garden update

I have been so busy in the garden lately.  This past week, we have been hosting a wwoofer from Germany called Veronika.  She has been helping me around the garden.

Here are some of the things that we have been doing:

• Planting okra in containers.  I’m very pleased with my okra plants this year, which are possibly the best ever
• Selling excess okra plants to customers.  I haven’t run my plant nursery for awhile but have decided that I will advertise excess plants on Facebook groups and on my Facebook page, Anita’s Garden, when I have them
• Lifting all my amaryllis belladonna or “naked lady” bulbs with Veronika.  We then weeded the area and loosed the soil, which was very stiff, working in compost and sheep pellets in the area.  After dividing the bulbs, we replanted them, giving them more space between them
• Planting lettuce seedlings that I had raised from seed in containers.  This wasn’t so successful as caterpillars had eaten the lettuce, but I have more seedlings coming along so hopefully the same thing won’t happen again
• Pulling out silverbeet and spinach seedlings that have gone to seed.  I ordered more seeds which I will sow, so we have plants to replace them.  Silverbeet and spinach are staples in our diet.  We have them every day and they are so good for you

​These are tasks which are on the agenda.  We have two wwoofers, Zoe and Margaux from France, arriving in ten days time, so I will work through them with the girls

• Dusting all my spring bulbs with flowers of sulphur, to protect them from pests and diseases.  At the moment, all my bulbs are in trays in the greenhouse, where they can stay dry incase it rains
• Potting up the autumn and winter seedlings which I sowed nearly two weeks ago.  They aren’t ready to be potted up into seed raising trays just yet but they will be large enough when the girls arrive
• Sowing more autumn and winter seeds, including fennel which I ordered with my last seed order
• Planting beetroot seedlings in the garden which I sowed from seed.  They look healthy but need to develop bigger leaves, so this may be a task for the girls
• Sowing some turnip, amaranth and miners lettuce once our parsnips are big enough to be pulled out.  Usually they are ready in 4 months and I sowed them on 24th September so they should be ready.  But when I last checked they were still quite small so I may need to give them another fortnight to a month to fatten up
• Weeding the garden.  I know I’ve always said that weeds don’t grow in summer but I was clearly mistaken.  We have all sorts pop up everywhere, so this will be something I get the girls’ help with