Organic gardening Week 1

Welcome to my Garden!   This may be the first of many weekly updates on organic vege and fruit growing... So I may as well start by labelling it 'week 1'...

One of my many passions, (Other than art!), organic gardening is very fulfilling. We moved house at the beginning of the year, and sadly left behind a very large and productive garden, and its taken us all year to get settled, and start again... But slowly slowly, we are getting there! 

Location: Brisbane bayside
size: 600 square metre, small suburban block

Fruit trees planted:
3 mangoes
2 apple
lychee
Avocado
Fig
Pomegranate
5 banana
4 pawpaw
Blood orange
Tangelo
Navel orange
Washington dwarf orange
Passion fruit
Mandarin
Existing : lemon (with large thorns!), and  orange which isn't  in a good place,  + a macadamia and olive tree just along the fence on the park side.

Still in pots- 2 dragon fruit

Vege garden beds: 21m, + small existing bed for herbs

In the garden today ...

- Watered fruit trees and vege garden - its been a dry, windy spring and the thick mulch really makes a huge difference.
- sprayed zucchini with Eco fungicide - well really my daughter did, she came out and asked "is there anything you want a hand with Mum?"...hehe well actually yes, you can...anyway, we have been battling powdery mildew for weeks... finally got around to digging out The spray. i thinned out the infected leaves (to go in the bin), but i need to check how long these plants usually live for... maybe they are finishing anyway and i should pull them out?
- harvested cucumbers: I love growing these Lebanese cuc's they are quick, and relatively tidy, for a cucumber that is!
- killed the first 28 spotted lady beetle for the year! Haven't seen one of these critters since Bundy last summer. Mind you the vege garden is only 8 weeks old.  We will have to do a leaf check and squash any larvae we find.

 

To do:
Soak seed for planting i.e. okra, rosella...
Replant empty areas - corn, beans, carrot, 2nd round of zuc and cuc plants for summer harvest
Plant lettuce in shady part for summer
Water with fish emulsion and seaweed for leaf strength against pests

You can see the very, very sad looking zuchinni, and butternut pumpkin along the fence!  Oh, and my washing too! (quick - someone go out and pick up that shirt thats fallen off!)

This small area has 2 beds that are 1.5m x 3m, and 2 that are 1m x 3m.  We ended up choosing to use treated pine, after much conundrum, and research... but decided to paint the inside and top edge with a timber sealer to stop any potential 'leakage' of chemicals into the soil or uptake by plants. 

I tend to plant things close together, and usually end up with no rows.   Currently we have: spinach, egyptian spinach, eggplants, tomatoes, capsicum, cucumbers, lettuce (variety), corriander ( left gone to flower to attract good bugs), spring onion, butternut pumpkin,  those poor zuc's,  and cosmos flowers. 

Just harvested: beetroot, purple carrot.
Produced/ producing this week: daily pickings salad, zucs, cucs, & cherry toms, 3 jars of pickled beetroot, 1 large cucumber salad

There is something very satisfying about growing, picking & eating, pickling, and then drawing  

the same thing!

linking to Art Every Day: Day 15