Our Dinner

How to plant Garlic

1. Break Garlic bulb apart into individual cloves.
2. Plant cloves with the pointy end up about 8 cm deep, keeping a space of 7 cm between each clove.
3. Make sure you sow in well drained soil in a full sun position.
4. Fertilize with a well-balanced fertilizer.
5. Once foliage begins to brown off, cut back on water and fertilizer. (Australia: around Oct-Nov)
6. Harvest Garlic when there are 4-5 green leaves left, or leave it in the ground until it is all brown.
7. Hang dry in a dry place for 2 weeks to harden the skin.
8. Store in dark, dry place. Then it will keep for around six months.

Note: Garlic needs the transition between short day lengths (winter) to long day lengths (summer) in order to form bulbs.

A day of work and joy

It's been days of work - sieving, pruning trees, sieving some more, cleaning up around the garden beds - our backs hurt with pain telling of fulfilled work and many achievments! We've eaten spinach out of the garden yesterday, it was intensely flavoured, and had our first salad and rucola today - it is great to harvest the first fruits. We learned a lot during our first season, and all of this will fo into our further efforts to make us semi-self-sustainable out of the backyard at some point in the future.


The clear winners of the autumn's germination project are - who would have guessed - the radishes - who looked up into the light in just under 48 hours. They were closely followed by the rainbow chard, of which 2 of 7 plants are looking into the sun already.






Another great joy today was to see our first two chili plants which have been hidden in the soil for the past two weeks - two in one day! It is an undescribable feeling to see those things grow and wake up in the morning making a new plant-   discovery! (But then again, I get excited quickly.)

Last but not least (contrary!) my beloved Passion Fruit Plant has grown two leaves in three days after being stagnant for two months. There is hope! :)

Autumn Projects

Autumn is approaching (time flies!) and  to get the best out of it we are about to start germinating seeds and getting two new garden beds build. The outside structure was done in two days, today was dedicated to sieving the soil (my poor back!), we're about to give it a good fertilizing and in about a week or two the seeds will go in the soil (or in the punnets for that matter).

Those are the two new garden beds (yet to be sieved):

But impatient as I am and also quite keen on testing propagating out of water bottle bottoms cut off, I couldn't resist starting to germinate some seeds already...

The bottoms:



Adding Propagation Mix:

Rucola, Spinach, Flowers

 Our Rucola Salad (or one of the many we tried to propagate...) has started to flower! After picking all the aphids off for a couple of weeks it is now officially aphid-free, too. :)

Our Spinach has exploded in growth, too:

But the most beautiful thing in the garden at the moment are those flowers (which had to undergo an de-aphiding, too), which have started blooming recently with much more to come:

Useful Facts for Germination & Propagation

Plant	Sowing Depth (cm)	No. of Days to Germinate	Requires Light	No. of Days to Maturity	Sow in (Sydney conditions)	Recommended pH	Companion Plants
Carrot	0.6	10-17	No	60-80	All Year, best July-March
Cauliflower	1.3	4-10	No	55-65	December-April
Celery	0.3	9-21	Yes	90-120	All Year, best July-November
Cucumber	2.5	6-10	No	55-65	August-January
Garlic	2.5	6-10	No	90-sets	March-May
Leek	1.25-2.5	7-12	No	80-90	August-April
Radish	1.25	10-17	No	20-50	All Year

To be continued

Chili Propagation

Growing

• Below 15°C - Growth is slow
• 18.5°C - ~31°C - fruit formation
• Soil: Preferably well-drained, sandy or silt-loam
• Location: Sunny but well-sheltered

Germination

• Sowing Depth - About 2 cm
• Germination Temperatur - 20-30°C, try to keep temperature constant
• Germination Time: Varies, can take up to a month (Habaneros)
• Cover to allow ventilation
• At no time allow compost to dry out
• water (boiled and left to stand for 24 hours so that any chlorine dissapates) with a spray 

Propagation

• If seedlings emerge take out from cover and place in full sunlight
• Treat with Seaweed extract or equivalent once a week
• Transplant to ~8cm  diameter pot (--> 12cm then 15cm)
• cover with moist compost to just below the first set of true leaves as this encourages the development of extra roots
• Place the tip of a matchstick in the pot to provide sulphur
• Sandy soil for drainage

Transplanting

• Once temperatures are stable above 10°C
• Harden off plants by placing them outside for short intervals and gradually increasing exposure
• Transplant either in 20cm diameter pots or into well-drained soil

Preparing Soil

• Don't plant in disease-affected areas
• Clear weeds (also to prevent spread of disease)
• Work the soil to a fine tilth and work in either rotted manure or good quality compost
• Apply Mulch
• Continue Using Seaweed Spray
• Pinching out the plants at required height will cause the plant to bush out

Tips

• Grow marigolds and other yellow flowers along side your chili plants to attract natural aphid predators
• Companion planting : basil , dill , chives and chervil all repel aphids. No aphids, fewer ants! 
• Grow coriander: not only does it ward off aphids, it can also be turned into a spray to kill spidermites
• Avoid growing peppers on land recently used to grow potatoes∞, tomatoes∞ or aubergine (egg plant)