Garden Share Collective: Slowly Coming Together

It's time again for the Garden Share Collective. I missed last month, mainly because I was feeling pretty low about our garden and couldn't quite bring myself to write about it. But things are on the improve, the battle against the earwigs is not entirely won but we're getting somewhere, finally. Linking up with Lizzie from Strayed from the Table and a bunch of gardening bloggers from around the world.

So as I mentioned, earwigs. Little blighters have been eating everything, everything! To the point where I was starting to wonder whether we'd even get any vegies growing this season at all. But finally we have some plants in the ground and going well. Apparently earwigs aren't keen on onions, spring onions, tomatoes, parsley, and corn, all of which are now growing well. What they are keen on is beetroot, silverbeet, basil, broccoli, eggplant, potato, pumpkin, and I'm sure the list is longer but that's all that we've lost (which is actually quite a lot, I think). I did get a good bunch of potatoes growing despite the earwigs, and they're about to flower. I have some beans in the ground that are so far doing ok… but it's close, there are plenty of holes eaten in the leaves so I'm doing all I can to help them grow fast. We'll see. I've also got basil and strawberries in pots now, they are also doing well and mostly earwig-free.

Herbs are doing well, mostly flowering now and I'm happy for them to flower like mad. It's bringing lots of bees which is lovely. Marjoram, flat leaf parsley, curly leaf parsley, coriander. A sea of coriander is flowering, I'd say we'll have plenty of coriander seed to grind up this year. Also flowering is my celery - have you seen this before? Is it likely to self seed? I'm hoping so. It's become a garden must-have for me, a constant supply of celery for soups and stocks.

Planting

A few things on the list for December. Leeks, zucchini (should already be in the ground but oops), lettuce, beetroot, rocket, carrots, mint. I'll just see what I can get in the ground and see what of it survives. 

Harvesting

At the moment, it's mainly herbs. Parsley, oregano, basil. Waiting patiently for potatoes, tomatoes, onions and strawberries. 

To Do List

Hill up around the potatoes.

Stake the tomatoes.

Create more garden beds (not an easy task - it involves scraping back a thick layer of orange gravelly stuff from the former driveway to reveal the soil underneath, then adding compost and mulch) for the above mentioned plantings.

Regular feeding with weed and manure tea. Sounds lovely doesn't it?

And just our daily watering and caring for the garden.

So overall I'm happy, so happy to finally have something that resembles a garden growing. I've taken over the space right outside our house, which was probably once designed with ornamental plants in mind, but I love having most of my vegies growing right there. At this point in my life, I need fast and easy access if there is to be any successful vegie growing and that is exactly what I've got.

And that's me for this month. Pop on over to the Garden Share Collective page and take a look at the other lovely gardens on display.