One of these things is not like the others - what is wrong with my lettuces?!

So I think I need some advice.  I will probably also ask this question of my dad and of my grandma, but the more input the merrier I say!

I have been growing some lettuces (lettice? What's the plural of lettuce?) which I bought as seedlings.  All came from the same punnet and were of a similar size when planted.

Five fitted into one large round and fairly shallow dish.  The other got put into a large pot sort of as an afterthought with a rose bush!

Five little lettuces planted in a pot.

Close up of one little lettuce.  These have probably been out in the garden for about a month.

The single plant is thriving so much more than the 5 together.

The loner in the rose pot.

Clearly a much larger lettuce after the same time of growing!

So - what is the problem?

Is it too much water?  The single plant gets far less water as my sprinkling system doesn't reach it - it's pretty much neglected.

Is it the deeper dirt for roots?

This one is in a much deeper pot than the others.

Are the 5 too close together?

Significantly more shallow pot.  And closer to the sprinkler system.  Also gets a bit more sun, although still mostly shade in the afternoon.

Is it slightly more shade?  The single plant is probably 1-2m further into the yard than the other pots, and as such would get less sun.  But all the plants would get predominantly morning sun and be in shade for some of the day.

Is it likely to be pests? (I do admit I use snail pellets as I just can't get any other pest control to work, and we have no pets that could access these)

Is it a combination of all of these?!

I really want my lettuce plants to grow well as it is so nice to have an ongoing supply of salad greens.  So any advice will be gladly taken!

Garden Share - June 2015

My how time flies!  Can it really be time for another garden share?  The month has flown.  As before, I am joining in the Garden Share Collective which is hosted by Lizze from Strayed from the Table, Kate from Rosehips & Rhubarb and Krystie from A Fresh Legacy.  You can also find it Facebook if you want to share your adventures in growing your own food.

But this month I feel like I can actually claim to have done some good work.  Mostly on one particularly busy and productive day, but however I did it I have managed to get started with some new vegies!  Mind you it appears that after all my hard work on that day I apparently couldn't hold the camera steady - I do apologise for the blurry photographs!

I finally put in my garlic.  Whether I am a bit late we will find out I suppose, but they are actually already shooting up (although I noticed this when I got home today after a few days away and it was too dark to photograph).  I counted 27 cloves off just two bulbs that I have planted. (I initially had three bulbs, but didn't need any more to plant, so we cooked that last one!)

I bought the garlic from an organic fruit market - and to be honest I don't know what kind it is.  I read that you can plant any garlic, however you shouldn't buy them in the supermarket because they have been treated with chemicals to stop the cloves shooting.  Also they come from goodness knows where in the world.  So organic it is.  Once I peeled off the outside layer I realised these ones were already shooting.

I just broke apart the bulbs into individual cloves and dropped them into little trenches which I made in my specially made garlic patch - in the prized and much too small section of my garden which does get almost full sun.  Covered up with some good organic vegetable mix and fingers crossed for a great haul!

When I was turning the soil for my garlic I was quite pleased to find a number of worms - hoping that means my garden is nice and healthy.  After I found this one though I stopped using my trowel and used my hands instead - I didn't want to kill all these lovely earth turning creatures!

Also planted this month - 

Pak Choi - last year I had a lot of success growing these and we used a lot in stir fries, so this year I'm trying again.

  
Silverbeet - my spinach growing has not been great, but I'm hoping these might be more successful.

Snow peas - possibly not the right time, but I have saved another small part of my sunny side garden bed and hopefully the snow peas will climb up my chicken wire lattice.

Cabbage - along with some land cress to try to prevent caterpillars.

Landcress has also gone in around my broccolettes, as they continue to be attacked by caterpillars, despite my best squashing efforts.  These are some of the critters I did find.

Spring onions - always a good addition for stir fries.

Mignonette lettuce are also always useful, and I find not too difficult to grow, always good to have on hand.

