Donna's Page

I have just harvested my Elephant Garlic that was initially planted in May (still have some left in the garden planted in July) and am pretty happy with the results.

As the photos show, there was a large variety of sizes of bulbs which will now be hung in the laundry (outside) for about two weeks to dry for storage -… Continue

It has been awhile since I got out into the garden and I only have one bed planted and growing at the moment. In saying that it is *very* planted and has heaps in it because it was the only bed ready when the seedlings came up! There is red okra starting to flower, angled luffa (last two seeds so hopefully get some this time!), rockmelon with two babies, stars & moon watermelon, black carrots, corn with cobs starting to show silk and snake beans starting to flower and a couple of kohl rabi t… Continue

I have just used lucerne mulch for the first time on my raised beds, instead of the fine sugar cane mulch. There were three reasons:
1. Price - I was paying $12.50 for sugar cane and the lucerne was $10.00
2. Nutrients - Lucerne is supposed to be better for the soil
3. Water Retention - The sugar cane was a solid mat and the beds were really dry underneath

The lucerne is very different to the sugar cane, there are long stalks and lots of little green bits covering the dirt. It goes a lot furthe… Continue

Well Gardenate.com finally got me off my bottom this weekend, I have planted seeds in an old concrete tub at the back door with hessian over it to keep it moist...hopefully. While a lot of them were supposed to be planted direct I decided to try it this way so I don't forget to water them if they are randomly scattered in different gardens.

I planted celeraic, carrot, cucumber, eggplant, globe artichokes, kohl rabi, lettuce, luffa (my last two seeds of angled luffa - hopefully get something to… Continue

Finally hosted a Garden Visit, should have done it months ago - it was such a good motivator to get things ready in the garden!

My husband (the 'Infrastructure Manager') concreted up the side of the house enclosing the already existing gardens and screwed second hand tin to to the fence before filling it with free green mulch sourced from a nice local tree lopper. This meant that we didn't have to dig up the grass and are hoping that the nitrogen draw down kills it, then it will be ready for pl… Continue