Monday 7 January 2013

What am I growing?

I currently have the following plants growing in my garden:
(You can click the links to find the page to purchase them yourself if I bought them online)
  • Apricot (unknown cultivar)
  • Apple (unknown cultivar) - old plant that has been there years before we moved in
  • Basil (from a local farmers produce market)
  • Beans (yet to germinate, and the birds or something got the only one that did germinate)
  • Beetroots
  • Blueberry 'northland'
  • Capsicum (saved from a store-bought capsicum)
  • Capsicum (purple) from Aldi's (surprisingly this one produced one very small fruit near the end of Summer, then stayed alive over Winter only to produce one new very small fruit this Summer)!
  • Carrots
  • Celery (been a few weeks, yet to germinate)
  • Chilli
  • Cucumber (crystal apple)
  • Eggplant (listada de gandia)
  • Ginger (has not taken off yet, so I don't think it will survive)
  • Golden fruit of the Andes (Naranjilla)
  • Leek
  • Mesclun provencal salad mix
  • Onion (round spanish)
  • Peanuts (from a store bought bag of non-roasted, non-salted peanuts)
  • Raspberry digger's gold
  • Raspberry 'chilliwack' (From Bunnings)
  • Radish (French breakfast)
  • Salty ice plant (gone to seed now)
  • Silverbeet five colour mix
  • Snow peas (from Bunnings)
  • Spinach (round)
  • Stevia
  • Strawberry 'cambridge rival'
  • Tomatos
I get most of my plants from Diggers, a plant nursery that stocks many interesting heirloom and original plants that you won't find anywhere else. I also get many from eBay or from garden markets and friends. It's amazing how much variety is out there

I will keep updating this page when I add more plants. :)

Friday 4 January 2013

What's this blog all about?

Hi everyone!

My parents have a vegetable garden in their backyard, and I have fond childhood memories of watching the plants grow and having very fresh vegetables on my plate.
Now I have grown up and moved out, I am trying to set up my own fruit and vegetable gardens.
I already have a small one square meter space to grow vegetables, but it is too small for what I want! I already have peanuts and a watermelon growing in the grass, and several pots full of fruit, berrries and vegetables!

Once you have tasted fruit or vegetables that have been picked ripe from the tree/vine/branch/ground and eaten within minutes of picking, you will never feel the same way about supermarket "fresh" produce.

My blog will be following my successes and learning opportunities (AKA failures), and will include tutorials you can follow.

I have recently been researching 'Self watering' or 'Wicking' garden beds, and will be trialling them out for myself, including posting images of what I did and how I did it so you can follow along.

I will be creating a post about the basics of how a self watering garden bed works in the next few days. :)