Garden 2018

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Been a bit AWAL of late trying to get a lot of gardening done as well as garden prep work but we have now caught up yay :D. Now we will be working on a deep house cleaning before Monday which is our next rental inspection and DH pressure cleaned the front veranda and ceiling and the window screens. The wood looks so much cleaner and it is far less dirty and dusty out there.

Yesterday we trimmed all the rose bushes in the front gardens as they sadly had black spot so now they look like dwarves but will hopefully come back to their former glory, after each cut we cleaned the clippers with bleach to try and stop the spread of the disease. The sweet potatoes which had gone wild also got a good trim back so they are off the front footpath and front lawn as did the basil that was going berserk. We also planted 62 broad bean seeds we saved from our last crop and watered them in.

Today we planted a 9mt row of Australian white garlic in the back paddock garden beds some bulbs from our previous crop that we saved and some purchased as not all of our saved garlic bulbs made it. So good to have a farmers market that sells garlic so cheaply that we can plant :). We also planted some more parsley in the front herb, berry and rose gardens in a sheltered winterish area where they shouldn't get hit by any frosts.
 
Sewingcreations15 said:
Know the feeling @Tank-Girl at wanting to do numerous things but not having the funds to do so being on pensions. I would go with the crazy cheap produce and either blanch and freeze and or dehydrate some of it for your stores. Here is a good site for blanching and freezing instructions should you choose that option - http://www.pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm . It has great instructions on freezing 3/4's of the way down the page and also some ideas on canning and dehydrating too :) .
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I bookmarked that for sure. I have a dozen Elderberry plants and didn't really know what to do with the bunches of berries I got last year. They were first year trees last year and I still got 5 decent size freezer bags out of them. I am expecting much more this year. I know how to do Syrup, Drinks, Pies all sorts of stuff with them now. And I have read a lot about their medicinal uses, Elderberry is used for “the flu” (influenza), H1N1 "swine" flu, HIV/AIDS, and boosting the immune system. It is also used for sinus pain, back and leg pain (sciatica), nerve pain (neuralgia), and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) . ... Elderberry fruit is also used for making wine and as a food flavoring. I'm looking forward to taking advantage this year....
 
So...I think I mentioned I got all my irrigation in. I spent yesterday setting up the irrigation for some of my fruit trees and only got part done. They are pretty spread out and I need more main tubing and I got it ordered. I have a rain gauge on my main setup that stops it from raining if it gets more than .17 inches. Found out to my pleasure it works! The little umbrella on the left is how you know....
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Heard a little tip that I will try this year for tying up peppers/tomatoes etc...

Use strips of stretchy old t-shirt, socks or pantyhose. Wrap it completely around the stem of the plant once and then tie it to the stake (so when the wind blows the stem doesn't rub back and forth against the material and suffer injury).

They say it is better than twine which does not stretch, and a great use for old clothes.
 
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Sewingcreations15 said:
@Dutchs snazzy looking watering system :), similar to what we want to get when we buy our own home. We have the extra snazzy type of watering system where we go out and turn it on and then go out again and turn it off when finished manually ;).
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I unfortunately don't live fulltime where my garden and fruit trees are so i made the investment. We had a very dry 4 month period last year when I had just planted a bunch of fruit trees ..new stuff...I drove 150 miles each way twice a week to keep everything watered by hand. I just can''t see myself doing that for 3 1/2 more years until I'm there full time.......:eek::mugbump:
 
Dutchs said:
I unfortunately don't live fulltime where my garden and fruit trees are so i made the investment. We had a very dry 4 month period last year when I had just planted a bunch of fruit trees ..new stuff...I drove 150 miles each way twice a week to keep everything watered by hand. I just can''t see myself doing that for 3 1/2 more years until I'm there full time.......:eek::mugbump:
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WOW that is dedication.
That watering timer will pay for it's self fast.
 
Sensible move @Dutchs because you are not at the property and will save you a lot in petrol to hand water each day. I was being funny as we live at this property so can just manually put on the drip irrigation systems but we long for a automated one but don't want to spend any more money here until we move into our own home it is simply more to pack and move.

Think we will need a huge truck to move us as it is with all our food and other preps :eyeballs:. We have a trailer so we will move ourselves gradually piece by piece and get a removalist to come in and move the heavier furniture.
 
