Spring seed raising

Quite a few weeks ago now, Liz from Suburban Tomato gave us a great run down of the tomatoes she was raising. Sadly I didn't have my act together then to make a similar post, indeed, I hadn't even started to raise my tomatoes or any other seeds as I feared a late frost -  I thought it was too early for our mountain slopes climate.

But now that the weather has jumped from maximums in single digits to ones in the mid twenties in the space of two weeks I feel like I am starting too late! Ah, gardening in a new environment!

 Here is what I am currently raising.

Tomatoes
Last year my tomatoes were a complete failure, mostly becasue it was scorchingly hot and also because we only arrived at Highfield in mid-November. This year I am hoping I will have much better fortune especially seeing as I have so many wonderful varieties with different shapes and colours. All these seeds came from Yvonne - thank you so much, I hope to do them justice.

• Juane Flamme 
• Red Pear
• Yellow pear
• Verna orange
• Green grape
• Oxheart yellow
• Speckled Roman
• Peach
• Purple Cherokee

Chillies/Peppers/Capsicums
I have gone completely overboard here with the encouragement and seeds from Nina and Bek. It's just that these plants seem to be able to survive the hottest of summers, and I do like a chilli or too and I have a secret desire to hold a chilli-based food festival... one day...

• Chilli - Long Cayenne
• Chilli - Padron
• Chilli  - Jalapeno - thanks Nina
• Capsicum -  Orange Glory - thanks Bek
• Capsicum - Hungarian Wax - thanks Bek
• Capsicum - 7 colour mix
• Pepper  - Merlin - thanks Bek
• Pepper -  Chocolate - thanks Bek
• Pepper - Absa - thanks Bek

Eggplants

• Listada di Ganda -  thanks Yvonne
• Prosperosa - thanks Bek
• Rosa Bianca

Greens

• Lettuce - Salad bowl
• Lettuce - Freckels Bunte
• Pak choi
• Fennel Florence
• Rocket

Beans and Peas

• Bean - Kentucky Wonder - thanks Nina
• Bean - Sex without strings
• Peas - Snow peas
• Peas - Pigeon peas

Onions

• Spring onions

Pumpkins / Melons

• Pumpkin - seeds from Pat Murray's pumpkins (Pat is King of vegetable growing at the annual Adelong Agricultural Show)
• Melon -  Minnesota Midget

Roots

• Beetroot - Crimson Globe
• Radish - Round Red

Zucchini

I have shared with you previously my obsession to enter the Gundagai Agricultural Show in the category, Three zucchinis under 18cms. I am hoping that I can grow three great specimens of different colours just to wow the judges. So I have planted the following varieties so far - I have a few other varieties held back for planting later in the season as insurance.

• Costata - thanks Bek
• Gold Rush - thanks Bek
• Greenskin
  
  
  

Don't you think a trio of green, yellow and speckled zucchinis would be a show stopper? If I am successful, perhaps  I can share my winnings  with Bek... but I am getting ahead of myself!

Herbs
I have put these seeds in but when they are up they will join my other more perennial herbs.

• Basil
• Thai basil -  thanks Yvonne
• Dill - thanks Nina

Flowers

• Marigold - French Bonita
• Marigold - Petite Yellow -  thanks Nina
• Larkspur - thanks Diana
• Nasturtiums - Red - thanks Nina -  the leaves are stunning, I am sure the flowers will be too
• Sunflowers -  Prado Red and Evening Sun, my usuals
• Zinnia
• my beautiful purple Holbrook poppies

That's it for the moment but I will be putting in some cucumbers and other things as the season develops.
What are you putting in?

Soon I will post on all the fruit trees I have put in over winter.

Spring sum up

It has become a habit of mine to do an end of season sum up.  This is really so that I can work out what the successes were so I can plan for the next season. Also to note things I have learnt. Here is my spring sum up.

Pickings
The early spring pickings were:

• cauliflower
• broccoli
• cabbage
• snowpeas
• celery

These were really my late winter crops maturing in early spring. All these were second or third plantings. The caulis were smaller than earlier in the year and also a little yellowish. The broccoli heads, with the warmer weather I guess, matured faster that the earlier planting, meaning that if you didn't keep an eye on them, they quickly developed past my preferred stage - tight flowers. The cabbage were wonderful and arguably more flavoursome that the earlier season ones? And the snow peas - well they were fabulous and trouble free - but I always find them that way.  I realised I planted far more celery than I needed and as a consequence many went on to seed before I really got to them.

In later spring these crops were coming on:

• radish 
• beetroot 
• fennel

I love the look of all these vegetables - the fat red-purple of beetroot, the bright red orbs of a baby radish and thick green-white bulbs of fennel.

