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I have been watching prepping-your-garden videos for weeks now getting ready to plant a few tomatoes, green peppers and aubergines.
About two months ago I dug trenches in my garden area. Very small trenches. I filled them with household scraps and then covered them with soil. 6 weeks later all those scraps had turned to compost and the soil is ready for planting. I've been adding pureed egg shells and banana skins, coffee grounds, a small amount of ash and some other 'natural' fertiliser. I did the same in half a dozen pots, compost on the bottom, soil on top and I've done a good mixing of soil and compost soil. Now I wait to see if the plants like this combo. I have planted 3 tomatoes, one pepper and one aubergine, 2 basil plants and 3 pumpkin/squash. I'm waiting for more plants from our neighbour, elderly Vaso's son, who grows his own from last years seeds. He has taken over from Vaso, tending the land so he and Vaso can live off it's bounty.
The garden seems to have an awful lot of snails this year. I thrown them all over into next doors driveway. They haven't arrived from blighty yet and the driveway is a snails' jungle paradise. The other thing we seem to have a lot of this year is caterpillars. I'm finding them everywhere, in the garden and all around. I presume they will turn into cabbage white butterflies or their yellow cousin. Whatever they are they get squashed.
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The trumpet flowers look like Brugmansia - showering blessings from above. Your garden deserves to be amazing this year - keep digging and filling those trenches. You can make quite tough stuff compost down by putting it in a trench with beans planted on top immediately. The nitrogen fixing ability of beans tackles the composting process in double quick time. (by tough stuff I mean like cabbage stalks, corn stalks, grapevine prunings - stuff like that). I got rid of a whole overgrown clematis in a few weeks that way - and got bonus beans.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened there? I wrote a reply and it didn't appear. I'll check spam.
DeleteThanks for all the info. Brugmansia. Quite a name.
I'll try planting beans. I have a small load of compost next to a wall which I've left alone for a month. I'll put a layer of soil over it and plant beans
Seaweed spread around your Brassicas should keep the slugs and snails away.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you mention seaweed . We were talking about it the other day. Another distant neighbour picks it from the beach below and puts it round his olive trees. He swears they always have a bumper crop. Thanks
DeleteWhatever you’re doing, keep on doing it. Looks like everything is going to come up rosy.
ReplyDeleteSo far so good. Everything is flourishing and we've had a little rain to help it along.
DeleteI would assume that growing things is second nature to you. I am surprised at you watching prepping garden videos.
ReplyDeleteMost of my family have green fingers. I do not. I'm always planting things but the harvest is always poor. My herbs do well and so do the roses, lemon trees and geraniums which were already established.
DeleteI over think and probably over water. In the winter lettuces, rocket, leeks and spring onions seem to do well but nothing else. Summer it's usually only the squash. We shall see
Your basil plant looks super healthy. My basil seedlings are just poking through in their windowsill pots, but I think I may have sown too many.
ReplyDeleteThese basil plants were quite big when I bought them. The garden place no longer sells seedlings. He probably makes more from these bigger plants. Fine by me. All I did was put them in a bigger pot with a bit of compost and water them . Cross fingers. The basil usually thrives
DeleteI hope you get a bountiful harvest
ReplyDeleteI’ve taken a break from the garden I’ll plant the next lot of winter crops this weekend hopefully
Stay tuned for lots of pics
I'll look forward to seeing more of your garden. You have a rich harvest ftoo ftoo ftoo
DeleteSounds like you have done the preparation for a wonderful garden.
ReplyDeleteI've done the prep. Hope nature does the rest!
DeleteI don't mind squishing small caterpillars with my fingers, but larger ones get thrown on the ground and stomped on. I used to feed snails to the hens but now they get thrown into the garden waste bin (can't squash them as they make a crunchy sound - ugh!)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was small our gardener used to dig a long trench and fill it with kitchen waste, before sowing our Runner Beans. They always grew very well.
ReplyDeleteSounds as though I've got to try beans. I've got the perfect compost pile
DeleteI miss having a vege garden, I had a small one in Kerikeri and once i bought a type of miniature silverbeet/spinach named bright lights, it really was awesome, it grrew and grew for the entire year and was so yummy, I've heard that eggshells prevent snails and slugs so it's a great idea to use them.
ReplyDeleteI think those are called angels trumpets?
ReplyDeleteYou obviously have a very green thumb! Wish I did, I struggle to keep my few houseplants alive.
ReplyDeleteBrugmansia is called Angel's Trumpet, here in Louisiana, USA. Poisonous. So dramatically beautiful!
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