My seedling trays were finally delivered.

YAY!!!!

I'm currently running around in mad circles trying to figure out where I'm going to plant everything.

It's doing my head in because I can't do a lot of straight long rows and I'll have a lot of oddly shaped beds like jig-saw puzzle.
I also have to factor in sun exposure.
 
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Sewingcreations15 said:
Sensible move @Dutchs because you are not at the property and will save you a lot in petrol to hand water each day. I was being funny as we live at this property so can just manually put on the drip irrigation systems but we long for a automated one but don't want to spend any more money here until we move into our own home it is simply more to pack and move.

Think we will need a huge truck to move us as it is with all our food and other preps :eyeballs:. We have a trailer so we will move ourselves gradually piece by piece and get a removalist to come in and move the heavier furniture.
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I like humor...And that was funny...Sorry it just doesn't translate on email sometimes. I hate Moving.....I hope it's a good one for you guys. I moved 10 times in 20 years for my job. Fortunately all to make more money put a true PITA......Been here a good 10 years and ain't moving until my retirement. Most everything will already be there though so just moving my old butt and the lovely wife won't be to hard......Cats go in the carriers....No sweat. I'm hoping we just turn this whole place over to my Stepson and his soon to be wife and move on painlessly......OH TO DREAM.......:doghouse:
 
backlash said:
WOW that is dedication.
That watering timer will pay for it's self fast.
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I just kind of had to decide what it was worth to me and how much i had invested. I guess 150 miles each way wasn't entirely true. Sometimes I was considerably closer. Just depended where I ended up from work that day. i guess it all together could have been that average easily though. Some days I was 4 hours away......Some days only 50 miles......but it was always 150 miles home.......
 
I started some onions, leeks and celery from seed a while ago. I started each of them in a single pot that have plastic lids.

The leeks and onions haven't done so well. I thought this was the wrong time of year to start them, and I will try to sow seeds in my garden for harvest next year. I did buy some onion starts, so it is okay.

The celery looks great. I have tried to grow celery before, and I know that it needs to be kept moist. It can get that in my daughter's garden plot with the automated watering system.

I gave up my garden plot in the local community garden. It took time and energy away from my yard, and didn't produce what I thought it should have. My daughter's garden plot was so much better in production, because of the automated watering. That was just never going to happen at my community garden.
 
Dutchs said:
View attachment 6219 View attachment 6220 View attachment 6221 View attachment 6222 View attachment 6223 View attachment 6224 View attachment 6225 View attachment 6226 View attachment 6227 View attachment 6228 Feeling very good about the garden.....And the Ouchita Blacberries are going very nicely. The wild ones are kicking too!
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Peanut, Do you know what that third picture is with the little bell shaped white flowers? It was just here and this is the first year I've seen those flowers on it.....
 
I finally got a decent stand of potatoes, they are doing well. The sweet corn seed was bad. We had to replant more than half of by hand. The second planting is coming up nicely. I planted some running beans in the corn also. It hasn't come up yet. The barrel are anchors for fishing line (crows).
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Nice stand of potatoes @Peanut well done. Here in Australia all of our friends got no sweet corn here either as it wilted and died on the vines due to the extreme heat we had here. Hoping you have better luck :). We got only 7 cobs of corn off our whole crop which we will blanch and freeze and we have a few hopefuls still growing that will give us a few more.

@MoBookworm1957 always nice to have fresh herbs to pick for cooking and we love our Swiss chard (silver beet) here too as it makes so many meals with only using a little garden bed space.
 
Tank-Girl said:
WOW Dutch if that garden is successful you'll have so much food!

How do you plan on storing it?
I'm pea green with envy at those beautiful long rows. *sigh*
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I am going to put some in Vacuum packed bags and will can some. I have quite a few friends I work with that couldn't survive without a Whole foods down the street from them in Tampa so I'll give them some so they can see how much better home grown is......I have Grandkids that'll get some and there Parents.....and Mom will get some.
Thank you for the compliment. I've really worked hard at it this year.......
 
@Dutchs that is a super effort for your first year of cropping congratulations :) . Like most of our friends they said they were amazed we were picking crops in the first year as most gardeners say that it takes a good 2 years to get the soil right to get good crops. With successes this year your soil will get better with amendments and you will get even better crops next year.
 
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