I feel like I'm jumping in a week early for the Garden Journal challenge, but we're coming into Spring here AND we are in lockdown, so the garden is all I have - sob. Actually, if I was to look at silver - or green - linings, I have to say I'm pretty excited to be home and in the garden at the moment. The birds are singing like crazy (my favourite is the song of the grey shrike thrush - listen below), the daffodils, jonquils and narcissus are out, the comfrey is emerging, and even the chickens are laying.
Whilst the brassicas, swedes, garlic, snow peas and beetroot are still growing, and the parsley, chard (silverbeet in Australia) and kale are bountiful, it's the garden preparation I'm really enjoying. I laid a new bed in a sunny spot in the back garden as I always run out of space come Spring! I plan on running an irrigation system that covers that bed plus the strawberries and raspberries, and hope to put some tomatoes in.
I was soooo inspired by a photo a friend sent (see left hand side) that I immediately ordered some to add to the collection. Wouldn't it be cool to replicate that photo? That would mean I had to label everything so I didn't forget what I planted, and not lose the labels, but it's worth a shot, right?
Besides, the more tomatoes I plant, the more powerful I feel, right?
It's still quite cold - the polytunnel reaches good temperatures if the sun is out, so I'v experimented with growing som of hte same variety of seeds inside and the same in the polytunnel to see what works. In America it seems there is a ton of information on what to grow where and at what time, but it's more tricky here. I also wish I had a polytunnel specific gardening book as they do work a little differently to greenhouses and of course it's a little different in different areas. Still, what has suprised me the most in my first year of growing in there is that I still have chilli and capsicum fruit on the plants, and it seems I might have successfully overwintered the eggplant.
The potatoes are pushing through the first layer of soil and straw, and I'll be adding more straw to layer it up as I didn't plant them too deep, as I'm rubbish at digging. There's still frost to come I imagine so probably best to do so anyway.
Speaking of straw, I dug up the deep litter that started last winter lockdown and it's bloody lovely. That went straight onto the new bed. We've been really stoked with the chookshed we built in that time, as it's just been soooo easy to maintain. I usually just go in, feed them, throw the old nesting straw on top of the deep litter, change the straw, throw some lavender, rosemary and wormwood on top, and that's it - oh and some ACV and garlic in the water. I really love how herbs and plants grown in the garden can support the chooks, which feed back into the system. I also decided I'm keeping the gold laced wyandottes. They were annoying me with their jumping over fences but they've seemed to have calmed down now as they are used to the routine of being allowed out for a few hours each day, more in lockdown of course when we're not at work and can keep an eye on the foxes!
So much is going on in my garden that I still have plenty to talk about in a week's time for the #gardenjournal challenge - see you again then!
With Love,
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