MY FIRST CABBAGE!

I'm pretty delighted to report that I've just managed to grow my very first cabbage.  I've been growing broccoli, pak choy and wombok for about three years, but haven't really ventured out to try other members of the brassica family such as cabbage and kale until recently.

I am pleased that despite my issues with white butterflies in the late summer/autumn, that I've managed to enjoy some success!

However, I've noticed some brown spots appearing on the older leaves and it turns out that it is a fungi called alternaria.

I have seen this occur on some of my broccoli plants previously and have always just popped the infected leaves into the compost, but after conducting a bit of research: I've discovered that the disease can live on in old debris for a couple of years....yikes!  We've had a lot of rain over the past few days and moisture is something that can really aid this disease to spread.

It also highlights to me just how important it is to implement a crop rotation cycle in your garden.  This is a system I use in my garden whereby I never plant out the same crops in each bed.  I use a four year plan as many diseases can live on in the soil even after you've treated your plants.

My garden is organic and it appears that the best treatment for alternaria is copper fungicide.  Best I get out in the garden and get on top of this disease now before it takes over my whole crop!

TALES FROM THE WHITE BUTTERFLY HUNTER

Aside from aphids, white cabbage butterflies have to be a gardener's worst nightmare in my opinion!  They nibble away at brassicas in particular which can impact on the plants ability to grow and of course, they lay their eggs which eventually turn into catepillars which can devour leaves right before your eyes and kill plants!  Because we are severely lacking in rain: white butterflies an almost endemic in my vegetable garden!

Derris dust is my traditional weapon for warding off these little leaf-munchers, but it is not deterring them at all!  Ever keen to operate the organic approach in my garden - I've come up with a plan and am putting my old squash racket to good use.  I swing it at the butterflies as they enter my garden with broccoli and cabbage plants in sight...

I sincerely hope my neighbours don't see me running about like a mad-person chasing after the butterflies given that I don't always succeed in my attempts to hunt them down.  This method is definitely proving to be the most successful way to combat them!  I definitely don't have too many issues with catepillars as the poor old butterflies don't have time to lay their eggs with me chasing behind them to squish them with my racket.  However, my poor broccoli and cabbage plants in particular, look like they have been hit with bullets! 

I would be interested in hearing from others regarding their techniques for keeping on top of white butterflies!

My weapon of choice for hunting white butterflies...

DRY WEATHER GARDENING

Since January 1, we have only had four days of rain.  This is not normal for this time of year at all - we have only received 10% of our normal rainfall.  We are already on water-restrictions and can only water for two hours in the morning and two hours at night, every second day.

Our regional council is about to impose further watering restrictions, and therefore I have been busily looking at ways to reduce our water usage and trying to look at some smart options to re-use water in the garden.  I have been researching in particular what neighbours in Australia do when it is really dry, as our conditions at present are very similar.

One of the most important things I have discovered is ensuring that there is a good mix of compost in the soil.  This really does help with moisture retention. The other thing that is really important is mulching.  I've chosen to use pea straw as I find this to be the most effective mulch to keep the moisture in the soil.

You can see in this picture that the grass around the gardens is growing really nicely, but the rest of the grass is dying all over our property.  The broccoli and cabbages in this picture were watered first thing this morning, but they're really drooping in the heat.

Pea Straw Mulch

 

We've got lots of rogue peas sprouting all over the garden as a result of using the pea straw mulch - but I don't mind because it will give us lots of free plants!

My next steps are to put in some water tanks around our property and collect water from the roof of our house and shed.  This is not very common in suburban areas in New Zealand, because we do not normally have these issues especially where I live, because we don't pay for our water like other cities.

Luckily, I work in the plumbing industry and have thought of a plan to use my grey water from the washing machine which will be quite easy to do.  My thoughts are also to source some big 1000 litre plastic containers from a local company who imports wallpaper paste in these containers.  It's an organic product so I figure that they will be perfect.  Then I will connect our drainpipes to these to channel the water from the roof.  And of course I'll need a pump to pump the water to the hose.  The only trouble is they are a bit unsightly, so I want to dig a huge hole into the ground to bury them. 

Potential Water Storage Containers?

 

This is going be a massive project and I am on a tight budget - so wish me luck! Or if you have any suggestions for other alternatives for inexpensive storage containers - let me know!

