On Sunday we decided it might almost be warm enough to plant out some seeds. This time we sowed seeds (for salad leaves, mainly) directly in the top bed, and left the bottom bed mostly clear to take seedlings. The upper bed is exposed to a cold draft from behind the playhouse, and is a bit more shaded.

Top bed, left to right (6 drills across whole bed):

• 1, 2: Spinach Scenic F1 Hybrid.
• 3, 4: Lettuce: Lollo Rossa, Little Gem, Red Salad Bowl.
• 5: Chard: Swiss chard bright lights (Suttons), spinach beet chard white silver 2 (Dobie).
• 6: Rocket wild, Broccoli (sprouting) early purple, Salad leaves (Morgan 881).

Bottom bed, left to right (4 drills at 100mm spacing across left quarter, then 1 drill, then lots of empty space):

• 1-4: Pea Jumbo. Self-supporting, so needs to be close. We probably need to do it closer, so will infill after a couple of weeks.
• 5: Spring onion winter white bunching

All planted 2012-04-29.  We put spikes in to try and keep the neighbour’s cat off. Let’s see if it helps!

Aidan did an awesome job weeding at the bottom of the garden, but I didn’t get a photo – sorry.

Yay!

Megan and I are pretty happy with how it looks, and we’ve eaten our first spinach leaves! Yay!

Today we also added more spinach and chard, filled in some gaps in the lettuce row, re-sowed the rocket since the first lot didn’t take, and added carrots and parsnips. Fingers crossed! On the upper bed the beans are struggling on, plus two peas and (maybe) a squash. We added some more peas, and gave it all a good water.

Megan saw me putting another layer of soil on the potatoes. “Are you sure it’s OK to bury them Daddy?” 🙂 She was also very proud of herself figuring out how to balance the hose so she didn’t need to hold it while watering the very thirsty Acer.

Nice to have some good garden news to report!

After the enthusiasm of the last post, we’re a bit sad now. The crazy winds we’ve been having, and the neighbour’s cat, have joined together to spell the end of most of the seedlings 🙁 I think one squash (A) has survived, but the rest are dead. Megan and Aidan are sad, but we should be growing some more soon. The lower bed is doing much better – the cat tried to hurt the spinach too, but it’s pretty hardy.

A couple of weekends ago Megan and I planted some strawberries in our strawberry planter. For posterity, here is what they were: Pegasus (slots 1-4, 7, 8), Dar Select (5, top near 5), Honeyoye (6, top near 7). They’re doing pretty well on the whole, as are our potatoes.

Today Megan and I planted out some seeds. Last year we had great success with salad leaves and green beans, inspired by the vegetable plot Grandad made for us when we were in New Zealand.

Grandpa is growing bean seedlings for us again, but it’s time for us to start planting seeds. Last year we had loads of leaves all at once – this year we’re trying successional planting, and better spacing. Planting number 1 was today!

Lower bed:

Upper bed:

Looking forward to the results!

Megan planted some seeds in the propagator today. Being more organised this year, we’re hoping this will work better than sowing direct.

• A: Squash Winter Festival F1 Hybrid (*)
• B: Pumpkin Summer Ball F1 Hybrid (*)
• C: Pepper Gourmet (*)
• D: Squash Harrier F1 Hybrid
• E: Dwarf Bean Opera
• F: Cucumber Swing F1 Hybrid

(*) = last year’s seeds.

She loved watching the litle coir plugs “grow” as she gently watered them.  And she diligently fished the right number of seeds from each packet, then carefully pushed the seed in and covered it.  Lots of fun!