My nursery obsession - and getting started on your garden.

Most of my friends are of the age that when you say nursery they think change tables and nappy holders and giraffe growth charts.  Me on the other hand - I think gardening!  I don't seem to be able to drive past a nursery without stopping and buying another punnet of seedlings, or a fruit tree, or a half price pot, or all of the above.  So this post is really for people like I was a year ago - very new to gardening, and maybe you don't know where to start.

My usual go to nursery is Flower Power.  This is not sponsored, (although I'd be very open to some sort of barter arrangement - I promise to post my purchases if I get some freebies!) but it is the most convenient place to my inner city suburb where I can still buy plenty of reasonably priced potting mix, and seedlings galore.  And even though it's a chain store I still think of it as being better than going to your generic Coles or Woolworths owned hardware caverns.

Boot full of loot for my #gardening today #goingtoneedabiggeryard pic.twitter.com/qaWcOVDolI

— Crooked Cottage (@crookedcottage1) May 22, 2015

For herbs I think it is worthwhile going to your local fruit shop.  Sounds unusual, but mine certainly has herbs such as basil, coriander, mint and many others in pots rather than your usual bunches - you might as well pick up a plant, use what you need for dinner and then plant the rest.  Sometimes florists have things like this for sale too, or maybe that just depends on your local shops - but probably worth having a look.

Then I have the local organic farmers markets.  I can't go every week or I really would have too many plants to even fit in my yard.  Our local markets (at Orange Grove Public School) have fruit trees, seedlings and plenty of potted colour, all at very reasonable prices.  You can read about some of my adventures with seedlings from Orange Grove here.

So turns out I could carry a tree after all #gardening #tree Kaffir lime means we can use the leaves already! pic.twitter.com/UIHlotQtFh

— Crooked Cottage (@crookedcottage1) June 13, 2015

Spent up at Orange Grove Markets today- all for $27- dill, coriander, rocket, celery, kale, mizuna, chive, + flowers! pic.twitter.com/5Gb289or5p

— Crooked Cottage (@crookedcottage1) February 28, 2015

And then there are the online nurseries.  I purchased a landscaping bulk buy of bulbs in March (the results of those will be posted at a future date - but it's looking pretty good so far.  Mind you, with 400 bulbs - yes, I have one of the smallest gardens you will ever see and I bought 400 bulbs - so I had to give a lot away to my dad).

I haven't even tried any seed swaps yet, but I've been seeing them the more I read of other people's blogs, and they certainly seem a great idea.  Not sure what my coriander and basil seeds (the only things I have managed to be able to save yet) would really be worth, but maybe I could swap hundreds of them for something more exotic....  I saw some information about the Seed Freedom Food Festival when it was posted in the Garden Share Collective group on Facebook and although I won't be in Adelaide it does look like a great event.

So I don't suppose it really matters where you get your seeds from, but get out and get planting!

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!