Pests

• stink bugs -  I got onto these quite early , while they were still at their green and orange stage and thus they caused limited damage only
• aphids - these were a bit of a problem on the late broccoli
• snails - hiding in between pots they had regular might feats on my lettuce

What I learnt

• attack your stink bugs early and you will win
• attack them well protected
• fennel, if  harvested by cutting off at the roots, re-sprouts and yields multiple heads of the one root mass
• your brassicas that you plant early and the ones you plant later really do perform quite differently
• transporting plants in the back tray of a ute is not a great idea
• what wind burn looks like
• eggplants aren't as tough as they look
• zucchinis are tougher than they look
• Currawongs are very amusing birds

Special pleasures

• Currawongs - everything they do, even their tanties
• Holbrook poppies
• bright new radish
• blueberries

Big changes
This spring was the last season in my Sydney patch. This small patch has provided such joy. It has been my solace, my quiet time, my distraction and excuse, my place to get dirty, my refuge after a long day at work and the first place I went to after being away from home. A place of secrets, a ritual of forgetting and the occasional tear. Thank you my Sydney garden.

Late this spring we moved to our new patch in the bush.  It will bring so many new challenges - tackling new vegetables, fruit beyond citrus and nuts. There will be things to learn about the land and the very special plants in our protected box grassland. Exciting and daunting at the same time.

Everyone's a winner babe...

Last Friday I resolved to give away some of my Holbrook poppy seeds to those who told me of the flowers they grow in their patch.  It feels like a nice act to give away some of my  seeds as one of the last Sydney garden acts.


There was a lovely selection of flowers that respondents mentioned. Very popular were sunflowers -one of my favourites too. This photo of  sunflowers is a bunch that came from my patch in January. I love the bronze tones of these ones.

Nasturtiums and violas also seemed popular. I haven't grown nasturtiums for a very long time but agree, they are so lovely.  Does anyone really pickle their buds as a substitute for capers?



This picture of violas is again from my garden.  They are always in my late winter early spring garden and self seed like crazy.

Several people mentioned flowers I am not really familiar with, such as Queen Anne's Lace - it is very pretty and apparently  related to the carrot. The other flower I was unfamiliar with was cosmos. Here they are - also pretty -  I agree, I like the fine foliage too! I think I will try both of these pretties.



I had promised to give away three little packets, but as my seed collecting has been quite successful and as I had 4 respondents, everyone's a winner! Kate, Liz, Kirsty and Bec, send me an email with your postal address and a little pack of Holbrook poppy seeds is on its way to you! (louisehighfields@gmail.com).

Poppy seed giveaway

It's not long now till we move to our new home in the bush. As well as packing our household things, I am packing up plants - but more on that for another post.

One of the things I cant leave behind are my 'Holbrook Poppies' so I am collecting seed. My Holbrook Poppies come from seeds I found and sampled one year in late October. We were driving from Sydney to Wangarratta to go to the Jazz Festival and stopped off at  - you guessed it - Holbrook, NSW for a stretch and a coffee. In the front yard of a beautiful old and deserted  house were the seed heads of these poppies. I sampled a couple of heads, kept the seeds and sprinkled them thru my veggie patch.

The next spring the little rosettes of grey green leaves emerged  and yielded large numbers of beautiful purple-mauve papery flowers.

They self-seed each year and, each year I am rewarded with a beautiful display of flowers and pollinating bees drawn to my patch. They also fill gaps in the patch while the new spring vegetables grow. To me, spring isn't spring without these poppies.

Yesterday I went thru the patch to see if the heads were dry enough to collect for seeds - they were. Yay -  they WILL come with me.

The flowers are a little small now - they always get small towards the end of their season. Normally they are much bigger than those seen here. It's fun to watch the bees crawl inside and run around the centre of the flower pollinating as they go.

I have way enough seed to take with me and to share.
If you'd like some of my Holbrook Poppy seeds,  tell me what your favourite flowers are for the vegetable patch. Are they marigolds, sunflowers, or something else? Why do you like to have them in your veggie patch? As one who likes flowers in with my veggies, I'd love to know what you grow.

I can give three little packets away. These will go to people randomly -  a name-in-the-hat draw that I will make on Monday 12th November. There might be some restrictions with WA and Tas gardeners, I don't know -  the seed catalogues always seem to point out 'issues'.  I will do some research.

In some ways, I will be taking these poppies 'home' -  Holbrook is not that far from our new rural property.

I am looking forward to hearing about your favourite flowers for your vegetable patch!