This bright and beautiful weekend just past saw us ploughing, planting, wondering and dreaming. This patch of earth will be our new garden - we have retrieved a small part of the sheep paddock and by the end of the year it will be providing us with healthy food....thats the plan!!!
Ploughing - the new garden is on higher ground than our original garden which we put in when we first moved here. The original is built right beside our small stream and the soil is really dense and dark. Not clay but very heavy compacted soil. The New Garden is higher up and the soil is already looking much more friable and loose and delicious.
Planting - a new hedge! A very small hedge but it will grow - fast I hope! The poor guy at the nursery looks at me funny when I ask him "But does it grow fast"? I know I need to cultivate patience but I don't want to wait 50 years to grow a large tree either! These are Viburnum Tinus and indeed, the Nice Gardening Man assured me, they will grow fast! I hope so!!
They are there to give some shelter to the new garden and also the proposed poly tunnel. We do have some fantastic views here but the price is lots of wind whistling across the wide open plains!
Wondering - about what type of green manure crop to plant. In three weeks we are heading off on a five week trip to visit family and friends in NSW. While we are away we'd like to have a crop growing to stop the weeds and then add some nitrogen when I hoe them in. Does anyone have any ideas?
Dreaming - about green, red and yellow veggies to pick in the months to come! I've purchased some seeds and am waiting for them to arrive in the mail...... of course, then I'll be impatient to plant them and will have to wait until we get back from our holiday - the burning question is "Will they grow fast?"
Gee what a great machine. Your paddock is transformed! I'd love to do that out the back for our spuds. I'm looking forward to watching your garden grow. Is it too late for you to grow peas or those giant radishes for your green crop? Not sure what your weather is like.
ReplyDeleteyour new veggie garden looks fantastic, id love to have all that space. Wishing you super quick growth. Ive been impatient with my veggie patch too but now that its been a little over 2 months it feels like im getting somewhere and I may indeed one day harvest something other than leafy greens lol. At least you put it in at a good time of the year for quick growth, these few warm days are helping
ReplyDeleteThanks Linda, we hired the machine and it worked ok. It could have been a bit bigger to dig deeper so maybe next time we till ask a friend to come with his tractor. The weather her is cool and cold right up till Christmas so peas would be a good idea and nitrogen fixing too. I'll give that some thought.
ReplyDeleteHi Karen, the garden measures 16m x 8m and it sounds huge but doesn't look that big in reality although I'm sure I wont be thinking that when I'm out there weeding! I'm looking forward to seeing more of your veggie patch too!
Evi,
ReplyDeleteThis may sound crazy ane you may not get a bring in and eat crop, but we plant rye in our gardens to greatly bump up the nitrogen. You may ask at your local agricultural center to see what they suggest.
Ruth