A few hrs in the garden

Well today was planned to be most of the day in the garden but it didn't work out that way. I was called in for a meeting in the city and by the time I ran errands on the way home most of the day was shot. Raking up the leaves took over an hour so I only managed about a third of what I hoped to do. Ahh well them's the breaks.

 I started off weeding the herb snail and trimming off any sick or old foliage. The malky mint had to go and after some pruning I was left with just these two healthy parsley plants that are just coming back all nice and bushy.

 Above the parsley is the sage, rosemary & oregano. A good trim and weed out and they are looking good now. The sage is starting to put out tons of tiny new leaves as is the oregano.

 Here's the front of the snail showing the trimmed back lavender and thyme.

 Behind the parsley is a marjoram plant. I'm just amazed by this thing - it was the tiniest sickest little thing and now it's a turning into a real solid bushy plant. 

 Here's the back of the snail showing the chives, lemon balm & tarragon. Everything benefitted from a good trim back.

 The pots needed some sun so out they went for the afternoon. That's raspberry, juniper & passionfruit from left to right.

 I found a small thyme plant that managed to wedge itself into the rocks of the snail. I took it out carefully and planted it next to the bay bush. Hopefully it survives:)

 After the snail it was onto the first horizontal bed. It needed a good weed out too and I trimmed off anything that looked brown and old. Here's the a wombok cabbage that is starting to clump up nicely.

 The same wombok from above showing the start of the head.

 Here's the brussel sprouts, 2 big ones and two little ones:)

 Those womboks again!

 6 arugula plants. Pretty soon these will be seriously bushy like the other one in the other bed.

 The only parsnip that survived. It's a star!

 Here's the pak choy. I don't know what happened to it but most of it has bolted. I pinched out the flowers and trimmed off some dodgy leaves but it seems to be growing straight up. The one in the front is the only one clumping. Oh well - better look up what goes on here.

 Endless spinach behind the garlic:)

 Here's more spinach - the big ones!

 And here's the whole bed - all weeded and trimmed. Looking pretty good for a complete novice:)

I had to throw this shot in. As I was coming inside I noticed that the kholrabi are starting to grow more than leaves! Just look at that little beauty:D

Things have grown while I was away:) Just got back from 2 weeks overseas and the vege's have gone ballistic.

 Cavalo Nero still going strong. It's nearly a metre high now.

 Cos lettuce have doubled in size.

 Beans & peas climbing well and getting very bushy

 We will have endless chard to eat. The new plants are really starting to come along and the old one is just huge.

 Pak choy getting bigger. Not sure if it's growing right or not as it doesn't seem to be making clumps but I'll look that up tonight.

 Brussel sprouts, womboks (I think) and more chard in the back:)

 I think these are womboks - can't remember what we actually planted here. Mystery veges!

 Endless garlic with spinach behind

And my harvest today - look at the size of those radishes. What monsters! They will go in my lunch tomorrow an the chard & cavalo nero will be my dinner tonight:)

A quick update

Just a few pics to show what's been happening:) Everything has been growing quite happily.

 Our first flowers from the old bulbs Jani planted. 

 Passionfruit growing new leaves.

 Raspberry cane healthy as can be!

 Here's those crazy womboks!

 Spinach & garlic growing like mad.

 Brussel sprouts and the mystery greens:)

 Broad beans & snow peas have all grown.

 And so have the lettuce:)

 And the kholrabi!

 Here's one of 5 tiny but healthy marjoram plants:)

And finally the bronze fennel:)

I'll start today with a harvest:) A couple of days ago I went out into the garden and grabbed what was looking good - a few radishes, some cavalo nero & some rainbow chard.

For lunch I had a radish salad.

And for dinner the greens sweated in oil, garlic & lemon juice with a few boiled potatoes.... mmmmmm

Now to the garden! Here's the first bed - I spent a lot of time weeding this today:) This end has silverbeet, brussel sprouts & cauliflower. The 2 plants on the very left are brussel sprouts that I put in today to replace the 2 that the birds annihilated.

On this side we have mini wombok's, spinach, 3 kinds of garlic and some pak choy

Here's a close up of those wombok's. They grow like crazy!

Onto garden bed number 2. Along the front there's celery, and behind that is a whole bunch of brocolli plants. We lost a few to birds and a cat (go figure!) about 2 weeks ago so I picked up 4 brocolli's at the garden centre today to replace what we lost:)

Up the other end of the bed we have cauliflower, 5 tiny marjoram plants in the bottom right corner and along the front some kholrabi I bought today to fill in the spots where those same damn birds killed some celery.

Speaking of celery - here's a close up:)

Onto the next bed and here we have spring onions, radishes, cavalo nero (the lucky last one), cos lettuce, arugula, leeks & kholrabi:) I've left some space along the front to grow more arugula:)

Here's the radishes. It's been a running battle with the caterpillars but the root doesn't seem to care much as they still grow like gangbusters!

Here's the spring onions:) yummmmm

And here's some replacement baby spring onions and also some leeks I got today.

I went a bit nuts at the garden centre - along the back are some mini cos lettuce I got there today, the other two have been there for some time^^

Finally the last bed we have. Here's rainbow chard, dwarf green peas (the 2 rows in the middle), snow peas (the small teepee) & broad beans (the big teepee).

Close up of the snow peas... oh man I can't wait to harvest these babies.

And here's the broad beans. A lot of people don't like them but I think they are one of the best vege's on the planet. All this bed except for one plant got planted today:)

Here's the raspberry cane - it's very happy and growing new leaves all the time. You can see the juniper behind it.

And here's the passionfruit. I put some worm casting on top of the soil today and will water it in over the next week or so. The soil was getting really dry in that pot for some reason so I wanted to try and give the soil some more body.

And that's it. I spent about 4 hrs in the garden today - weeding, planting, building teepees etc etc. It was great! I've not had the time lately and gardening has been sporadic, so it was nice to just go out there and cruise around getting stuff done for an afternoon:)