Family gardening
Two weeks ago …
There is really nothing I like as much as spending a day in the garden with Bec, Abbey and the Dog. Even if we don’t end up getting much done, its still so nice to just muck about and lie in the sun. Two weeks ago we decided that we’d plant the seedlings that we had grown from seed (Tommy Tomato’s & Yellow Leaf Lettuce were all that we had from seed) along with some seedlings we had bought (Carrots, Broccoli, Cellery and other lettuce species).
The first step was to clear the garden bed of the viney thing that was growing in there. This thing grows like crazy and it gives me a little bit of confidence that we might be able to grow something in that icky sandy “soil.”
The compost in my first bin (we have two now along with our worms) was nice and ready to go at the bottom, so after taking the bin off, we saw SO many nice big fat worms, we put the top 50cm of compost back in the bin as it was still a little green and used everything underneath. It was beautiful, a lot of it was still a little unbroken down, but the majority of it was of perfect consistency and black as tar. We dug this through the “soil” (I use quotes because our “soil” is very sandy) where we intended to plant our seedlings along with some potting mix from Bunnings.
Once this area was up to standard, we put our seedlings in. A little too close together to start with as the surrounding “soil” was just not good enough to put them in there.
We also put Lucerne over the soil and between all the seedlings to keep the soil moist, keep pests out and keep nutrients in. The benefits of Lucerne are amazing and I highly recommend all gardeners use it. Lots of organic liquid fertiliser and water were applied to increase the goodness available to the plants.
In the “soil” surrounding the vegie patch, we applied the Diggers Cleaver Clover kit to grow through winter and be dug in before summer. However, after doing this we had 2 weeks of solid rain and only one species of Clover have sprouted and it would appear the rain has washed away the mustard seeds. I will scatter some more today or tomorrow.
Two weeks later…
Well, as I took my sweet time posting this, I can include my follow up in the same post (its called Structured Procrastination.) The bloody chooks have gotten out a few times and done their bull-esque foot shuffle all through the vegie garden. Everything is ok, but they keep scattering the Lucerne everywhere.
Unfortunately, my Tommy Tomato is not looking great, despite the raging success of the others.
I have been making sure it gets lots of water, but its not picking up. 
The clover is growing like its 1999.
All in all a success. I am happy to have a vegie garden finally, even if it is a little pitiful and pathetic, I am still chuffed that somebody like myself who used to spend more time on my car than sleeping and working combined, can achieve something like this. So many people seem to be afraid of this, afraid of the potential failure. The thing is, if you want to start, just don’t go too big, research a few plants you want to grow and just focus on those, you wont get overwhelmed that way and the benefits and feeling of sheer satisfaction are second to none.
