Microgreens and herbs

I have been enjoying the microgreens, although they also seem to be languishing in the heat - nothing like the tall plants I see growing in others greenhouses, which I suppose is a more controlled environment..    The purple basil is awesome sprinkled on salads, and definitely my favourite.  Standing water is not what one wants in mosquito prone areas, so in the end I poured the water out and lay the seedlings on top of my seed raising mix. Hopefully they spread their roots and grow here, and I plan to plant a few out into the herb spiral - I love to have different types of basil growing amongst my herbs.

  The seed raising mix seems to work better in the wet season.  The great thing is that once I make this a permanent part of my gardening - continually sowing seeds - I reckon I can have greens almost year round.  I am going to get a sprouter as I have the feeling that they will do better inside during the wet season.  The sprouters from MrFothergills are on my list - I love the multi-tiered idea. The top layer can grow microgreens, and the rest of the layers different sprouts.  My mom used to have one similar to this in the seventies...
I put an old grid onto the frame that is my little potting table... getting air circulation in this climate is of prime importance.  I have watercress, basil and rocket microgreens started.  Already they are starting to sprout - yum - I foresee a couple of nice salads in my future!

Last weekend I decided to see how I could easily extend the veggie garden to accommodate the extra asparagus. Of course I am going to have to extend all three beds, not just the middle one.  The herb spiral was the first part I tried, and wow - it looks lovely.   For now the wicking beds will be the front part of the asparagus bed, but they might have to go once I need to plant out the asparagus.  that might be next year.

I have now created a big hole and I generally do not get soil in, so will fill with a mixture of crusher dust and some mill mud and compost.  I have never used mill mud before but other gardeners in the area swear by it. The herb spiral was initially filled with crusher dust, and the soil now is full of worms.... The inside edge of the herb spiral has Gerber daisies as a friend who grows prize winning Gerber's has given me a few plants. I will also plant the  Butterfly-Garden-Mix that MrFothergills sent me to add some colour and bring in the pollinators.   Besides I want the herb spiral to look pretty!  This will be a good spot for the grand kids to have their little garden.  I am thinking in fact that I might plant the parsley as an edge inside the besa bricks. The little white pot has curly parsley that has kept going all through the year, so what would be awesome if I could grow parsley year round. The prickly aloe vera has been moved to the back section and the garlic chives that I don't use much have moved to the side.  The rosemary was growing out of the bottom of the pot, so I have planted it in the top of the herb spiral.  I have never had much success with rosemary before and thought it didn't like the wet season, but that is exactly when this has taken off... The other annual herbs I grow every year are basil and dill.  I have planted out my basil seeds and will start the dill later.  The mother of herbs and sawtooth coriander are perennial.
Microgreens and herbs are definitely some of my favourite crops to grow - - they don't take up much room and are concentrated flavour so they are definitely a win-win situation in my garden.