Hi Lynlyn.
I have been busy cleaning out the greenhouse and putting new soil in it. Made a big bed out of my main beds and put a boardwalk up the middle of it so I can get to the plants without trampling the soil.
Also been making some homemade earthboxes. Got the idea for them on the tomatoville site from Timcunningham. Started with two tubs bought form Kmart.

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Then siliconed a black pot with extra holes drilled in it to the top tub for the wicking chamber. Drilled small holes for aeration and the larger one for the filler pipe.

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Here it is put together with a small hole in the bottom tub for the overflow
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The water chamber holds 30 litres so they should last for the long weekend with any luck. Filled this one up with potting mix and sowed some broad beans in it.
Have made two others the same. Will be very interesting to see how they go with the tomatoes. Can grow two per tub apparently.

Mantis - * watching more clouds roll in on this cold windy day*

Pulled out the tomato carcases at both Melbourne and Marysville. Will dig over the beds when the weather improves to bury all the weeds that have survived. Raked leaves in the rain at Marysville and piled them up where the tomatoes were. Removed all of the spent raspberry canes and will tie the new ones up when all the other leaves go. (Mental note: Must get some late-bearer roots for Spatz)
Mrs Lomatia attacked the penstemons, hollyhocks etc. so we had a lot to take to the recycling depot.
(Made a coppacolla last week!!!!)

We have built a couple of raised beds. They are planted with red mustard, rainbow chard, beetroot and leeks. Planted in other beds: potato onions, shallots, garlic and broad beans. Put in some green manure where the tomatoes were. Planted two raspberries (autumn bliss) and cleaned up the asparagus patches. Now we are getting ready to plant out some more berry plants and some walnut trees.

We also need to plan where we will put the fruit trees that we have ordered in the next couple of weeks.

When i get motivated/money i want to build a few raised beds :P since we settled into our house now

I bought a few seedlings yesterday too

Looks like it's cleaning time.
Mantis, I saw those earthboxes they look very good. I like the idea of being able to go away for a few days without worrying about watering pots. I'm not sure I'd want to put two plants in there though. Let me know how your beans do.

Lomatia, we haven't got around to the meat yet! In a couple of weeks we should give it a go.

Let me see....I've been visiting medieval hilltop towns in Tuscany for last few days - staying with Mr and Mrs Finbar. Tomorrow I'm off to France where I'm planning to visit a monastery that has recreated a 16th century 'jardin potager' (veggie garden) among other things. Then it will be off to Germany, the UK and Ireland, then back to France and possibly Italy again before winging my way back home at the end of June.
Just thought I'd share.

Have a wonderful time, Ray! I'd be interested to hear all about all the kitchen gardens you will encounter.

Gardening wise I've been a bit slack. The weather has been yuck for a while now. Icy wind, rain bucketing down and fog. The slugs are out in force and so is the Cabbage White caterpillar. Haven't sown as much as I would have liked.

The pots (mainly with chillies) are still outside and I'm getting worried. Can't put them on the unfinished balcony as the builder might (emphasis on 'might') come back any time to finish it. And the new greenhouse is yet to be built where the old structure is at the moment. The weather has delayed that project.

Lyn, your garden looks really good! You've done a great job with the beds. And I would have loved to see you kneeling on the ground smelling the mushroom compost. *grins*

To question 1, I'd put 1 pumpkin and 1 melon in there. Just keep feeding them and you shouldn't have a problem. :)

Lyn, the red tub in my construction is a 65 litre tub. Should be plenty of room for two plants. I grew a lot of tommys in 30 litre pots this year with good results. But, time will tell eh.

* Posted by: raymondo

Let me see....I've been visiting medieval hilltop towns in Tuscany for last few days - staying with Mr and Mrs Finbar. Tomorrow I'm off to France where I'm planning to visit a monastery that has recreated a 16th century 'jardin potager' (veggie garden) among other things. Then it will be off to Germany, the UK and Ireland, then back to France and possibly Italy again before winging my way back home at the end of June.
Just thought I'd share.

Ooooohh, I just saw the pics in Finbars thread - what a treat to be able to play in the Tuscan dirt and trundle through medieval hilltop towns! I should BE there, it's eating at me, arrrrgggghhhhhhh

Are you taking pics Ray? I'd like to see some of wherever you stay in France and Ireland especially, just to whet my appetite for next year when I hope it will be my turn to satisfy these increasingly itchy feet I'm plagued with ;-)

PP

Planted cauliflower and chinese cabbage seedlings and some more peas.
Greenhouse all cleaned out and sterilised with boiling water. New soil put in and is looking good.
First sowing of tommys are up but looking a bit spindly. Should come good after potting on.
Peppers I sowed about 6 weeks ago have been potted on and are looking great.
Planning to make an arbor over my permanent tommy bed outside that I can pull shade cloth over. Will post pics when done.
Made new beds along the front of the greenhouse where more tommys can go much later in the year.
The patch is coming together nicely.
cheers for now Mantis

few onions in but ima start digging up garden and amending soil ect getting it ready for spring/summer :P too cold for anything :( BIG FROSTS past 2 days -5 degrees or more ect at night

was -2 at 7am

Frosts last two mornings and the green beans have bitten the dust. A new patch of carrots me thinks.

