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!

Silverbeet – full circle

It has been almost a year since starting my vegie garden in Brisbane.

Once again I have no silverbeet to harvest.

The 4 fordhook silverbeet plants that provided me with fresh, dark green leafy additions to meals since July last year lasted until March this year – 8 months. Despite my best efforts to make these plants perennials, they finally became too woody and rotten after the rains in February and March.

Small replacement seedlings are now planted, but the name of the game is succession planting. The key to succession planting is to know how long a crop is likely to be viable for and grow the next crop so that the harvests can overlap. In the case of my silverbeet and the late summer rains – a protected environment out of the rain will be a good way to kick start my crop next year!

I did actually buy a bunch of the stuff – never again!! It is just not right.