Potager Journal 2006

Photos of veges can be found in the 'Photos' section above.

Happenings January
This year is starting out (again) in the vegetables. Trenches have been dug at the lowest end of the garden to help ease the Winter mud problem. The trenches have had drain pipe and scoria laid in them and are covered over with soil. Drained also and spread scoria in the area between the glasshouse and potting shed, will lay stepping pavers here later.

January 03 - Picking piles of beans, which apparently are 'squeaky' when eaten! Ha! Staked sunflowers, huge! The wind is terrible atm and rain is looming...pfft! must be Summer holidays! ;)

January 04 - Wind, rain :(

January 05 - Gale force wind, rain :(

January 06 - Sun! sorta, wind! lots but no rain! :)

Edged around the glasshouse to potting shed with wooden edging and started spreading 'hokey pokey' pebble (the same as in the glasshouse and looks pretty) on top of more weedmat over the scoria. Tomorrow I should have it finished. Then I just have to find some paving slabs and voila! No more wet, muddy, bogged down tootsies while traversing the potager in the Winter! Picked beans...

January 07 - Boxed more edging and finished spreading 'hokey pokey'. Made a planter box on the end of the shed facing the glasshouse and filled it with compost. Planted a passionfruit. Picked beans...

January 08 - Sprayed around trees for weeds and did loads of watering in the orchard garden. Mowed. Picked beans...

January 15 - Bought timber for the deck joists on the potting shed :) Built deck framing. Picked beans...

January 16 - Went to timber yard and picked through piles of decking to get the best bits :). Nearly finished laying and nailing the decking timber onto the framing. Can't wait till next weekend to finish!! Picked....

January 20 - ARRGH! Still one more day to wait! Getting a bit sick of beans....oops.

January 22 - Weeded potager and cleared some old stuff ready for new stuff. Picked beans...sigh.

January 23 - Hmm...beans....

January 24 - Huge storm! Wind howling, rain thundering and me hiding inside...

January 26 - Beans are nearly flat on the ground (yay?) sunflowers are leaning over lots, tomatoes are flat, even the huge dill is flat, looks like a tornado went through here! Worst of all, big potager garden rose 'Sally Holms' had grown an arching branch which was so big that it went from one side of the path to the other with no support! So big you could walk under it and not get scratched :) It has been snapped off, sad. Picked straggly beans ...hehe.

January 29 - Pulled out bean plants! RaH! Watering trees, potager. Finished deck!

January 30 - Weeded!

Happenings February
Put up sunshade in front of pergola, so hot and humid. Melons and pumkin are getting mildew. Picked sweetcorn and froze it for later.

February 12 - Spread straw over beds in potager which are finished for this season. Weeded. Staked tomatoes. Cleaned seed trays etc ready for new seasons seeds. Tidied up all potted plants and gathered seeds from lillies.

February 13 - Decided to lift and re-lay part of central path in veg garden which has taken most of the day. Laid pebbles in front of deck and plopped a paver as a step. Watered. My goodness...I do believe the potager garden building has just about finished!

February 26 - Cleared sunflowers and chopped for compost, saved seedheads for the birds over Winter. Watered. Picking Tomatoes 'Beefsteak' and cherry varieties. Silverbeet in abundance. Melons, pumpkin, peppers ripening. Leeks fattening.

February 28 - Weeded veges. Spread sawdust and covered with straw areas which will be fallow over the Winter, no more thistly type weeds tolerated in vege's! General tidy up of the herbs, tomatoes etc... Chopped out corn stalks and spread some compost. Took out old bean plants and sowed parsnip and more carrots.

Happenings August
Seeds sown in glasshouse, aubergine, rockmelon, peas, beetroot.

Heirloom seeds - Pumpkin, courgette, golden beets, cleome, capsicum, sweetcorn, cabbage, silverbeet, tomato beefsteak.

August 29 - Compost potatoes

Happenings October
Seeds in glasshouse. Heirloom - pumpkin, corn, russian sunflower and dwarf sunflower.

Happenings November
Planted our Giant sunflower and pumpkin seedlings.

November 5 - Plant out tomatoes adding a small amount of gypsum and 'Just' compost to bed. Also planted silverbeet, cabbage, aubergine, golden beet and red beets.

Happenings December
Christmas at new house. Great space :).

December 27 - Got into garden early. Sun warm and no wind. The air smells fresh and clean - perfect!

Splat and Baby head out with me, they have adopted the potager, always they are there, bliss. Weeded around veges, removed sweetpea stalks to deal with.

Lifted first variety of garlic, will wait until next week to lift others. Interestingly, the garlic (I think it was the organic that I bought last year) has already started to form small bulbs at the roots. Strange.

Trimmed back calendular from the paths. Lunchtime! More weeding after lunch. Drizzly rain not long after, oh dear. Oh well off inside to surf the net and look up plant stuff. Raining hard now!

December 28 - Early start! Weed, weed, weed! Weather is getting muggy, heavy sky. Planted herbs in the garden - Oregano, tansy, mint, basil, thyme, sage and rosemary. Plans to build a new herb garden by the kitchen so I will transplant these there when it is done. Eek, raining hard.

December 29 - Weeding potager, hot, muggy day, cats in the garden loving it! Potted up a few dill plants for Annie, they self-seed madly everywhere. Cleared huge piles of horrible weeds, barrow loads! Hot work and I declare I will not let this happen again! lol, we will see! Had to go inside for a drink and to cool down, so hot!

Hmmm, a quick glance at the local paper shows 'Kings' are having an end of year sale - woohoo! Can I risk sneaking off to it? Should I be strong and do what already needs to be done? Tough questions and the answer is glaringly obvious! The birds are eating the berries and I need to be netting the bushes! Hmph! 4 1/2 hours of later and sore hands, sore arms and sore back (dumb job) I still have lots left to do. Too late to go to the sale!