Brrrrr it is a bit early for temperature this low don't you think? Things are just not growing in the garden, don't know why. Not enough sun maybe. Seeds have germinated but have stayed in idle since. Only the snowpeas are showing any significant growth.

Very frosty up here, too. Even the Chilacayote suffered from the frost. And another frost this morning, haven't checked the damage yet.

I have given the greenhouse a big makeover. Removed all the old soil and the pavers and their quarry dust base that ran up the middle. Put in new soil with cow poop and a layer of compost on top. Instead of pavers I decided to put in a couple of thick redgum boards that sit on concrete blocks to keep them off the soil. A boardwalk LOL
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Got the self watering tubs lined up ready to go.
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Some tommy and pepper seedlings slowly growing
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Self watering tub with broad beans
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Cheers for now Mantis

It has been a while since I posted so I thought I'd say hello. Haven't planted anything in the veggie garden as I've been busy with other things but the orchard is looking great. All the fruit trees and grape vines are tended to and just prepared a new patch for veggies at the block. Sprinkled some barley seed for green manure and hopefully it will be ok for Spring. We've commenced plans and hopefully be building there this year! Put up a small garden shed (3m x 2.6m)over the weekend and concreted it in. Now, I can go there and have some shelter if a light shower passes through. The shed caps off a little fenced area which will become my nursery. Only about 3m x 10m but it will be a safe enclosure for all the pots etc. I'll eventually put some shade cloth over the area and some gravel down. The shorter days mean I can only get jobs done at the weekend, provided it isn't raining!

I finally feel settled in my new house, we moved in with enormous stress & difficulty in January. Just to add a bit of excitement to my life I lost my job 2 weeks after moving in! Fortunately I now have a much better one working for Greening Australia.
I'm very excited to be able to report that my pile of compost is almost ready to be made into a raised garden. I've used all the old cardboard boxes from the move to mulch the kikuyu & will spread the compost mixed with spent potting compost from work over the top.
I have the kids for the second week of the holidays and we are planning to plant the first seeds in the new bed. We planted the orange trees I brought from the old house and a hedge of natives last weekend.
The kids are very keen to have their own gardens so we will be filling a couple of old bathtubs with more old potting compost. My son is planning to grow strawberries in his & my daughter has selected enough seeds for 1/2 an acre!
Sarah *who's v. happy to be gardening & posting again!*

Good for you Sarah. The garden sounds wonderful.
I am going to try strawberries again as well. Never had success with them an it irks me. Got way to many tomatoes in again but eh, I do go to the meetings LOL.

LOL, Mantis, I can just see these meetings. Little envelopes of seeds surreptitiously exchanged under the table....

Strawberries are great to grow. Try 'Torrey' which likes hot summers. I've got tons of runners, but not sure how they'd survive posting them?

Seems everybody is coming out of hibernation here. Welcome back everybody. :)

Torrey eh, I will try to find some. Thanks Spatz. Are you getting any rain over there. We are getting bugger all here. Frost after frost and sunny 14 deg days. The tommys in the greenhouse are loving it. But, we may run out of water if it doesn't rain properly. Must get around to putting in another tank.

Not much rain here either, Mantis. We had the driest June on record. Usually we have about 350mm of rain in June, this year we had 74mm!

The first 3 days of July looked promising with great rainfalls. Now it's back to just frosty and sunny.

Cold & sunny here too, we had a little bit of rain, just enough to make a gardener think of growing, but no more.
I'd like to put a rain tank in soon, but then there is a list as long as my arm of things to do!

Mantis, I've still got spare runners, if you are interested, send me an email, and I can send you some. :)

Spatz, I haven't forgotten the rberries. Just being lazy!!!!

Don't worry, lomatia! We've been rather busy, too. So don't worry about the raspberries. We'll still have enough in the patch without yours. :)

Thanks for the offer Spatz but I found them at Tesselar bulbs online and got 20 crowns (minimum buy).
Tried to do it right this time and made hilled rows and covered them with landscape black plastic. Cut slits in the plastic and planted 10 of them. My daughteres want to try the rest in pots.

Hi there!

Hope everybody is doing well, I am :)

I turned over the green manure in the tomato beds on Tuesday. I had to do it before it bolt to seeds. I've put some blood and bone and mulch lightly with straw. Is that ok? I have some dry sheep manure to put in but I'm not sure how long before I intend to plant should it go in.