Garden Share Collective February 2014 - Hello and welcome to our garden

Hello there, thank you for visiting and for reading my first blog post as part of the Garden Share collective, hosted by Lizzie Moult over at Strayed from the Table. Joe and I have been growing vegetables for some years now. We used to have an allotment back in the UK, Joe was more familiar with growing veggies as his family were keen gardeners. Me not so much, it's something you pick up and learn along the way and you never stop learning. We still have epic fails and we have great successes. Those successes lead to gluts and hours of preserving, another skill I've learned.

This season is just starting to pick up for us and already the gluts have started, you can have a look at my previous post here about the produce from our garden so far.

So let's begin shall we? 

Today started with a harvesting session, the rest of the plums needed to come off our two plum trees before the birds and the blasted possums got them all. All plums prior to this I had picked up off the floor, the wind has been relentless. Today however involved Joe and a stepladder and me hanging on making sure he didn't fall off! 

It could happen!

 

It took a while and we had help!

 

 

After a coffee break and homemade plum jam on toast.....

..it was time to pick the strawberries. Incidentally this is the second cropping, the first was a disaster! That's what free range hens do, they eat and wreck the veg garden, we didn't have the means to keep them contained, so we re-homed them, they are doing well and our garden is doing better..

 

 

I guess I'm going to be busy again over the next few days! And that's only the fruit!

Our vegetable growing areas have grown and evolved over the few years we have been here. Set up behind the garage/workshop is our original garden. It consists mainly of raised veggies beds that, because they were made of untreated wood, are now beginning to rot.

 

 

We will continue to use this area but be limited to berry fruits and bulk crops, such as potatoes & corn

Corn

 

Strawberries

Raspberries

 

 

 Potatoes & Jerusalem Artichoke, back corner.

 

As we head back down to the other garden you get a good view of the shadehouse,

it was to be a glasshouse but it get's too hot!

 In here we have...

Tomatoes which are now doing much better, they were developing leaf curl. So after tying them up 'properly!' and putting shade cloth over the top they are much healthier

 

 

 

We also have cucumbers, we think one plant was mislabeled and it's a gherkin

 

Outside and all around the shade house

 are more raised beds

Runner beans and peas

 

 

 

 

As we work our way around we have...

Capsicums, more peas..... and okra

The healthiest courgette plants we've ever grown

 

 

Sunflowers

 Bronze fennel

 

..and in the last section, lettuce 

and some pathetic sweet peas!

 also one of the two chilli peppers

Are you still with me?? Well done! Wait there's more, but not much more...

Newly installed this season are these three beds, placed outside the laundry door

In these we have, green beans, beetroot (well leaves anyway!), radish & lettuce

More green  beans, more lettuce, spring onions(not many) and I think more beetroot

Beans, tomatoes, bok choi, basil, beetroot

As you can imagine the watering takes a while!

Another new addition to the garden is my herb garden, placed outside the kitchen door

 

Elsewhere planted in the garden are more fruit trees

 Sad looking Seville orange, needs water and a feed!

 One of two feijoas, first year of planting, no fruit, the blossom got blown off

 One of two varieties of peach, again no fruit!

 Naval orange

We have a lemon and grapefruit trees which are in the paddocks and are regularly pruned by the animals, little darlings!! We have a replacement lemon which will go in the garden.

And that's it! Oi! Wake up! It wasn't that bad was it?

Hahah! I hope you enjoyed the tour, at least you know your way around now and 

the post in March won't be quite as long. Honest!

Enjoy your garden and I look forward to coming and seeing what's happening in yours

Bye for now