It’s root crop focus week and what a difference a couple of showers of rain make to your veges.
Parsnips and carrots looking fresh and fabulous. And the new ‘Manchester Table’ carrots sown in between the ‘Laguna’ carrots have germinated nicely. Too small yet to thin.
Not much happening with my root crops this week – the bed just needs a weed. Depending on where you’re at, this week is a good time to sow and plant beetroot and Florence fennel.
Our Florence fennel is growing well – great plumes of featheriness. The little alyssum beside them is flowering prettily.
Turnips are ready for harvest. I’m going to make pickles out of some of these. See our recipe here. Pickles are always great to have in the fridge for your Buddha bowl for lunch.
The beetroot I transplanted is coming away, but is a bit patchy, so I’m going to sow more in a tray and then prick them out when they’re big enough and fill in the gaps.
I have some ‘Cylindra’ beetroot seeds, so I thought I might sow these in contrast to the ‘Detroit Dark Red’ already in the ground.
Remember the sowing techniques:
– wash out old trays in water with white vinegar added to sterilise them
– I have some seed-raising mix made up already – it’s sieved potting mix to which I’ve added rock dust
– ‘Cylindra’ beetroot seeds go in, and also more lettuce (‘Cocarde’ this time) and more flowers as the snails decapitated a couple of the zinnias planted last week!
– then I make up a bath of water with a couple of capfuls of liquid seaweed added and soak the seed trays for around 15 minutes. Note: make sure the bath is not too full and that the trays sit on the base, otherwise the seeds will float up and away.
The kumara have been amazing. I thought I didn’t have enough root on the Purple Dawn plants, but look at these handsome plants.
And the potatoes are just chugging away. I probably should be bold and bandicoot some, just to see if they’re going to be ready for Christmas Day, but I think I’ll wait another week!
Hope preparations for Christmas are going well!
From Jan, Rob and the Team at OEG!
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6 Responses
Hi there… Just wondering where u get rock dust from. Does it have another name. Thanks
Hi Wendy We use the rock dust that goes by the name of Natures Organic Fertiliser, a certified organic blend of phosphate rock, humic acid, seaweed, vermicast and paramagnetic basalt rock dust https://organicediblegarden.co.nz/shop/organic-fertiliser/ Also available at Kings Plant Barn garden centres 🙂
Thanks for your blog. Good to hear how it’s going. Any words, of wisdom from Rob too? 😁 Happy Christmas and good gardening.
Thanks Christine – happy Christmas to you and your family too. Will do my best to get a few words from Rob in the Christmas post 🙂
During Lock-down my Husband has made a new garden for me and I’m wondering where one gets the plastic hops you have over your garden and how high do you have them? There a few naughty cats around here.
Thanks
Carolyn
Hi Carolyn Good on your husband and yes these hoops and netting keep the pussycats off the food garden which is a good thing. Our beds are 1100mm wide. I made these with 3m long 6mm thick steel rods – there’s 50mm at each end which goes into the ground and the remaining 2m makes up the arch – which means they must be around 800mm high. I got the steel rods from Bunnings and also the black hosing. The only other thing that’s good to have to make them is a contraption (like you’ll see in the video) which holds the steel rod in place while you’re twisting the ends. Here’s the video… https://organicediblegarden.co.nz/2017/02/17-february-2017/ All the best 🙂