Sun and more sun

Zoe and I visited Tenderfoot early on Wednesday morning- due to what felt like a huge effort to get ready in the morning, we managed to get there by 9am! Hooray! We (I) planted some more bush beans, scarlet runner beans, some coriander seedlings and some more of the edible flowers (I forget what kind of flower they are). Oh, and more sweetcorn in the remaining free space. We gave the garden a bit of water as well. We harvested one big, beautiful lettuce which so far has been made into 3 salads and is still going strong, and some mizuna. And, as you can see below, we harvested tons of big, red, slug-chewed radishes- lots more where those came from! Yum yum!

Babies can Garden!

Today Abby, Heidi, Zoe and I (Alex) went to Tenderfoot. The plot was looking great, with lots of new growth since my last visit. The lettuces are ready to be harvested and the radishes were HUGE! There is also mizuna (a salad green) ready for the taking. Abby and I planted lots of new seedlings, including lettuces, herbs, flowers, tomatoes, pumpkins, cayenne peppers and a courgette or two. We watered them in and removed some rogue potatoes from various sections where they shouldn't have been growing! I put mulch around the emerging corn seedlings. Zoe helped by eating mulch, and dirt, and all kinds of other bad things.

Some of the brassicas have gone to flower, which is a shame- let's not plant too many more until much later in the summer. We can use the space for herbs and flowers if we want.

We should sow some more sweetcorn and beans/peas as well- more space in both of these sections.

Sun, Frost-bite and Tomatoes

Today Zoe and I attended the co-ordinator's meeting, and then did a bit of gardening afterwards. It was a lovely warm, sunny day. Our plot is looking good, although the slugs continue to be noticeable and I think some of our plants could use more water. Lettuces are ready to harvest! Maybe some radishes too...?

There were some lovely looking tomato seedlings, so I planted some in section 2 along with two kamo-kamo plants (kamo-kamo is a kind of pumpkiny-squash). PLEASE WATER THEM when you visit! They will need lots of water while they're so little.

There was a frost over the weekend, and our potatoes got hit hard! Jen says that they will recover. Here is a photo of the frost-bitten potatoes:

Sweetcorn has germinated in Section 4. Let's plant more! We can keep planting it until the end of this month, but after that it will be too late (according to Jen).

Last week (in the session with Abby and Heid

i, which we haven't blogged about -sorry!), I made some little paths in the garden and marked them with blue string and bamboo. Please try to keep to these paths and/or just garden from the sides. The less we walk on our beds, the better for the plants.

I also planted Japanese onions ('Ishikuro' and 'Red Beard'), feel free to give these a water if you're visiting. They should germinate in a week or two. Oh, and last time I planted beans. You'll see the little (budget) labels on these newly planted areas.

Heidi and Abby at Tenderfoot

On Friday (21 Oct) Heidi and I went along to garden in the afternoon. We saw Jen and had a bit of a chat with her before getting into the gardening. I planted parsley while Heidi slept and then I removed a lot of mulch from the edge of the plot as the slugs love to hang out in it during the day. I had always wondered where they hid, but after Alex showed me last time, I was keen to uncover them and get them away from our little plants. Some of the silverbeet seedlings I planted last time had been munched but only a few and I plan to replant them next time we go as it started pouring with rain so I quickly packed us up.

A grey, cold day at Tenderfoot

Today Abby, Heidi, Zoe and I made a visit to the Tenderfoot plot, despite unappealing weather. Abby was delighted to see that her lettuce seedlings were surviving and thriving! I was less delighted to see how many of my cabbage/broccoli seedlings had been eaten, but at least roughly half of them were still there. The garlic has also germinated, and some of the peas/beans are starting to show as well- exciting! And in section 1, something (radishes? parsnips?) has germinated too.

Abby planted more silverbeet seedlings alongside the potatoes, and I planted some carrots, radishes and mizuna in section 1. We also took away some mulch from the plot, which was hiding many fat, juicy slugs! We actually smushed a few of them too, in retribution for all the lost seedlings. But mostly the slugs just got sent to Slug Heaven, the big mulch pile.

By then our respective babies had had enough and we packed up and headed for home!

Just a friendly reminder too that we need to plant our garden according to the rotation plan, e.g. salad greens/carrots etc in section 1, tomatoes (I think?) in section 2, etc etc. There's usually a copy of the plan in the shed if you need one while you're at the plot.

A rainy morning at Tenderfoot

Zoe and I attended the co-ordinator's meeting this morning at Wai-Ora. Not much to report, other than the shared BBQ lunch coming up - Thursday 20th October at noon. It would be great if some of our group could make it. Zoe and I will be away in Kerikeri, unfortunately.

There is going to be a scarecrow competition in November - so if you have any funky ideas, feel free to start creating something for our plot!

After the meeting we attempted to do a bit of gardening, but it started to rain a lot. So unfortunately I left the plot looking a little messy- I was going to plant some rows of carrots and radishes and salad greens, but had to run for cover and left the prepared soil covered with bird netting. Sorry it looks pretty scrappy. Hopefully Zoe and I will be back on Wednesday to finish that job and tidy up the plot!

Getting a bit fancy....

So, I have finally figured out how to make a post (thanks Amy).

My last visit to the plot I planted some beans and made Teepees for them, I had a bit of time (and creativity) up my sleeve so made some nice corsetry on it, looks a bit weird but at least ours is a bit different to the others.

I will be heading out tomorrow to help Amy squash slugs and perhaps replace some of the cabbages/brocolli as they took quite a hit with the snow.

Anyway girlies, its going to be nice to meet up and enjoy scrummy meals from our harvest come summer.

Sharon