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.