So apart from my new additions, I continue to have chillis, coriander, basil, oregano, and those late tomatoes are still green but getting bigger!  I've harvested some more broccolettes and some rocket and lettuce, otherwise a bit of a lean month.

So for the next month I think it will be mostly looking after my new seedlings, and starting to plan for spring which I am sure will arrive before I know it!  Happy gardening to all.

Garden Share - April 2015

I'm very excited to be doing my first ever Garden Share Collective post.  This is a project hosted by Lizzie at Strayed from the Table.  I've been reading lot of the other blogs since I started my own and always feel a mix of jealousy and awe when I read about the other great gardens!  But it also has helped give me some ideas, so you never know, maybe my little courtyard garden may inspire someone yet. 

So the idea is to share what has happened in your garden in the month, and what the plans for the next month are.  Even though it is now autumn I think my garden is busier than ever at the moment, and I seem to have more flowers now than I did in spring!  It is exactly one year this week since we settled on the house, so I feel pretty proud that I have worked so hard in the garden and really changed it around.

And after you read my blog - go and look at some of the others!  You can find the whole list by clicking this link - Strayed from the Table - well worth a read.

So here we go - 

In the back yard I have now added in more vegetables, along with some shade loving flowers. Some of the herbs are going well out there too.  Originally this was barren, and a large part of the yard was taken up by the pond (now removed).

The back courtyard - lettuce, kale, celery, a self seeded capsicum plant, and a nice coleus which was successfully grown from a piece which broke off my large plant and I simply plonked into the ground.

Very blurry shot of my better pot full of kale and celery - apparently the semi shade of my back courtyard are better growing conditions than the sunnier front courtyard.

My shade loving flowers in the back courtyard - coleus (flowering away, has been for months), a pink and a red begonia and my geranium which was grown from a cutting.

The mint is going a bit crazy in the back garden.

 In the front yard all five of my rose bushes have had flowers this month, or are getting little tiny blooms coming through - I have a pink, a peach, two yellow and a mauvey colour one (and I don't know any of their names, which is quite remiss of me!)

The pink rose - one full open bloom which is now fading, and a bud just coming through.

One of the yellow roses, I do love these ones.

The peach coloured rose - this was donated to me by my friend in January when she had to dig up all her garden to allow for a big house extension project - I am so pleased it has managed to grow and now flourish in my garden.

And this is my other pinky/mauve colour rose, still in a tight bud.  This one is my grandma's favourite from my garden, if they are out when I visit her I always take them down to her. 

Also in the front garden I have been growing some vegetables.  Chillies, lettuce, capsicum are going well (particularly the chillies, I have three very prolific bushes!).  I also have some broccolettes (I think that was the term, they are supposed to be smaller than usual broccoli) growing well.  Coriander has self seeded, and I also have some chives growing well.  Basil and oregano are still growing like crazy, and my rosemary bush is lovely as well. My other new vegetable project is growing potatoes in a bag - we will see how this turns out!  I do have some leek seedlings in, but they seem to be very pathetic and skinny, so not sure how they will go.  I have some spinach as well, some in the back yard and some in the front to see which is better.  

The brassicas - for some reason one has been much more successful than others, but all are growing quite well.  In the middle I have the chives and a marigold plant.  Also you can see my slug trap here - although I only managed to catch two slugs!

One of my lovely chilli plants.

The potato in a bag experiment (pre being covered in soil) - hopefully these will be sprouting up by next month or so.

Kale and celery in a pot in the front courtyard, along with a small lettuce plant.  They seem to be better in the back yard, perhaps they need more shade.

The self seeded coriander plants, along with two of the spinach plants.  Not growing as quickly as I would hope, although they're going ok.

So my projects for April are -

1) Chinese vegetables - last year I had lots of pak choi so they need to go in again.  Probably other greens as well, although I'm still not quite sure about when the best time to plant things is - but I'd like to put in some beans and peas.  More spinach would be great.  Basically I will try anything!

2) Work out where I can put some garlic - and get planting.

3) Keep weeding and tidying up the garden.

