Planting out (continued)

Lots more work over the last few days. I fed the worms this morning too - they eat fast when the weather warms up! Fed them a huge pile of food and shredded cardboard I think about 2 weeks ago, and it's all gone now, just a few pumpkin/cucumbers sprouts in there which they won't eat until I uproot and they start rotting.

I've noticed that some of the worms, maybe 20% of them, just seem to prefer it down in the bottom layer of the farm eating really old stuff or just hanging out in their poop. Makes harvesting challenging (although a very bright day helps). I could just put those worms out in the beds, but I feel like I'm taking them out of their cozy home if I do this.

Here's what I've been up to in the last few days:

I wanted to wait until this bed was finished before planting out in it but the Kohlrabi and turnips are taking a while. So much for a tidy crop in between late winter and late spring. I've put lebanese cucumbers in the back there.

Lemon cucumbers.

Spare capsicums, chillis and eggplants to give away.

Spare tomatoes and basil too. That tall one is even putting out flowers.

On the left of the main bed I have planted white cucumber and Wee Be Little pumpkin.

I dug up and replanted my garlic. I have no idea if this will work but it was worth a shot. I couldn't wait to dig the rest of the bed out. The bed was really choked with matted feeder roots. I am hoping they were all or mostly from the tree that was removed, and not from the hedge in the background. I have dug down a spade's depth in between to cut off any roots, I may have to do this every 6 months or so. Obviously there may still be roots that go deeper or find their way in, I'll just have to keep an eye on it - hopefully I won't have to move the entire bed.

On the right hand trellis is yellow squash and marketmore cucumbers. I killed a squash seedling by accident, I may plant another. From memory it's kind of bushy so I don't even know if I'll get it up the trellis.

My pots arranged for the spring. I may have to move things about a bit. So we have the lemon tree, lemongrass, lime tree, blueberry and in front, fennel. Shame this corner gets only lunch/afternoon sun but better than none.

My chillis laid out. I think I can squeeze one more pot in there. The radishes weren't all mature, I planted some "mixed heirloom" and clearly some of them had deep taproots and were going to take much longer than a few weeks to fully develop. They tasted a bit fiery too. I don't think I'll plant those again.

I think these are the only radishes I've really liked, French Breakfast or Nelson. Unfortunately the rat has taken a liking to the full plants now too, eating out a few. Previously he only nipped the first leaves off. I'm trying everything to catch/poison/deter him but so far no luck.

I replanted my shallots here in the front, because why not. They were previously with the garlic in the root choked main bed. I've yet to grow a shallot to a good size but I don't seem to have any trouble multiplying them.

Down to 4 pak choi from 6 thanks to the rat. Ate all my new rocket seedlings on this side too.

I've planted in onions here, it only gets about 4 hours of sun but we'll see how it goes. These onions were started from seedlings many months ago and I suppose essentially hibernating as their roots had nowhere to go.

I've planted some more asian greens and rocket here, this gets the least amount of sun at all, but it is getting some now the sun is getting high enough. We'll see how things go here. So far the mizuna and sorrel are growing well, if slowly.

Planted out my capsicum and eggplant bed. The eggplants are showing some signs of heat/transplant stress but I'm sure they'll recover. I'll just nip the leaves off that don't recover. I'm thinking of changing the cages for stakes for the eggplants - as this would enable me to put the greenhouse cover over it and extend the season in Autumn.

Corn. There's a white spotty/streaking on it. I think it's insect damage and not blight, hopefully. I haven't grown a bed of corn before, just two random plants last year. I'll give it a good soap spray in a few days.

These perpetual spinach transplants are starting to take off. I've left my other rainbow card out without covers a few nights but I don't trust the rat, so think I better cover them until they can cope with a missing leaf or two. He even nipped one of my fennel seedlings last night.

Okra! We'll see how it goes.

I gave the hedge another trimming back. I really should have done so late winter.

Broadbeans almost ready.

I have moved the tumbler on the lawn for a bit. It's really heavy, wasn't easy moving myself. I think the contents needs to dry out and cook for a few weeks, and it will get all day sun in this position. Then it should be ready to top dress the beds.

Main bed planted out. Might find some more space for my chicory/celery seedlings.

I added 7 tomato plants in all, inter-planted with basil and marigolds. I have some poached egg and nasturium seedlings to plant out too, just not sure where yet.

Kohlrabi nice and green, bulbs not very big yet. I'll just have to succession plant and top dress the beds when they come out.

Chillis again. We have Poblano (I have one in the bed too, we'll see which performs better), Red Cherry, Jalapeno, Thai and Hot Wax. On the balcony I have Razzamataz and Habanero.

Getting some good sized peas now, probably only one meal's worth so better just for snacking.

My tomatoes consist of 2 Grosse Lisse, 1 Black Cherry and the other four are essentially a mystery (mixed heirloom). I have seven varieties of basil planted out too. The lemon basil seems especially vigorous.

Raspberry has a few flowers on it now. Not sure if you can grow it in a bush like this but I'm trying, going to get a bit crowded when this season's canes grow taller and start putting out more leaves I suspect.

Thanks for visiting and good luck with your garden.