Garden - 2

Almost two weeks ago, I decided the shoebox greenhouse wasn't really working and bought some plastic zipper bags. There were a few green sprouts in there, but not a lot. So everything went into plastic bags, and got watered and sealed. They were all sitting on the barbecue because I couldn't think of a better place at the time. Unfortunately Caleb's tall enough to reach the plate, and one day last week he came in with my bag of zucchini seedlings. I was able to salvage three of the six. He also found my rockmelon bag this week, but those fared better.

At the same time I demolished the mini-greenhouse in the shoebox, I decided to plant a couple more things. The aforementioned zucchini was one, and some American jack-o-lantern pumpkins was the other.

Well. Here we are twelve days later, and here's the report. By far the most progress was from the pumpkins! There was growth in all six of the egg cups, and some had two sprouts (the packet said to plant 2-3 seeds together, so I did). All the pumpkin sprouts are at least 2 inches tall. They won't be ready by the 31st of course, but the plan is to harvest the seeds from the biggest pumpkin and plant those in May, and then I might sell a few when they're mature. We'll see what happens.

The next best effort was from the watermelon seedlings, which also had growth in all six cups. Those are only about 3/4 inch tall, but they're all strong.

The rockmelon (canteloupe) seedlings look good too. There were only four cups (I previously separated the two strongest ones, but they died) but they all sprouted.

The zucchini...I've already told you about the zucchini. Which leaves us with the capsicum (red pepper). Six cups, all six cups had at least two seeds planted. And the result is...one seedling. ONE! And that one only just came out in the last couple days. So I'm leaving those in the bag for a bit longer. Given the instructions say to grow them in pots, then transplant to bigger pots, then maybe transplant them into the ground, that kinda tells me they might be hard to grow. So we'll just see what happens, right?

And the rest of the garden is looking pretty good too. Remember how I said Caleb was helping me weed my garden - only he was pulling out actual plants? Well, the fact that we went away for three days last weekend means they had a chance to grow undisturbed for a while - even though it was hot & didn't rain the whole weekend. So they're looking very strong now.

And the nectarine tree. We're not sure anymore if it's a nectarine, or if it's a plum. The fruit is pretty dark, and I've seen pictures of both types of trees, and at this point, the nectarine tree is the one our tree looks more like. But it's too soon to tell.

And finally, my great find this week. I walked up to John Street on Wednesday and saw a garage sale sign pointing down an alley. I'd seen the sign before, but the one time I went down the alley, I couldn't find anything resembling a garage sale. But this time there were two other women ahead of me who started walking down that way, so I thought, well, why not? And I found this shop space with "for rent" signs in the windows, and the door was open, and the place was full of STUFF. So I walked around. I had Caleb in the pram so I had to be careful I didn't bump into anything. And as I got toward the back of the shop, I thought, hey, I should look for a wheelbarrow, and whaddya know, there was a wheelbarrow. It was sitting there with a bunch of other stuff in it. So I went to ask how much (because nothing was labeled with a price - that seems to be how it goes at Adelaide garage sales), and the man said $15 plus delivery of $5. Well. $20 for a used wheelbarrow, even if it had a bad wheel or something, is nothing to sneeze at. The cheapest new one at Bunnings is around $40. I paid for it and he dropped it off at almost exactly the time I said I'd be home (I'd actually been home for about an hour by then). It does have a small puncture hole, and might have a small crack, but it works. It's one of the things that's been on our list of things to get since we moved into this house almost two years ago.

So here it is, next week, and I'm back with more. First I'll just expand on the things I posted about last week, when I didn't have time to write more than a few words.

1. This week's catch phrase: "All done."

Caleb's favourite new phrase. And it's almost every day at this point he says a new word. He's also loving his new sandpit we put together for him, but still not quite understanding that he's supposed to leave Mum's veggies in the ground.

2. Disappearing carrots, holey crucifers, a rogue pumpkin, and stone fruit.

I have no idea what happened to my carrots, whether it was birds, weather, or the 18 month old demolition squad, but there's only one left, and I'm not even sure anymore that it's a carrot.

And something has been eating my cauliflower & broccoli leaves (both members of the 'crucifer' group of vegetables, along with cabbage). And right in the middle of my crucifers is a pumpkin seedling from seeds I planted LAST YEAR. Yep. Although after our weekend away, there's a big chunk missing from one of the leaves. I'm hoping it doesn't bother the plant too much.

And our nectarine tree actually has some fruit on it! I don't think it'll give us more than a few, because the branches aren't really strong enough yet, but it's a good sign that all things are working.

3. Expanded range and first sale.

Ah yes. On my way home from the Homebirth Network coffee morning a couple Fridays ago, I decided at the last minute I'd go to Rainbow Tree, one of the shops that had my nappies. I got there, and I only saw one of the two on the shelf, so I asked about it, and yes, one had indeed been sold! Also, I've ordered a bunch of new fabric so I can make new colours and a smaller size in addition to the one I already had. Plus, I'm supposed to be finishing an order of five small nappies for my chiropractor before tomorrow evening, so maybe I should get off the computer and do that....

4. Roadtrip!

Could've been better, could've been worse. I'll talk about it in another post.

I think I'm doing better this year with my veggie gardening. Here's this week's report.

Carrots are sprouting.

Lettuce might be sprouting - should know for sure in a couple days.

Spring onions are sprouting.

Zucchini may be sprouting - again, I'll know in a couple days.

Mini greenhouse has nothing sprouting yet, but all the seeds in there say 10 days or more.

Cauliflower is looking a little limp, so I watered it twice today.

Broccoli is about the same as the cauliflower.

Strawberries are down to one plant out of the six I planted. That one is looking pretty good, though. I've still been watering the other five in the vain hope that something will still come of them.

The apricot tree and nectarine tree are starting to drop their petals now, and the leaves are coming out. The smaller apricot tree is looking pretty much dead, so at some point I think I'll rip it out. Same with the former peach tree, although that one needs a saw to come down, or a strong wind.

Our bottlebrush is finally blooming as well. And I finally got around to pulling all the weeds out of the flower patch next to the driveway, but all we have left there are pink flowers. Here's hoping the other colours (red, orange, maybe white & yellow?) come up again next year.