Digging Deep For Broccoli

My Broccoli Experiment

Potted Broccoli Seedling

I have now planted my 3rd succession of Broccoli seedlings that I have germinated from seed. This time I decided to plant them deeper than before as a result of watching one of the experts on Gardening Australia doing that with some seedlings and also some small shrubs and trees. I was also inspired to do that after watching Chuck do that with his tomato seedlings in his Tomatoes For Health and Wealth DVD.

These seedlings have been nurtured by potting them into larger pots and keeping them my mini greenhouse over the colder days, before preparing to plant them out.



In The Ground



The soil was prepared by adding compost and some manure. A hole deep enough to take the plant so that all of the base of the stem, up to first leaves, was then dug. After the seedling was taken from the pot, I placed it in the hole to check that it would at the right height, and backfilled the hole with soil.



All Mulched Up and Ready To Grow



Finally some mulch was added to help maintain moisture around the root system, and the plants were watered in. At the moment the seedlings look a bit overwhelmed sitting in their mulch, but it should not take long before they dominate the patch where they sit.

It will be interesting to watch and monitor this group of brocccoli plants to see if they benefit from the deeper planting.

The Broccoli plants that I first panted has now finished producing their heads, and are flowering with cute yellow flowers that are attracting the bees, The bees are then moving on to the broad beans to help fertilise them, so the first crop of broad beans is not far away.

And that is just touching the surface of what is happening in the garden right now! 

Back Home Again. And It's Raining

After 2 weeks away from home for a minor operation, I arrived back home to find that the weeds had grown another 30cms or more. I just had time to have a quick walk around the yard before the rain set in, AGAIN!

Every time I come home it seems that the rain starts immediately. At least this time I think the gutters will hold up and I won't get any overflow into the bathroom.

This is what it looks like out my back door. I can't get any further, it's too wet!

The Back Yard.

The weeds are almost hiding the vegetables. Broad Beans (on the left) are the most visible, because we cleared the garden beds in front of them just before our time away.

In the centre, the telephone peas are just peeping over the weeds, but everything else is hiding.

There are 2 wheelbarrows in the yard. Can you spot the second one?

On my quick trip around the garden I found:

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  The Broad Beans will need support around them to stop them swallowing up the vegetables nearby. The poor old Globe Artichokes can hardly be found. The Beans have lots of flowers but not much evidence of setting pods yet.
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  I have about 10 or more meals of Snow Peas to pick, when the rain stops.
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  The Rainbow Chard are doing well. Growing in size and showing great colour.
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  The Telephone Peas are starting to set their pods, and there are lots of flowers. They got battered around in the storms when we were away.
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  The Rhubarb is starting to develop new leaves. We thought we might have lost them in the cold, wet winter.
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  New leaves are developing on the Thornless Blackberries. They also went quiet in winter.
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  The bugs still love the Tuscan Kale. I'm not sure we'll get much from those plants this year.
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  The Broccoli is starting to flower, so it looks like I'll have a few meals with fresh Broccoli in the next few days.
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  The Horse Radish has sprung back to life.
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  In the Wicking Beds, the Rocket has gone to seed, Lettuce has reached maturity, Broccoli (planted later) are growing well, new plantings of Rocket and Lettuce have stablished themselves. See the photo below.
• 
  
  I have some Tomato and Capsicum seeds that have germinated. Now to nurture them to get started with this summer's crops.
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  And that's just the vegetable patches!

Wicking Beds in the Rain!

As I was coming into town I just had to check what was happening under the bridge, and YES the Rocky River has water in it!

With today's rain I guess that it will get some more, so I'll have to get out in the next few days to take some photos.

In the flower beds, we have some progress too. A couple of Nasturtium plants have flowers, so I'll be OK if hay fever sets in soon. I chew a Nasturtiun flower at the first sign of hay fever, and it seems to work a treat.

The Herb Robert Geranium is going crazy, as is the Fruit Salad Sage. These are 2 plants that we have had difficulty with in the past.

I just can't wait until tomorrow to have a closer check of all that is happening as Spring starts to make its presence felt.