Today's Backyard Adventure - More Vegies

Today I decided that I was going to do more gardening - not really surprising is it :) I decided I was going to make more garden beds for more vegies and get a half wine barrel for my horseradish to grow in.

I ended up buying some sweet corn, capsicums, zucchini and spring onions

Here is the finished product of the Horseradish in the half wine barrel - I decided to put it in a half wine barrel so that it didn't take over my garden. I think I will also add some spring onions to it this week too

Here is the horseradish in the pot that my friend Chris gave me - holes in the leaves courtesy of the chooks

Before I could put soil in the half wine barrel, I had to drill plenty of drainage holes

I also cleaned up the area that I put the half wine barrel and moved my herbs in pots to the area too

After that I needed to decide where I was going to plant the next lot of vegies, here are some before shots

I then spent a while turning over the soil in the area and trying to pull out some of the weeds too. I sprayed all the weeds yesterday so they are in the process of dying anyway.

When I was digging I found lots of really BIG wormies

And also 2 of these which I thought might have been witchety grubs but might also be white curl grub?? Whatever they are, the chooks enjoyed eating them

Here is my corn planted, 11 plants I think and spring onions all up the right hand side

Capsicums - 8 plants

4 Zucchini plants

Chook proofed!

It didn't stop the chooks trying to check it all out though - they are a bit miffed about the barrier

Tomatoes are planted!

My tomatoes are finally planted! I had the day off work today which gave me some time out in the garden. I had to fork over the whole area and pull all the weeds out which took about an hour to do and then plant the tomato seedlings in their paper pots. I then covered them all with milk cartons to try to stop the slugs n snails from getting them and my chooks.
I also put my wine barrels in position for where I want to put my lemon and lime trees so that I didn't end up putting tomatoes where I wanted to put them

All up I planted 4 Beefsteak plants and 11 Roma tomatoes

There are a lot of runner weeds in the area of the tomatoes so I need to buy some weedkiller and spray them all as I just couldn't get rid of it all. I will also fence the area off from the chooks

Big thanks to Melissa, Kirsten and Russell for saving all their milk bottles for me!

Broad beans and Dip

Tonight I picked my first lot of broad beans from The Patch and I decided to make some dip from them. Last year when my friend Wayne gave me a whole shopping bag full of broad beans I made some dip and it was AWESOME so dip was the first thing to make again.

As I was picking them I shared some with my chooks too, one of my chooks, Polly, was eating them out of my hand :D
I also ate some little ones fresh from the pod - oh wow so yummy!!

First harvest - there are going to be sooooooo many more to come

De-podded (is that a word?) and then boiled for two minutes, I then peeled the majority of them again, only the bigger ones ones though as it is time consuming and just not needed for the smaller ones.

I then added the broad beans, home grown spring onion, some garlic cloves, spring onion, lemon juice, sour cream and salt n pepper into my food processor and whooshed it all up to make this, broad bean dip! Sooo yummy!!

Vegies Update 01/11/11

It's been a while since I've done an update on my vegie patch, to be honest I haven't been doing a lot in there other than picking really.

My garlic has been attacked by aphids :( I'm hoping that they will still be ok - does anyone know what I can do about it? Should I bend the tops over?

My onions are now looking more onion shaped! You can see the shape of it at the edge of the soil - not all of them have been very good and well behaved like this but some is better than none

My broad beans have really taken off lately - they are getting so big and bushy and lots of flowers that are turning into broad beans!!

The first bed of cauliflowers and broccoli (vegie bed 2)have been cleared out now - I think I'm going to leave this bed fallow for a while or do a green manure crop. No cauliflowers grew but I blame the slugs and snails :(

My leeks are still soldiering on - no idea what I am going to do with them all though!

My snowpeas can come out now

My spring onions are awesome!! I've been picking them and they have so much flavour - I need to use more of them quicker though

The second planting of broccoli and cauliflower - the broccoli has mostly all been picked but the side shoots are still going, I hope these cauli's produce more than just leaves

Chook Proofing The Backyard

I've had my chooks for 2 weeks now and they are settling in quite well. I haven't let them free range yet as I needed to do some work around the yard first and today that got done. I also had a friend come around and help me clip their wings so they wont try to fly away.

To chook proof the backyard I needed to block up all the gaps under the fence and I finally got around to doing it today.

This pile of bricks was as high as the top one that you can see - that's a lot of bricks that I moved and it probably wasn't a good idea considering I have severe tendonitis in both my thumbs, oh well - it had to be done.

I also built my compost bin - it's 3 pellets with black plastic around the outside to stop it from being in contact with my colorbond fence

Today's snowpea harvest

Tomato Seedlings - Finally!!

After 23 days of diligently spraying and misting my first planting of tomato and corn seedlings I finally have some sign that it's been worthwhile!! It also helps now that the weather is getting warmer.
I have 2 Beefsteak tomato seedlings and 1 Tommy Toe seedling showing some life!

Look how tiny they are:

Broccoli Side Growths

A few ppl have told me to not let the little broccoli side growths get too big, that I should cut them off and eat them while they are small. I decided to find out myself and let one grow and eat it. The result? well it tasted like broccoli and a lot better than store bought one so I'm going to let my side growths keep growing

This is how big it grew to

Vegies Update 12/09/11

Time for some updated pics of my vegies in my patch! I should add that I've now picked all the broccoli off my original 6 plants. They do have side shoots happening and I'm not sure if I should let them get big or eat them small - anyone?

I took these pics yesterday afternoon and the sun was being a bit annoying, so sorry about tht

Onion and Garlic - they are still going strong

The second lot of onions and garlic are slowly getting there

My broad beans are flowering and still putting on some height - I'd like them to get a bit taller though before they fruit but I wont get a say in it, I had to add some more string

My first lot of cauliflower is still growing big yet no sign of the cauliflower head - hopefully soon

This is one of the broccoli offshoots - to cut now or let it grow bigger?

I have a bonus leek growing! This must have been from last years crop - bonus!

This seasons leeks are getting tall now and slowly getting thicker

Snow peas are also getting quite big and needed some more string to grow on and if you look closely you can see a flower or two

Spinach is getting big - I really need to cut these bigger leaves off

Spring onions are almost at a point where I could start eating them I reckon

My second planting of broccoli are getting big, I reckon a head will start poking out soon

The second planting of Cauliflowers are also getting bigger and I think I may have finally stopped them being eaten by the snails cos I squished them with my boot!

And finally - my potted colour are doing well :D