Garden Share Collective: Slow and Slow

Time again for the monthly garden round up, thanks to Lizzie of Strayed from the Table who puts on the show known as the Garden Share Collective. So, let's see what's been happening in our spring garden.

marjoram - I just love the look of this plant in the garden

To be honest, very little has happened in our garden this month. A few reasons for this. Firstly chickens. That age old problem again, chickens with free access to the vegie garden, which has been a major deterrent in any thoughts of planting seedlings or seed. It's just too frustrating to see your hard work undone so quickly by rouge chickens, so I've held off from doing too much. Although it's getting too late in the season to continue like this much longer, so it's looking likely that a temporary fence will go around the vegies until a more permanent chicken solution (new chook run) is found. And  apart from that, well, we're going to change up almost everything about the outdoor layout of this place and the vegie garden area will be the first to change. I guess that sitting in the back of my mind isn't helping my motivation to get out there and plant. But anyway, I will need to use the current location for the summer season at least as we'll be pushed for time to get new plans under way (despite my impatience to start digging over the current driveway-soon to be vegie garden right now!).

So progress has been slow. But still, slow progress is still progress, and there are signs of life in the vegie beds. Also - they are weed free! If you recall from my post last month, we were growing some serious weeds in the vegie garden beds and it was looking like a huge job to clear them out. Thanks to lots of helping hands from our neighbours, the whole lot was gone in an afternoon. To say I am most grateful is a huge understatement. So really, I should have all beds full of goodies that are starting to take off, but… chickens. That temporary fence is starting to become a serious priority. 

healthy looking curly leaf parsley

oregano that I've planted has somehow survived chickens and starts to grow

My favourite things right now are not anything that I've planted, but were here already: a sea of coriander emerging in one of the vegie garden beds (I was looking at all the seeds scattered from a plant when we first moved in and they looked like coriander, but I wasn't sure; now I am sure), the beautiful marjoram in the herb garden and a healthy looking curly leaf parsley. I've also planted out seeds of carrot and beetroot (actually in the same place as the coriander seeds), and there are a few survivors of these amongst the taking-over coriander. I look forward to carrot and coriander soup already. Potatoes - I've planted about 20-odd seed potatoes into a bed and just noticed the first one emerging now. I should also add that I've done next to no watering, so these guys are relying on the water that falls from the sky and that hasn't been much. Bits here and there, but things are starting to brown off considerably here. It's pretty dry.

the first potato

coriander, anyone?

look who else is growing amongst the coriander

a carrot fights for space amongst the coriander

Planting:

• zucchini
• cucumber
• carrots
• beetroot
• silverbeet 
• maybe some more potato

Harvesting:

• herbs (coriander, flat leaf parsley, curly leaf parsley, marjoram)
• rainbow chard

To Do:

• mulch the existing vegie garden beds
• set up a temporary chook-proof fence
• plant seedlings (I've all but given up on seeds for now, toddler and chickens being the reason)
• water more regularly

That's me for this month. Not too much happening, to be honest I'm more excited about plans to relocate the vegie garden to the place where a car is currently parked. It will take a bit of digging, a bit of earth moving perhaps and then a lot of soil improvement. But it will be so nice to have a view of the vegie garden from our lounge room windows rather than a view of a car.

Thanks as always to Lizzie for putting together the Garden Share Collective. Have you taken a look lately?