Sunday, 21 July 2013

GARDEN SNAPSHOT

The garden is growing well, but as it is the middle of winter things tend to grow a lot slower. We were lucky enough to receive a load of beautiful mulch from a friend who is an arborist, so this was spread over last years load which was looking quite sad.

Our truckload of mulch
This is what the paths looked like before
And after
I love the look of fresh mulch!
Now for what's growing, the leeks are doing great!
And so is the garlic
And the herbs, and rhubarb
Hopefully the broad beans will flower soon
The celery is starting to take off and the silverbeet continues to produce well
The chili bush is still looking healthy and some chilis still on it and they are slowly turning red
The cauliflowers look like they will all be ready at the same time!
The purple sicilian variety really is so pretty!
More mulchy goodness! This took me forever to move! I did about 2/3rds by myself and then hubby helped with the last bit. I was unable to move the wheelbarrow so I loaded it up and he tipped it out for me!
The peas are doing well, but not as well as last year!
More garlic
And more silverbeet
The lettuce is still doing well
I don't think I will get sick and tired of looking at fresh mulch. 

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6 comments:

  1. Kyrstie @ A Fresh Legacy21 July 2013 at 21:02

    I agree Nat, I love the look of fresh mulch as well. Against the green of the plants it is lovely. Your garden is beautiful.

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    1. Living The Dream Homestead22 July 2013 at 14:34

      Thank-you! :D It was a hard decision to put the patch in the front (visually) but we had no choice due to our dog who had absolutely no idea and would use the plants as a bed, and my desire to grow as much of our food as possible!

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  2. Anonymous25 July 2013 at 15:15

    Your garden is doing so well! Your pictures have inspired me to mulch around my vege beds too. Wish I had an arborist friend too...or maybe your friend might have a job around our area and need to dump the mulch load...I'm the first taker :)

    Anyway, I think you made a good decision to turn your front yard into a vege garden. We are planning to do the same when we have the budget.

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    1. Living The Dream Homestead25 July 2013 at 16:01

      Thank-you! It's amazing what a layer of mulch can do. I can ask if he ever works around the area to let you know, usually he needs to get rid of it asap. But sometimes the clients want it or local schools and garden center take it. He lives a couple of streets away so I am lucky that I get any leftovers that he can't get rid of!

      Thank-you, sometimes I do wonder if I really have made the right decision. It does take some time funds to do, first the wood and then all that soil, but you can keep you eye open for free clean fill if you can be bothered getting it yourself and enriching it with free or cheap manure. Try some horse stables, sometimes if you muck it out yourself you can take it for free. A bit of blood and bone and chicken poo and you should be right to go!

      Thanks heaps for stopping by :D

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  3. Unknown26 July 2013 at 06:26

    The paths look fantastic! I love new mulch as well. There's nothing fresher and lovelier than a newly mulched garden. I swore I'd never use wheaten straw again, after years of using rice straw I succumbed this year and got some wheaten bales. Oh man, I'm sooo regretting it. it's shooting up everywhere and so there's no fresh new mulchy look. It looks more like a fresh green lawn growing in my flower beds!! So I plan to re-mulch everything again with the huge bales I bought cheaply off a farmer late last year. They were hard to get into and dusty and quite mouldy so I was really put off but I'll just get the mask on and bear with it I think cos I can't stand this shooting mulch! I haven't had much success with snow peas this year. The leaves have gone beserk but the peas are minimal and qite tasteless. I've put more in so I'm hoping the later crop will be better. Not sure what went wrong there? Lovely having some gardeny chat:) x

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    1. Living The Dream Homestead26 July 2013 at 08:09

      Thank-you! The smell of it is amazing, so sad that it has to fade away! Oh no that's terrible about the hay (I have had that happen to me so can fully sympathize!), it's so painful pulling out all those extra weeds. I find that putting it on the patch after the chooks have scratched through it eliminates just about every seed in the bale (plus it's full of manurey goodness for the veg) But it doesn't look lovely and fresh. I definitely agree with the mask, nothing worse than breathing in that mould dust! My peas haven't been amazing this year either, last year I got kilos and kilos worth (and even then they never made it to the dinner plate!) I know peas and beans don't need much (any?) nitrogen as they produce their own so that could possibly be why the leaves have gone crazy and the pods haven't. I do love a good garden chat too :D

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