PLANTING OUT FLOWERS TO ATTRACT BEES

Bees are crucial to our vegetable gardens for pollenating the flowers so that they then grow on to develop delicious vegetables. Unfortunately in recent times, global bee populations have dwindled severely.  I've been taking steps to ensure that I have plants that both attract bees and give them lots of variety to gather pollen.  We largely have bumblebees in our garden, but do get lots of honey bees too.  They are the hardest working insect in our garden and without bees, our crops would not succeed - so I am going to outline some plants you can plant out in your garden to help attract the bees and help feed them!  These are all photos I have taken today in my garden during the last week of summer...

Allowing some plants such as leeks, to go to seed does attract bees too.  There are ornamental alliums which you can grow, but I just let a couple of leeks go to seed each season and then collect the seeds for future sowing.

My vegetable garden is surrounded by a lavender border which flowers late spring and brings a huge influx of bees into the garden which aids the pollenation of broad beans, tomatoes, courgettes and all my other spring/summer vegies.

I have a cottage garden filled with perennials and annuals.  I try to ensure that I have a variety plants flowering all year round for the bees to feed on.  I try not to use too many traditional flowering borders that make a huge visual impact, but do not neccessarily attract bees.  Flowers that look great in borders such as asters and double dahilas, make it difficult for bees to access the pollen due to their full heads of petals.

Aster

Bees prefer flowers they can land on easily and access the pollen.  Lobelia and foxgloves are real favourites of the bees in my garden and I find that they are particularly attracted to purple flowers.  At the moment, I have a variety of late summer flowers feeding the bees in my garden.

Lobelia

 

Another favourite of bees at this time of the year, is echinacea with its' cone-shaped centre.

Echinacea

 

The trumpet-shaped petals of the penstemon is a real favourite of the bees.  This flowers several times throughout the year and the bees love crawling up inside its' flowers.

Penstemon

For the past two years, I have planted lots of cosmos around my lemon tree.  In the spring, we have a beautiful show of daffodils, tulips and freesias around the lemon tree and I find the cosmos is fantastic to cover up the mess left behind from these flowering bulbs as they die back.  What I have discovered is that the cosmos has been wonderful for attracting lots of bees to this area of the garden.  We used to harvest a pitiful amount of lemons (about 10 each season) and now we have a continuous harvest of lemons almost all year round with at least 100 lemons on the tree at various stages of the season!

Cosmos

The cornflower is one of the bees absolute favourites too - it's easy to access the pollen and they are attracted by the gorgeous blue colour.

Cornflower

They also love feverfew and little geums and alstroemeria due to the quick access to pollen.

Feverfew

 Little Geum

Alstroemeria



 

The lupin is a flower which the bees also seem to like. I thought the shape of the petals would be difficult for them to access, but I've noticed that the bees have been all over this plant this season.  A nice thing about bees pollenating lupins, is that this forms a seed pod which you can dry and then save the seeds for future planting.

Lupin

And they just love sweet peas!  Of course, just like the lupin, once the bees have pollenated these flowers, you get a big pod of more seeds to save for next season!

Sweet Pea

 

I also plant calendulas and marigolds around my vegetables namely to ward off insects that attack my vegetables, but the bees just love them too.  Especially the caldendulas during winter months which not only brighten up the garden with their pretty display, but also give the bees something to feed on.

 Marigold

Calendula





And lastly, at this time of the year, the absolute favourite of the honey bee (and bumblebee for that matter!) would have to be the sunflower....so as you're preparing your vegetable garden, why not think about planting some bright flowers like these that will also help bring lots of bees!

Sunflower

IT ALL BEGINS WITH GREAT SOIL...

When I started gardening, I didn't realise how important it was to get your soil structure right.  After a couple of years of trial and error: I think I've got it just right!  So I thought I should share this step-by-step list of what key items you need to get your soil into perfect condition.

I cannot reitterate enough the importance of getting your soil right so that your vegetables can prosper and to help build the soil structure so that it's full of nutrients to help the plants establish their roots and furthermore so that lots of worms are attracted to the soil to help aerate it.  I fill my beds with plenty of organic matter to give my plants the best start possible.  I find spring is the best time to prepare your soil.

I grow all my vegetables in raised beds and the basic structure when we initally filled them was a good mix of green waste (i.e. compost, old plant waste) and brown matter (twigs, paper, cardboard).

