Murder in the Hope Chest

When it is wild windy and wet, it is lovely to know that the seedlings growing inside are doing okay.  I have cabbage, sunflowers, pumpkin, tomatoes, zucchini all poking their lovely first leaves out of the seedling mix.


This photo is a Turkish Turban Pumpkin Seed, with my bush peas in the distant background,

Arrgh a discovery of very smelly seed pot.  My beans have been to wet and have disintegrated?  They have rotted in the punnet..Though a tomato seedling has grown, somehow got into this punnet by accident.  Lesson learned.  BEANS WILL ROT IF TOO WET!..  so I will be bleaching this seedling punnet and re potting it.  I am adding some fresh soil and potting mix to the stuff in the pot and will use it again to plant some new beans. Allowing the soil to not be saturated. I have been a murderer to beans!

Well a lesson learned!   
The photo above and to the right is a mortgage lifter tomato seed just coming up, and the one below is a White climbing tomato.        

 I was working in Hobart recently and in my lunch break went shopping for some seedling pots.  The nearest nursery was a lovely little city type nursery, Newtown Station Nursery, with its lovely gift shop and cafe.  I wandered about looking for some sort of seedling pots for sale but non to be seen.  As I left I noticed a large container with hundreds of plastic pots, and a large sign "POT RECYCLING!" into the container I went and dug out all the pots you can see in the photo.  Absolutely free.  A little wash and bleach pop in my own seedling mix, and seeds.  Fantastic!  What a great idea.  There should be more things like this. 

I have also been trying to work out what to do for watering the vegie garden.  I really love hand watering as I usually pull a few weeds, and get a real feel for what is growing, needing some help or being eaten in the garden.  Such a relaxing past time, that I think will take about 30-40 mins but I always nearly end up out in the garden for a couple of hours.  Hopefully remembering to go and turn the tap off at the tank, before I tie up, weed, or pick. 

First Iris of Spring

Oops off the track again.  I have had great success in my first vegie beds using terracotta pots as water reservoirs.  I had been looking at wicking beds, but a lot of work to do in already established beds.  So instead I filled the holes in the pots with a water proof adhesive used in plumbing, and the saucers become the tops.  I dig several holes per bed and put in a pot and lid(saucer) for each hole before I plant out my plants/seeds.  The terracotta pots cant have any treatments, as they must be natural as this allows the water to seep out into the soil.      

I went to a building supply shop in Argyle St Hobart, that has a great selection of reasonably priced terracotta pots.  Such a great assortment and great prices.  The best thing is that I found pots that did not have any holes in them!  I felt like I had struck gold as it means I do not have to fill the holes. 

You have to make sure that the saucers sit fairly firmly and flatly on top of the pots to avoid little bugs drowning.  (not such a bad thing for the baddie bugs, I guess). 
    So it is a fairly simple process and gives quite a lot of water in each pot.  Over a litre.  So I  will keep you up to date with the workings of my pot watering system.

Even the dog enjoys the spring garden!

It was a funny day here today, it was warm, and sunny, so I went out and did quite a bit of weeding.  I also have been putting some blood and bone around to fertilise the garden.  Having been told that the rabbits are not keen on blood and bone was an added incentive to spread it today as we have so many rabbits eating and digging about.  Fingers crossed it will work.