8.8.10

for the garden folk

It's feeling quite springy here today. A sort of restlessness for sowing and growing things has come over me. The buds have moved on the plum tree, the broad beans are starting to flower, tiny wee silver beet and mustard are popping up and the pumpkins I neglected to collect are watery and slimy but full of seeds sprouting in the middle. The only thing that slightly dampened my spirits was seeing a STINK bug in the garden.

The soil is magnificent if I do say so myself. I think I'll put the peas in here.
It's only early August I hear you say, don't get too excited.
Well I know there will be more cold snaps but I have the glasshouse and the time to do a bit of mollycoddling.
I pricked out tomatoes into trays today, they're living in the sun room.
I think in my area it's worth putting peas, broad beans, onions and coriander in over the next couple of weeks. I'll do broccoli, lettuces, silver beet and beetroot from seed as soon as the moon starts ascending. If you want to grow tomatoes from seed and have a warm place for them to be potted up until Oct then I'd start them off on top of the hot water cylinder or a heat pad at the same time if I was you. I'll be popping in a few peppers and basil as well, I only need a few of those started early as next months seedlings will probably only lag behind in fruiting by about a week or two. It's the skite factor that makes it worth it -a little competition between Dad and I.
Must do another copper spray of the fruit trees and collect seaweed for liquid brew.
Have I forgotten anything? Oh yes I know, start some more spuds sprouting.

I'd love to hear what everybody else is planting or planning.

6 comments:

Lee said...

Hi - I've got stock, stock and more stock germinating in my conservatory for a friend at the moment. But also a lot of herb cuttings as I'll be putting in my herb garden over the coming weeks if the weather isn't too foul.

Apart from that, some heritage toms I've started from seed are sprouting nicely - ivory egg and riesentraube.

A baker's dozen of fruit trees are waiting outside to be planted when this downpour ends and it isn't dangerously muddy - I listed them on a post recently, and added a meyer lemon to the mix to bring the number to lucky 13.

So pretty busy - and some potatoes waiting inside. It's all learning time for me, as I've gardened but not farmed much before, and that was in Australia, so everything is new.

What's a stink bug?

Renee said...

Wow - that all sounds so exciting!! I'm very jealous of you having a glasshouse.

I've just planted tomatoes as my current ones are beginning to flower and get fruit, time to keep the cycle going! My capsicums are just beginning to turn red and we picked our first strawberry this morning!! Was beautiful :)

I'm going to be grabbing a chilli seedling from the markets in the next few weeks...hope it works out so I can try it from seed next time!

Loved reading your post - got me all excited :)

Gill said...

Oh my goodness Renee I'm so jealous that you have tomatoes and capsicums nearly ready. What would you put in a glasshouse? We can barely get a pineapple to grow in one over here and we'd only get winter tomatoes if the glasshouse was heated.
Hi Daharja, The stink bug is the most loathesome pest in my garden. Also known as the green vegetable bug. They suck the goodness out of tomatoes, beans, corn everything actually. They leave a foul stink on your hands if you squash them and you'll gag if you accidently eat one while scoffing fresh berries.

Millie said...

Of course I'm on the other side of the world, and I have totally neglected my garden for sooooo loooong now, but today I sowed a packet of seeds in a tub for salad leaves. It felt good. I used to grow tomatoes, courgettes, peppers..lots of stuff in my now overgrown polytunnel.
Maybe next year! For now my fruit trees and bushes have produced Red,White and Black currants. Cherries & Gooseberries. 5 Apple trees laden, plums turning colour. 2 quinces on the tree. No pears! And a few long suffering herbs!

Lee said...

Ugh! Another nastie I didn't know about. I'll keep an eye (or nose?) out for the stink bugs.

Thanks, Gillybean.

Johanna said...

Oh, am so envious of your garden and that beautiful looking soil! (Our garden here is small and gluggy!)

And yay - we drew your name in the perfume sample giveaway. Would you be able to send your postal address to me at johanna dot knox @ gmail.com ? :)