Vegetables

As you know I grow most of my veggie garden from seed.  That can be a slow and frustrating process, but when it works, can be so very rewarding. I do like growing greens in broccoli boxes as it keeps them contained and the soil seems to stay moist.  I had a bunch of black seeded lettuce seedlings, and potted them up fairly close together into a broccoli box, filled with potting soil mixed with five in one, and they did very well, I will buy those seeds again.  My little wicking bed of mint just keeps going, through drought and wet.

One thing I added this year was a little greenhouse, and I think that has made all the difference.  I often read on the seed packets that certain seeds need to be planted in situ, but I struggle with that - I am often not able to water the garden as I leave in the dark and often arrive home in the dark.  The greenhouse has been a huge asset because the plants in there stay warm and moist with a spray of water a couple of times a week.
I had some little seedlings of beetroot, silverbeet and broccoli raab just bursting out of the ground when a bandicoot found its way into the garden...  I tried supporting the little plants back up again, but they have struggled.  I am not sure if I should just raise seedlings since the greenhouse does give the plants a better chance of surviving. How important is it to\plant seeds directly?  I am going to try again with seedlings raised in the greenhouse and see if that makes a difference. Of course keeping out the bandicoots will help as well.  we set up our trap and then re-locate them far away(and find and block the hole in the fence where they got through in the first place!)  This area has been good for greens as there is a bit of shade form the barbados cherry.  I had ginger growing here last wet season, but this year I think I will do sweet potato here and have the shoots climbing up the fence for easy harvesting.

We had quite a chilly start to winter, and the tomatoes did not start out with abandon, but are now doing better. Lots of volunteer cherry tomatoes have popped up everywhere and every day we get enough to add to our salads.  I have a few yellow cherry tomatoes plants and those are all in pots.
Cherry tomatoes volunteered in the mulberry tree pot and I staked them up into a teepee.  One huge advantage is that the birds now cannot find the ripening mulberries - yeah!

This area is starting to be cleared as the winter veggies die off.  I am thinking I will grow ginger in this area.  Sweet potato are starting to pop up as I grew them here last year, but those will be moved to the fence bed.  

The moringa in the herb spiral grew straight up and started flowering.  I was interested to see what the pods looked like, and tasted, but I have not seen any pods so will chop it off down to the first outward branch so the leaves are easier to harvest and it provides some nice leafy shade.