Patch update

Autumn garden plan

It feels like Christmas was just yesterday but in fact Autumn is just around the corner. Spring/Summer season can be a very exciting season for all gardeners. This is the season where you get all the interesting, vibrant and fragrant fruits and veggies. For me, I had a better than expected season. We got bucket loads of tomatoes, corns, early crops of bok choy and rockmelons! As the tomatoes wilts and the melons ripens, its time to plan for my autumn garden.

Autumn need not be boring, in fact I quite look forward to the cooler months. The colder months are a great time for growing your green leafy vegetables. As the day gets shorter, you have more vegetable variety to grow without them bolting easily. This year, I am dividing the plot into 5 one-meter sections.

Section 1: Cabbage patch

I will grow some mini and chinese cabbage.

Section 2 & 3: Peas

What can I say but I am a total pea lover.  For some reasons, peas tend to get really expensive in Melbourne during the cooler months (which always baffles me, by the way). This year I am going to grow enough to feed me to my heart’s content. Oh, and not forgetting to mention that I am also using it to improve soil fertility.

Section 4 & 5: Fast maturing plot

This section is reserved for me to grow fast maturing vegetables such as spinach and bok choy. As one crop matures, they will get lots of digging and flipping into for the preparation of the next crop.

So this is it, my Autumn plan. Now I just have to get off my butt and start sowing seeds and clearing the beds. So what’s your autumn plan? I will love to hear and gather some ideas for next year.

Corine’s Vegetable Garden

I am the procrastinator queen. After moving into our current home over 1 year ago, I finally got my act together and got my backyard done. The result, as you can see below, is a usable vegetable patch of 6m x 1.3m using treated timber. The bottom was filled with local area soil and topped off with compost. Not only have I made the place look so so much better but I turn a once piece of  un-usable land into a workable vegetable patch. I am so proud of myself.

garden before the big makeover

garden before the big makeover

Garden after. OMG!

Garden after. OMG!

Garden hawk-eye view

Garden hawk-eye view

The plants that I am currently growing:

  • Snow peas
  • Soya bean (edamame)
  • Rock melons
  • Tomatoes – 1 red fig and 3 of unknown spices grown from a seed mix
  • Spinach
  • Bok Choi
  • German Chamomile – currently growing in container.

I am fertilising the green vegetables weekly with a weak organic liquid fertiliser and boy are they growing like crazy! Spinach leaves are harvested weekly by picking the outer ones and leaving the center to grow.

Not sure about the Bok Choi though. They are not growing as well but I will with-hold my judgement for now; The weather has been cold in Melbourne for a couple of weeks and probably it is the heat that is the missing ingredient.

Snow Peas

Snow Peas

Bok Choi and soya

Bok Choi and soya

Ha-ogen Rockmelons

Ha-ogen Rockmelons

Red Fig Tomato

Red Fig Tomato

Corn

Corn

German Chamomile

German Chamomile