It is crucial to add to your soil every year and feed it.  Along with  the use of organic liquid fertilisers throughout the growing season - I focus on getting my soil ready in spring.  As my summer crops die away, I sow mustard seed in the empty beds which I'm not using for autumn/winter crops.  I then dig it in to the garden along with:

Leaves collected in the autumn from my two big elm trees.  I rake them up and put them in big black rubbish bags, poke some holes in the sides with a garden fork and pour some comfrey or worm wees into the bag.  I leave these bags down the back of the garden until they're ready in the spring.

 

Animal manure is another key element to dig in - my preference is to use a combination of sheep and horse poo.  But I ensure that the horse poo is well-rotted before digging it in.  I usually purchase bags of the stuff in autumn and hide it down the bag of the garden with my bags of leaves for about 3 months before putting it into the garden.  Each of these are high in potassium, nitrogen and phosphorous.

Ash from the fireplace is also dug in - this is a great source of trace elements!  Sometimes I also just scatter this on the plants throughout the growing season.

Seaweed is an absolute must for my garden.  I don't bother rinsing off the salt and sand - the whole lot just goes into the garden!  I go down to our local beach after a store and collect huge bags of seaweed and put it straight into the garden.  I suggest you don't leave this lying around for days and do it immediately as it starts to break down very quickly in a bag and smells terrible!  It really doesn't matter what type of seaweed you use - I just grab whatever is on the beach - even the dry stuff works!

Coffee Grinds are another favourite of mine.  I get bags and bags of this from our local café for free!  It is high in nitrogen and when I'm not digging it into the garden - I feed it to my worms in my worm farm.  They just love it! 

Blood and Bone is a key product to add to your soil.  Be careful if you have a dog as this will attract them!  We don't have a dog, but sometimes the neighbours dogs come wandering over to have a sniff.

Next...and probably the most crucial is compost.  I try to compost almost everything in my garden/kitchen.  And what doesn't go into the compost, gets fed to the worms.  All my garden waste goes in there including all our grass clippings except tomato & potato plants as they carry diseases sometimes which can carry on living in the soil.  In the spring, my compost is nice and crumbly - really friable like a crumbling chocolate cake.  That's the consistency you want!  In this picture, the compost is not ready to go into the garden as it hasn't gone nice and brown and still needs to break down.  Compost is excellent for helping the soil retain the moisture so your plants don't dry out during the hot summer months. 

 

 

Some people also swear by adding lime.  I don't because I think all this organic matter I add is sufficient...

Dig it all in and hey presto!  You have the ultimate soil to grow your delicious organic vegetables!  I also follow this recipe when I convert my lawn into garden beds once I've broken up all the grass.  Below is a picture of a part of my lawn which I've converted into a little potager garden.  The broccoli and cabbage were grown from seed 8 weeks ago and they are doing exceptionally well!

 

 

AND THE WINNER IS...

It's a pretty amazing feeling to grow all your own vegies, but when you're rewarded with a prize for having the 'Best Outdoor Vegie Patch' in New Zealand - that makes you feel even better!

For three months, I blogged about my garden and I won the first prize in New Zealand out of about 800 entrants in a Yates competition.  Yates is a producer of seeds and gardening products in New Zealand & Australia. 

My local paper even wrote an article about me and it ended up on the front page!  I strongly urge everyone to start a garden in their backyard - big or small.  It doesn't matter how much you grow - just get out there and do it.  The rewards are phenomenal and not just the rewards when it comes to harvest time, but the way it makes you feel!

So here's the link to the article featured in my local paper:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/local-papers/hutt-news/8153334/Hutt-gardener-wins-award-for-produce

CARRYING ON THE LEGACY - 16 December 2012

I have thoroughly enjoyed this challenge – not only the growing vegetable aspect, but also learning to blog.

I think this is a great way to keep a garden diary, and I find it much more efficient that writing everything down in my diary. Furthermore, I don’t have to get photos printed and put them in my diary. This is far better!

The challenge has also encouraged me to try different vegies that I’ve been a little apprehensive to try previously.  So I’m really delighted with the success that I’ve experienced with some new vegetables in my garden.

We’ve continuously harvested vegies since this challenge began, and although there are many which are quite a way off harvesting, they are all looking pretty healthy.  I think it’s time for a walk down memory lane, so here is where it all began…

 

1. some 95 days ago for me with my massive collection of Yates seed
2.  And my first full picture of the garden in September
3. And then in October
4. And then in November
5. And finally today in December

 

It has been truly wonderful to be part of this challenge, and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone else’s posts and wish you all a fantastic Christmas and bumper crops in your gardens this summer!  Happy gardening everyone and thanks to Yates for creating such a fab competition!