Rain refreshed, it’s time to plant

REFRESHED AFTER THE RAIN make the most of a rain event which naturally refreshes the soil to plant the garden after the summer heat. The recent rains that accompanied the Super Blue Moon broke the spell of the dry summer and made it possible to grow greens again. Now is the time to plant silverbeet and lettuce.

I want to eat super tasty, fresh plucked organic greens from the garden each day.

Our backyard is set to be rejigged soon, and the raised garden bed will be moved, so for now the growing area will be on the ground along the south fence, a very sunny position.

PREPARE THE GARDEN, I have shovelled some of the soil from the raised veggie garden onto the ground to make a new garden, added compost and watered all. This garden includes container planting – 5 black recycled tubs – and not a lot of planning, it will be interesting to see where the veggies flourish.

PLANT SILVERBEET. For a spend of $35 on seedlings (silverbeet is currently $4 per bunch at the shops), and a bale of organic sugar cane mulch, I now have a potential crop of 10 silverbeet plants, 8 Cos Lettuce, 4 Rocket plants and one Tommy Tomato, oh and not to forget the several clumps of Chives. More garden space is available for a succession crop.

With regular water – it will be essential to water twice a day for a week until the seedlings establish, and in a couple of weeks we will be eating from the garden again.

So, just like that, after the full moon rain, the veggie garden is growing again. Silverbeet and lettuces will be ready to eat soon!

Rain refreshed, it’s time to plant!

Building raised garden beds

One raised garden bed 3x3m

Filled with  soil – ready to go!

We built this on the weekend! Amazing family effort. The kids wanted to be involved in the building and filling, it was handy to have some ear muffs and gloves for them to wear.

The garden bed was designed to be 3x3m square and 0.4m high. Due to the slope of the ground, only two sides are the planned height – 2 sleepers, and the other two sides are 0.2m – one sleeper high. Enough materials left over to build another smaller raised bed, 2x1m large, 0.2m high, which was also completed on the weekend.

The raised bed was designed to use the full 3m length sleeper to avoid wasted off cuts. The post holes were dug 0.6m deep.

Materials used include: 8 x 3m sleepers and 3x 2.4m posts, 150mm bugle head screws, 3.5m3 premium organic soil. Total budget: $370 – a big investment!