Spuds and Radishes

Just a quick pic of the radishes I pulled this morning. These ones are the aptly named Scarlet Globe. Everyone should grow radishes, they are really simple and quick. I usually put mine in any spare pot I have. Don't bother with seedlings just get a pack of seeds and sow direct. Over sow the area slightly then thin once they're up and growing. H from The Colour H liked them too.

Meanwhile the spuds have gone from being in trenches to mounded up with soil, straw, compost and manure. Now the straw's down I'll need to keep an eye out for slugs that love to live in it's rotting depths.

Winter Veg

I've been slack again with my posting so here is a quick run down on what's going on in the veggie garden. To date I have in some Broccolini, Brussel Sprouts and Cavelo Nero. I've been eating the Broccolini for a week or so now so all the little main heads have been eaten so I'm now looking at all the little side shoots. I've also been eating the Cavelo Nero which for me is maybe the best winter veg you can grow.

There's also some Radicchio, which I've never grown before, that is just starting to form hearts. My garlic went in a while ago and is going well along with some leeks and red onions. The white tubes are an effort to
blanch the stems of the leeks. I'll be interesting to see how this turns out. I've got some more leeks in a pot without tubes so I'll be able to compare the results.

Last weekend I put in my potatoes in two trenches. These will be filled up as the potatoes grow and will end up being mounds. After a futile search for some Royal Blues I ended up finding some King Edwards at Zanthorrea Nursery that I'm happy with. They are a floury potato so great for roasting and mashing which is all I really use potatoes for. It's really hard to find interesting seed potatoes in Perth and the guys at Marmalade Cottage just use interesting varieties that they find at markets. Everything you read tells you not to do this due to the risk of bringing in disease but they've never had any problems.

More Spuds

When I planted out the bed wth potatoes I put a couple of spare seed potatoes in a 40cm pot. I turned them out on the weekend and ended up with 2.8kgs. So the pot was a lot more productive than the entire bed which yielded 7kgs, mainly due to avoiding the slug attack that stopped the ones in the bed from growing to their potential.



Last Spuds

Well, I over estimated the spuds. I ended up with 7kg. I must have dug up the richest square foot before. A bit poor but enough for a few meals. Bangers and mash tonight!
A bit more vigilance slug-wise on my part next year and I should be well sorted for mash, chips and... um...more mash.



First Spuds

As the slugs had decimated my potatoes I decided to dig up a small section of the bed to see what was what. The first few to come up were smaller than an egg but as I dug a bit deeper a few good sized ones came up. Those two in my hand are just over 300g each. The total weight of this first batch was 1kg. Based on this I'm guessing I'll get around 10kg from the bed. Not a great result but I'm happy enough given my inattention to the slug problem.



Poor Spuds

My potatoes have been savaged by slugs. I was sick for about a week so didn't get out in the garden very often and in that time slugs emerged from the ooze and ate all my potatoes. Swine! I'll let them stuggle on until they die totally and see if any spuds have been produced.



Winter Veg

I've become a bit slack with posting lately so time for an update. As you can see the potatoes have gone from the trench to a mound. A bit more hilling up to do and they can be left to their own devices with the occasional Seasol treament and a good cover of straw.

The broccoli and brussels are doing ok. It's a bit hard too tell, but there are six dwarf broccolis in the front and four brussels in the back. These are in a no-dig part of the garden which is pretty rich. They still get the occasional feed of Seasol and fish emulsion to boost them along.

And finally for this post here are the broccolini, at the front, and tucan kale or Cavelo Nero, the three along the back. I ate the first of the tuscan kale in a minestrone on Friday, delicious. I've said it before and I'll say it again, one of the best backyard plants to you can grow.



Cool at Last!

The weather seems to have finally broken here in Perth so I've started to plant out the winter veg. I've put in some onions, garlic, brussel sprouts and broccoli. I'll take some photos of those soon but for now it's the potatoes.
I've not grown many potatoes before, and they were years ago, so this will be a bit of an experiment. I've used Ruby Lou seed potatoes, mainly because I couldn't find any Royal Blue. Everything you read tells you to use seed potatoes, rather than ones from the shops, so you don't bring disease into the garden. I'm not sure how risky this is but best not take a chance.
I've planted them in a trench about 30cm deep which I will gradually fill up around the plants as they grow. About 80% of the crop grows above the original seed apparently, so this trench will end up as a mound.