bed check: January 2020

We had quite a lot of rain over the last couple of days. It's been pretty good for the ground and the plants,

Plum Stone:

Assorted tomatoes which are in the growing and flowering stage but not yet in the fruiting stage. Probably during January.

I have no idea what's happening to the one in the front; we just had several days of rain, but it's simply wilted. I hope it's not anything viral, and I should probably dig down to see about the root system and what the issue is.

I've underplanted mustards and brassicas (or they've self-sown), tossed in various greens and chook fodder for once the chooks are put onto this bed - and also for general harvest through the rest of the summer.

Stone:

This is a perennial bed, and it's been very heavily mulched with woodchips over the last few years which haven't at all broken down.

It had three artichokes and wormwood on the north side (not pictured), but the artichokes dried out and died and so did the wormwood. It's since been planted out with fat hen, amaranth, mustard and other 'easy greens' - so, of course, after the rain, both artichokes and wormwood are coming back, too. *sigh*

On the south side, the woodchips are king, a couple of brassicas (possibly brussels sprouts) cling to the ground at least nine months after they were planted there. I've tossed down poppies, fenugreek, nasturtiums, peas, and other things (maybe rocket?) just to build up some ground cover.

Apple-Crepe:

Corn, beans, an eggplant or two, a capsicum or two. I also sprinkled peas, mustard, silverbeet and 'clucker tucker' along here when it began raining last Thursday. It might be too early for the clucker tucker; but no help for that.

This bed will probably be one of the last of the current set to be tractored with chooks. The corn is going to need a decent run, and I probably need to stake those beans.

Crepe-Apricot:

Corn, a couple of cucumbers that have barely grown, and I dropped a couple of peas under the watering system outlets to grow. I'm debating what to do with this one once the corn has finished. I'm not sure that I'll have that much corn out of it - my corn silks are never available at the same time as the pollination stalks are out and dusting, and although the first corn was fine when hand-pollinated, the subsequent one failed quite miserably. I'm waiting to see how the rest of it goes.

I've tossed a lot of Clucker Tucker down, and maybe some Fenugreek. Mostly to grow green things and fill the space. Whether they survive is largely due to how far the watering system goes, and whether we get any more rain in the next month.

There's also a comfrey planted at the front. It's dried out a few times in the drought, but has perked up again with the rain and the watering system.

Apricot:

The watering system is in and ready to go! Unfortunately one of the pipes has a fairly significant hole in it, and even the plug that should be holding it in place isn't quite doing the job. I'm dreading having to pull it apart and redo it; I might try it sealing it first with something like plumber's tape.

A couple of plants of Fat Hen, I've put down a bunch of chickpeas during the rain on Thursday, some of them had sprouted by Sunday when I covered them over, and hopefully some of them will stick. There's also Clucker Tucker sprinkled all along the edges.

Apricot-Avo:

Bean up the back right, zucchini (I thought, but might be a pumpkin) at the back left, tomatillo in the middle. Onions, eggplants, tatsoi, choy sum. Not sure if the choy sum will survive the sun; it tends to wilt really easily.

I've tossed Clucker Tucker, mustard, and fenugreek all over this one, too.

Avo-Shed:

Tomatoes up the back. A tomatillo taking up space in the middle, and a cabbage/brussels sprout hiding right behind it. Eggplants, capsicums, fat hen, silverbeet, and another curcubit. (I really can't keep track of them.)

I threw down some marigold and sunflower seeds outside the bed, but they don't seem to have taken. They might now that it's rained. One can hope!

Wicking Bed:

The ronde de nice zucchini is taking over. But this is the 'salad greens' bed: lettuces, tomato, radish, beetroot, kale, spring onions, silverbeet. The exceptions to the salad are the three eggplants that are in the middle of the bed and slowly growing.

Lettuce oakleaf green, lettuce salad bowl red, Gardland serrate leaf, lettuce black seeded, mibuna, mizuna, Chinese Mustard Greens - 29th Nov
4x '10 Heirloom' tomatoes - 29th Nov
Kale, eggplant (jitendra), eggplant (finger) - 29th Nov
Radish confetti mix, onion red beard, beetroot bulls blood, Onion straight leaf - 17th Dec

Bathtub:

Planted 17th Dec: Two tomatoes - one Blue Berry Cherry, one Cherokee Purple. Carrot short kuroda, Onion purplette, carrot kuroda, onion creamgold, parsnip gurnsey. Leek King Richard up the shallow end, Beetroot golden detroit at the deep end.

I've sprinkled various seeds down by the base of the bathtub but none of them have come up. *pouts*

Hexabed:

With the watering system in and occasional inputs of compost, hopefully things in this bed will grow better than they have been. Everything's been holding on, but otherwise not growing. (Story of my garden.)

I don't even know what's here anymore; the idea was for it to be a bee-friendly garden, but I've tossed plenty of fruiting and food plants in there and not just the flowers that were the original idea. It was barely growing through spring, and I don't know how well it will do over summer and into winter.

On the plus side, the rain runs off the chook house tarp and into the garden - so much so that I've had to put a bucket underneath so it doesn't drill a hole down into the soil

Banana Circle:

Bananas (at least five or six), taro (at least four), an avocado, two turmeric, comfrey, alpine strawberries, a small watermelon, hyacinth beans. Frankly there's too many plants in this space, so I'm going to take out the turmeric, taro, and a couple of the smaller bananas.

Thoughts
1. Could grow potatoes/sweet potatoes in the cheap aldi garden beds if they were set up to be wicking. (As of 21st Jan, have set up wicking bed in front of lounge window for sweet potatoes.) Contemplate doing for regular potatoes, with water thingy in the middle.

2. Small Aldi garden bed: use frame, cover with pond plastic, poke hole in about 5cm above ground level, low layer of soil, set olla in bed, fill with soil, plant potatoes. Or garlic?

3. Run a water line down from the carport tanks to the front garden bed? Otherwise front garden bed is basically to be bucketed/heavy mulched in drought.

So many things to be done and not half enough time before the SEGT.