Spring Garden Update : September 17

September 26, 2017

Well Spring has arrived in our Sub-tropical Garden, but some days it really feels like summer though! The weather is so messed up right now.

In the Aquaponics

We got an infestation of black aphids in our aquaponics on our bunching spring onions that we're too out of control to really do much with so we had to pull the lot. We've given away a couple of kgs but we still have a truck load sitting in a bucket outside which we really need to find homes for. There's only so many spring onions one family can eat!

Spring Onion haul (look at those monsters - no they aren't leeks)

We also had some issues with whitefly on our tomatoes, but we've controlled that. We also pulled out the last of the broccoli in the aquaponics and planted out a new batch of lettuce. We're hoping to upgrade our barramundi tank with an extra grow bed but haven't decided what we'll grow yet. We've got some awesome looking cabbages growing which should be ready for harvest soon. And the leeks are coming along nicely! We've also popped a post over at the Aqua Gardening Inspire me website sharing our aquaponics journey if you'd like to know how we got started (and give us a like so we can win prizes!).

Cabbage in our Aquaponics

Front Garden Beds

After a month our corn, beans & sunflower bed is doing really well in the new garden bed we setup. To give you an idea of how far they have come in just one month see last months photo in our August update here.

Corn, Beans & Sunflowers

The second bed has now got a cherry tomato (not sure which one as I forgot to label it!), basil and some carrot seeds planted. I am waiting for my marigolds to get a little bit bigger to pop in this bed as well.

Tomato, Basil, Carrots and soon to be marigolds

Our third bed is looking sad, and I know exactly why! I didn't prep the soil properly and it's basically growing in pure poo! So this little zucchini is not loving life right now. I'll spend the next few weeks trying to get it right but if this zucchini doesn't make a recovery soon I'll be putting it out of it's misery.

Our sad zucchini - what happens when you don't get your soil right.

The fruit 'orchard'

Our fruit orchard is essentially a bunch of fruit trees in pots! Well we use these grow bag things as they are easy to relocate. If you're wondering about what fruits you can grow in pots I wrote a post about it here. Our pomegranate which is about 4 years old is getting it's first flowers, and we have fruit on our fig for the first time ever. Our blueberry is loaded but most berries don't make it back to the house with Ivy on harvest duty.

Our first pomegranate

Our happy Blueberry bush

The coffee bean has had a few flowers, but nothing has really eventuated just yet.

Back Garden

The big garden out the back had a nematode invasion so we've give it a bit of a rest. I've popped in a green manure crop which has been turned and is breaking down. Each week we've been giving it a bit of a turn and we're finding an abundance of worms. We're probably going to plant it out this weekend with corn, snake beans, cucumber and cucamelon.

Wheat Green Manure Crop

Seed raising

Each weekend I've been popping in new seeds to hopefully get a good succession happening (and also get rid of some old seeds). At the moment we've got beets, cucumbers, cucamelon, butter beans and loads of lettuce on the go.

Our seeds we're raising - as you can see a lot of seeds are just not viable though

I am also doing some carrots direct in a pot as I've had success growing carrots this way before and it's easy to get the right soil consistency for them (as they like really light soil).

Carrot seeds popping up

Other bit's around the garden

Our pineapples are coming along nicely and all our herbs in pots are looking amazing. The chickens are happily producing 2 eggs a day, and we're happily enjoying them. I would have loved a third chicken so we could share more with the family.

Satay our Gold Laced Wyandotte

I'd love to have a go and growing some plants hydroponically to see how that goes as well, particularly the ones that get smashed by fruit fly eg. Capsicums, Chillis & Tomatoes. Loving the spring weather! Now all we need is rain. I've never seen it so dry and our water tank is close to running out. So to wrap up our first month of spring: