looking lush and healthy:) In my garden, I've got cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, spring onion, kale and lots of lettuce that we just keep picking young leaves from. I want to plant few more cucumbers as we eat lots of them in the Summer in salads. Hope you get your green house soon! Meg:)

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    Replies
    1. Zucchinis! That is what is missing from my garden. I had forgotten about them! I will be going to find some tomorrow. Thank you for your comment Meg and the reminder about zucchinis :)

      I might try some lettuce again too as it grew really well for me last year. Just the mixed leafy types. They are so sweet when grown at home, way better than the horrid stuff in the shop!

      Your vegie garden sounds to be very productive :)

      xTania

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  6. Mother Nature can be pretty scary at times Tania. I really enjoyed reading about how your garden is going. I think a green house is a great idea. ;-)

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Sherri. I hope hubby thinks a green house is a good idea, he can take some convincing sometimes :)

      xTania

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  7. Tania thanks so much for this post. I have been thinking of developing raised beds but the purchased ones are out of my price range. I had thought of old baths but wasn't sure. Hubby is a bit of a tip rat so he should be able to pick up a few. I do love how you have the baths in frames. I am going to have to get him onto this. Thanks muchly.

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    1. I am glad to be of help Jane. Good luck with the baths. They do make great garden beds. I am going to convert mine to wicking beds when we transfer them over to the other part of the garden. We have obtained our baths all free of charge so far, so a big bonus!

      xTania

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  8. Yay, you are back! I'm so glad you all were safe during those storms. Your garden is looking really good and I do hope you get your greenhouse!

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  9. Hi Tania
    Your garden is growing beautifully.
    Just a query re your wicking barrels...do you have a tutorial for them, or link please.
    Alexa-asimplelife

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  10. Hi Alexa,

    You can find our wicking barrel tutorial here; http://outbacktania.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/growing-veggies-in-wicking-barrels.html

    Wishing you a lovely day :)

    xTania

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Your comments really make my day. Thank you for taking the time and for being so kind.