Growing!

Delicious!

Hey Everyone,

Sorry, I have been a little slack on the posts for this blog. I have finally taken some photo's of my latest harvest from the vege garden, and look at the results! I'm very proud and it's giving us so many veges.

I have been picking the beans since before Christmas and the plants are insane now (nearly falling over and taking over any available pole to grow up). We have had 4 cucumbers (would have been more had our lawn mower man not obliterated the end of the plant...), the carrots we had one good harvest but the second lot have just stayed really small and the peas were great (until said lawn mower guy accidentally sprayed them with something nasty — harsh words were said...). Our Oak Leaf Lettuce was awesome and I only just pulled them out as they went to seed — we had enough for salads and sandwiches almost every day.

As you can see we now have a yellow pepper! Our first one! Plenty from the green capsicum bush and LOADS of chilli's — that I have now strung up and am drying in the kitchen. Our tomatoes were a Christmas gift from my lovely friend, Jana and have been exploding over the last few days, plus the little cherry tomatoes from Ray have started too. Oh, and enough strawberries for Grace to have with some yoghurt for pudding most nights.

I do think that it has saved us money having the vegetable garden, I haven't had to buy any green beans, lettuce or cucumbers all season and combined with the things that take longer to grow it has been really good.

The best part is when I ask Grace what veges she wants for dinner and instantly jumps up to get them with me from the garden, tonight, I asked her if she wanted tomato from the garden or the shop with her dinner — "from the garden Mummy!" she said with a tone of what-kind-of-crazy-are-you-on-Mum in her voice.

Now to plan what to plant for winter and to find some good chutney recipes!

How does your garden grow...

Well, mine is just starting out. I've never had a vegetable garden before, and with all this money saving milarky I thought that it would be a logical first step. I also wanted to teach Grace about how things grow and that a garden is like a team — with the dirt, bugs and plants all working together. I think that she is more into the flowers than anything else.

I geeked out a bit with the planning of my garden, but I really want it to be successful so I jumped on the computer and did some research, as like any project, the more research you do the more successful it (should) be.

First: I figured out what I would like to grow and decided on things that we actually eat and would normally buy at the supermarket. There was no point growing masses of Aubergine because we don't eat them and it ends up being a waste. I thought about what I would like to do with the stuff too — so we'll be eating most, but I also wanted to make chutney, relish and jam from my harvests so that comes into play when planning the next step...

Second: Now I have my list I found this AMAZING site, Grow Veg, that you can sign up for a 30 day trial (and they don't spam you so it's all good to try it out) and here you can draw out your garden beds — all to scale — then drag and drop your veges into it from the menu bar above. That doesn't sound all that great, but the best part is that each vege has a coloured circle around it so you can figure out how much space you need! Amazing. It also has tips for companion planting which is mega awesome and very helpful.

Marking out where I will begin digging, almost
a shame to dig up my lovely grass!

Companion planting is when you plant things that like to be next to each other and they sort of help each other out, like what herbs to plant next to the veges so that the bees come along, or so that you're planting the same families together — beans with peas, but away from broccoli. It all gets very confusing but it's really interesting!

Third: ok, so now I know what I need to grow and how big my garden is going to be. Next I needed to find out WHEN to actually plant the stuff. I found this site, Garden Grow, which lets you put in your New Zealand location and it will give you the best times to plant everything based on where you live. You can sign up for reminders too if you're anything like me and life gets busy....

Fourth: This is the fun bit, buying all the stuff you need! I decided to plant my garden out all from seed. I purchased all my seeds from Eco Seeds who sell heirloom/non-hybrid seeds — they're seeds that you can collect seeds from the things you grow and re-grow them, so it makes things even more cost effective. The people that run the nursery are REALLY helpful and so nice, and you can pay by Internet banking which is nice. I purchased Basil, Beans, Broccoli, Capsicum, Carrots, Celery, Lettuce, Italian Parsley, Peas, Spring Onion, Sweet Pea, Thyme, Tomato Roma and Cherry Tomato's and including shipping it came to $52NZD which I thought was very good.
I also took a trip to Kings Plant barn for some bamboo poles, sunflower seeds and flowers to attract those bees!

My little seeds sprouting!
CW from Top Left: Peas, Sweet Peas, Beans, Broccoli.

Pest Control: for my pest control, I'm going to try a product called Neem Granules, it's ground up neem tree bark. You add a teaspoon full when planting out your seedlings so that the plant sucks it up as it grows and it makes the plant deter the bugs. We'll see how it goes! I also of course have some pellets and things to get rid of the slugs and snails. I'm trying to keep my garden as natural as possible, so the pellets are where it stops.

Next involved A LOT of digging. I did it all on my own — which was so satisfying! I had my dirt delivered by Central Landscaping Supplies (very cheap, all up $90 including it being delivered on a tipper-truck, much to the delight of Grace). I didn't have a wheel barrow (you really DO need one when gardening...) so had to shift a cubic metre of soil with nothing but 2 buckets and perseverance.

Top: Halfway there!
Bottom: Shifting all the soil, only half was left to go... it took me AGES

I've just planted out my seedlings into the garden after looking after them for around 7 weeks inside, we had a good downpour of rain this week which I think has wiped some of them out, so fingers crossed they don't all die! Now the waiting begins....

Here I have listed some links for the helpful sites that I have found:
NZ Gardener: handy for tips and advice
Ooooby: like facebook for garden people, it's pretty weird but kind of cool
Love to Know: tips and advice on almost anything
Square Foot Gardening: Once you get past his moustache, it's quite helpful
Kings Seeds: Seeds and supplies
Eco Seeds: Heirloom/Non-Hybrid seeds that all come with very helpful packets
Squidoo.com: An article on raised garden beds e.g. how to build them, how they work etc.
Urbanmac: pre-made garden boxes, if you're so inclined
Allotments UK: cool gardening in small spaces, tips, advice etc.