Saturday, November 02, 2013

November in the Veggie Garden

 


It is that time of month again, when gardeners across the country, and across the world, report on their activities, as part of the Garden Share Collective. This is kindly hosted by Liz at Strayed from the Table. The records we create are building up really well, and I am learning heaps from others.

So here is the post for the start of November in my Gippsland (Victoria) suburban garden. You can see my post from last month HERE.


 This was the veggie garden yesterday. With the eight foot high broad beans.
 
 This is the view looking back the other way.

Firstly, we have again had a little bit more rain than I would have liked. Whenever the moat around the raised beds dried out, it rained again. There has not really been enough sun to get the cucumbers, zucchini and pumpkins moving along. A couple of times there has even been unseasonal snow in the hills.


November is one of the busiest months in the garden. I am wrapt as I have had 99.99% success with the seedlings - only one lettuce lost. The secret is that I cut up heaps of drink bottles to make individual guards, which were held in place with skewers. The only problem with them was that on hot days they trapped the heat, and that is how I lost one lettuce. I've also been keeping big vats of water spread around the garden, to dip a little bit of water (with added worm juice) frequently onto them. I don't like hoses or large watering cans when they are small. We used to use a jam tin with holes punched in the bottom with nails to make a sort of sieve to water carrot and other small seedlings.



We have previously used pvc pipe for this, but the birds just sat on the edges and used that as a perch to eat the lettuces. They can't do that with the drink bottles - too thin. But the pvc was cooler.

We have also been out working hard on the weeds around the garden beds - my beloved is absolute murder with a flame thrower. We are nearly there, and almost look respectable.

Harvesting:

Last of the Broad Beans
Parsnips
Carrots
Lettuce 
Snow peas finished during the month and pulled out

Planted in October:

Parsley seedlings
Radish seeds
Tree onion bulbs (not the right time, but I grow them all the time as shallots, and these are sprouting)
Broad Beans (Aquadulce) (seeds) in a planter bag of compost along the fence. 
Zucchini (Black Jack)
Mixed capsicums (seedlings)(Big Bertha, Cherry Pick, Golden Bell)
Mixed lettuce (seedlings)
Mixed Basil (seedlings)
Tomato seedlings (Roma and Grosse Lisse)
Carrots (seeds) Chantenay Red-Cored
Parsnips (seeds) Hollow Crown


This is where the next Broad Beans, Zucchini and Butternut Pumpkins are - in worm bins or bags along the fence. Looking down on the pumpkins in a worm bin (below), you can see a little inverted pot. As we start the bin, with put slotted drainage pipe down the centre, with a tomato stake in the middle, and a "cap" over the top so it doesn't get filled when we throw stuff in. We use it them get water into the centre, and allow air in.



Plans for the month:

Dig over the broad beans bed and get it plated with tomatoes.

Get the three lots of seedling onions in

Stake the tomato seedlings, and build a semi-permanent bird net over them. Prune tomatoes as required. Weed.

Plant:

Red Bunching Onions (seedlings)
Red Spring Onions (seedlings)
Spring onions (seedlings)
Beetroot (seeds)

More tomatoes - not sure what next, but any spare capacity at this time of year goes to tommies. This is cup weekend in Victoria, when it is often traditional to get them in. Except we are hoping some seedlings might come in the corner where the Redorta were last year. It is impossible to get seeds this year, and we didn't save any.




And this is the view of the Broad Beans Bed this morning. We had a barbie last night, and cut them off low and have cut most up for green manure. I can see the whole veggie garden again.



7 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Wow, they were some monster broad beans! I really love the way you're planting pumpkins in the worm bin, such a great idea - has this been successful in the past?

1:07 PM  
Blogger lizzie {Strayed Table} said...

8ft broad beans - now that is impressive. your garden is looking pretty darn good and I am glad to hear you had a 99.9% success rate with your seedlings.

2:42 PM  
Blogger Gustoso said...

Thanks for sharing your garden. Looking good.

4:05 PM  
Blogger Linda said...

Hi Erin (and hello Liz and Littlem),

I haven't tried these worm bins before (which are really compost bins well populated with worms), but I expect them to work well, as they should have really good water-holding ability, being 95% (give or take) organic matter.

In a couple of the photos above you can see a green tank against the fence on the right, and I grew pumpkins in that last year - it was a sort of overflow compost bin.

My ideal was in my last garden, where I had three split corrugated iron tanks as compost bins, doubling a beds for potatoes and pumpkins. They were brilliant. Must dig out photos. Don't have the room for them here.

The only problem might be they may get a little warm, as they are black plastic with one side in full sun. If that happens, I will wrap them in silver insulation wrapping.

The whole idea came from my always getting volunteer pumpkins in compost heaps.

5:45 PM  
Blogger jeanie said...

Lord - we have had the opposite problem of no rain and gail force hot winds up here.

Loving your garden, and am always amazed at the different planting times.

9:48 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

YAY for your great seedling strike rate!! I love your barrel pots, they look fabulous!

10:08 PM  
Blogger Linda said...

G'day Jeanie and Lisa.

I am not amazed so much at the different planting times as the different harvesting times. You all have tomatoes NOW up there. How dare you!
And Lisa, I will let you into a secret - I could live with a garden that was just a dozen barrels - but only if I had to.

12:30 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home