Twas a great day for gardening

Well it would have been a crime to have had the weather we had this weekend and not get into the garden so a trip to Bunnings later we were restocked with greens ready to revive the empty planter beds.

Having pulled all the tomatoes out some weeks back and with most of the epic red onions gone and the lettuces all going a bit crazy the garden was in desperate need of attention.

Monster onion

The chillies are of course a different story and are looking after themselves pretty much (except a water every few days) and are in abundance. Habanero sauces are to be made this week to deal with them and the rest are pretty much getting dried at this stage to just make sure we can keep them as in this heat they over ripen extremely quickly.

Chilli row

They are super easy to dry in a dehydrator and get stored in bags ready to ground to powders or rehydrated when needed.

We also have some new Poblanos, Jalapenos and Habaneros on the go as they were seeds we wanted to try out and they are growing super well and have shot up and will probably go into the aquaponics as they can't go outside as really need the heat of summer and the chilli season is soon coming to an end. As a side note, the aquaponics system has just had a major overhaul, post to follow on the new and improved (read: hopefully will keep fish alive) version.

Poblanos and Habaneros

Today I decided the planter beds needed some more spring onions - as have been using them a bit lately and buying them just seems wrong after having such an abundance of them last year. The key to spring onions is making sure you separate them out to the single sprig (pretty sure it's not called a sprig) if you want them big like the ones you'd be used to from a supermarket but you get about 50 single sprigs (ok, so I'm going with sprig) so there is just not enough room for them. So we separated about 15 out and planted them and the rest stayed in their bunches and planted in a pot on the back steps and can just be cut off for salads and garnish as they stay fairly small when grown like that.

Bunches of spring onions

I also decided on iceberg lettuces this time which you do need to be a bit more patient with if you want to wait for the whole head to form as opposed to just buying lettuces to use bit by bit as you would do with cos, tom thumbs, little gems, etc. They are worth they wait though and the end result is quite satisfying.

Spinach also went in (something I tend to use as a salad green as opposed to cooked). I tried the "popeye" variety as opposed to perpetual which I have used before so will see how that grows and tastes. Broccoli was also planted (perfect time for planting brassicas) which again I prefer in salads as opposed to boiled and plopped next to a bit of meat. These need to be spaced quite far apart as the leaves grow huge so they need a lot of space.

Broccoli and lettuces

Spring onions and spinach amongst the red onions 

For the first time we also planted garlic which is certainly super easy to plant but will see what happens. You basically get a bulb of garlic, break it into cloves and plant each clove with the tip up about 5-7 cm deep in soil with a bit of compost - apparently using some soil from last season's grow is ideal so the potato tubs were perfect. Will see how they go.

Got four cloves in each of the two tubs

I also replanted a few herbs - trying my luck with coriander yet again, planted some more thyme which grew really well last time and got all used up in sauces and such (this time Elliot picked "pizza thyme"... have taken the hint) and also got some more rosemary and planted it in a big pot as it has always grown well but in the wheelbarrow just doesn't have enough room for the roots to get big enough.

Do not pay any attention to the long lawns -
it may have been good weather to garden but far too hot for lawn mowing...
That's my excuse anyway

So it was a successful day reviving the garden - a great end to a great weekend of drinks with friends, Thai dinner, Japanese goodness with my Mams overlooking a stunning Brown's Bay and a unexpected visit from the father.