So I'm sure I will keep busy out there even in my tiny little courtyards - I don't know how people look after their many acres!

A productive trip to the Orange Grove Markets

The Orange Grove Markets are a weekly tradition for many people around Rozelle and Lilyfield, and with good reason.  They are organic farmers markets, so the emphasis is on organic produce and locally sourced food.  There are also a number of bakeries, and other meal producers, so you can also pick up all the essentials like cronuts, delicious gluten free baked good, olive oil, dips, and lots more!

But I was there for the plants.  I had been told you can get citrus trees for a good price, and I really want to get a few - my mother in law has even promised to buy them for me for Christmas (yes I know it's March.  We are just a bit slow!)  So I went to check it out.  You can indeed buy citrus trees, many with a lot of fruit, for around $35 for a dwarf lemon or a lime tree.  All great - but I walked there, and it's a good kilometre or so.  So if I'm going to buy up I need to have a plan for how to get them home - that will be for the next visit.

In the meantime though - I found the seedlings.  And who can resist a bargain?? So I started buying.  Then I got offered a box to carry them in - so I really had to fill up the box to make it practical to carry home....

Not sure about the angle but that is the box full that I lugged home - it is a longer walk than you think when you're carrying a lot of plants!

The spoils of the day were -

I've never eaten kale - and I don't think I could stomach a green smoothie - I was told to saute it though and it's really tasty

Kale - the current super food favourite.  Apparently grows well over the cooler months, and is ok in part shade, so will be going out in the back yard.

Six little celery seedlings

Celery - it also seems to like the mid seasons.  I think I have to do a bit more research on this, to blanch the celery so it grows tall and not too bitter - but for now it is in the part shade areas of the garden and we will see how we go!

Rocket - every salad needs it.  I tried to grow this from seed and wondered what happened to the seedlings  - now I've seen that slug (read about it here) I think I know!  But these are bigger plants already so hopefully survive.  It's gone into full sun in the front yard.

Coriander - I love this herb but it often seems to bolt easily.  I realised perhaps last time I had it in too sunny a spot, so this time it has gone out the back under my clothesline - this might let it stay more leafy for longer I hope.

Dill - always makes me think of a nice fish dish.  So giving this a try for the first time.  It appears to need full sun and can apparently grow very tall, so it is at the back of the beds in the front yard.

The mizuna got a bit squashed on the trip back home

Mizuna- I bought this not even knowing exactly what it was, but I needed an extra herb to make my 5 plants for $10.  I'm glad I got it though - it sounds tasty.  Also known as Japanese mustard, the leaves are supposed to have a mustard or peppery flavour.  Also a leafy salad vegetable, these grow in part shade, and smaller leaves will be more tender and more tasty (or so I have read!)

Chives - always a kitchen staple.

So all of those cost me $17 - $10 for 5 for the herbs (including rocket and mizuna) and the celery and kale were 6 seedlings in a punnet, and 2 punnets for $7.  Bargain!

 In addition to those I had also made a sneaky trip to a nursery on my way home from work on Thursday, so I also had four six cell punnets to plant out (they were buy one get one free - couldn't resist) - so in addition to all those I also now have curly lettuce, leeks, dwarf broccoli and spinach which has been planted in various pots and garden beds around - hopefully in the not too distant future I will have a veritable salad bowl in my garden!

Plus, tomato and capsicum plants self seeded and have sprung up when I moved my compost heap - so I have transplanted them to pots, and if they survive I will perhaps replant into a larger pot or into the garden bed for some late season fruit.

Lovely marigold

Begonia

Blurry pick of my possible snap dragon

Then to fill up the box I decided to get some colour - needed to replenish my hanging pots.  A petunia, alyssium, marigold, snap dragon (I think!) and a blue plant that I don't actually know the name of all went in - they were also 5 for $10.  So for a grand total of $27 I had more plants than I know what to do with - and had to carry them all home!!



The last thing I bought was two bunches of dahlias - because who doesn't love brightly coloured fresh flowers?