I love home grown vegetables and fruit. We all have a childhood memory of eating fresh produce from someone’s backyard or farm. My favorite is our mulberry tree at my parents farm- it bears so much fruit most of it just falls wasted on the ground. My younger sister and I would go straight out to the tree after school , staining our school uniform , whilst munching on delicious mulberries straight from the tree.
Last year at a patch right next to our house I grew the vegetables from seedlings I had planted and it actually worked. I grew beans, lettuce , pumpkin and broccoli,cauliflower, zucchini and strawberries.
Last year (2015) broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce.
We had originally established a vegetable patch and orchard complete with a water dripping system set up about 200m from the house on an acre block that was originally set up for free range chooks when we first bought our farm . It was early days for us with parenting and life got busier when our family grew from one baby to three!! I attempted a few times to make it out to the vegetable patch only to have toddler meltdowns about “burrs” every three steps. Now our youngest is upright and able I really have no more excuses!
Abandoned Vegetable beds after three years no maintenance
My first job was to remove all the thick weeds and get the garden beds turned over with a hoe. I put the sprinkler on each bed and the next day hoed it all up again . I try and get the dirt turned over to a depth of 30cm . I also paid the children 50 c for an hours worth of rock picking ! I think Miss 2 added more than she did remove, however , we got an entire bin full of little and big rocks out of the beds.
We often watch ABC TV show gardening Australia and I have found their tips for getting a garden bed ready for planting very helpful. Here is the link : Top soil Gardening Australia.
Top Soil Mix :
1/2 barrow of compost
1 bucket of manure (link :Chook poo tea bag )
2 handfuls of blood and bone
3 handfuls of pelleted manure
1 handful of sulphate of potash
This mix I used for each bed we have here on our farm .
Brands for top soil mix I found available at our local gardening center
Top Soil mix
Here is what I have planted so far:
Red onion , celery and turnip seedlings. Existing Rosemary on the edging . Miss 5 and I laboured over this bed for an hour only to go inside for lunch and come out an hour later to find a chook had scratched out every single seedling! We were horrified. It has never happened before to us . Hence the chicken wire until the seedling get established.
Here is cauliflower, broccoli and brussel sprouts . Again with the chicken wire I Hastily erected a makeshift fence for protection .
Peas, beans and a NEW concept of lettuce seed tape ( purchased by accident !) . As you can see it is a paper tape with lettuce seed placed in the correct distance apart for ease of planting . Hmm not sure about this .
My last bed . It will be turned over again before planting .So this bed is still undecided.I am thinking I may want to try potatoes.
lansdowne farm 