My new secret weapon is very exciting

[Scarlett]

Wow - I think this could be the beginning of a new age: I bought a pump for our watering tank. It is extremely exciting to think about using the hose any time I want instead of carting watering cans. It really has restricted the frequency and amount of water I put on the garden. This should hopefully give me some impetus to really get this garden moving. Hooray. Now I just need to rig it up...Could take a weekend or ten, what with everything else going on (as usual).

So, duly terrified by the prospect of people coming around to inspect my poor neglected garden (which has suffered several chook scraping events recently, including the two times I had succesfully germinated seed sprinkles, grrr), I have spent the entire afternoon in the garden, and planted lots of stuff.

I planted seedlings of coriander, beetroot (again), peas (usually I use seeds, but I went mad), brown onions, leeks (I have germinated seedlings of these that have survived, but leeks are great and you can always eat them young), english spinach (I've never germinated this by broadcast, it requires seedlings or fussy germination - which I don't do, no time - I guess), cauliflower, broccoli, strawberries and lettuce.

Then I threw the following seeds around: carrot, turnip, swede, pickling onion, spring onion, more leek, chives, bok choy, dill, rocket, bush beans, broad beans, scarlet runner bean, chinese cabbage (I think/ hope) and wheat (because I happened to have some from making grassy head puppet things and I hope it will look nice - maybe the chooks will eat it).

The chooks were eating the ripe grain heads that are around the place today - perhaps their fluff brains have cleared momentarily.

I still have to clear quite a few old plants to make room for some more things, but I've held off so there are some plants to look at on Sunday.

I planted the leeks and onions all together this time and will separate them once they get bigger. They transplant very well, so why not (although the onions might object). Usually I carefully prick them out and cosset them for a while, but not this time.

I still need to plant celery and silver beet - the last lot of celery got scraped out by the chooks - I'll have to get some. I'm really looking forward to celery - such a great base for lots of slow food. I put our first slow food on tonight - yay :) See you LATER eggplant heh heh.

I dug around under the old sweet potatoes to see what's going on under there, but didn't dig anything up. It looks like there might be some action. We have heaps of potatoes a friend gave us, so I'll refrain for the moment - although it all might shoot again... Still, the patch needs to get bigger and stronger, no worries. I couldn't see or feel anything under the yam plant, it's hard to know if there's anything under there without disturbing it much - but it can't be a whopper, they stick right out of the ground.

One parsnip I pulled up had nematodes - erg. It was planted where the tomatoes were. Will have to plant more marigolds to trap them and make sure I have no tomatoes in the same spot for while.

I scattered blood and bone and probably need to scatter some dolomite too. The problem with no dig gardens is they do run short on magnesium and this one seems to be running short on calcium. I've pulled so much out of it I probably need to be a bit more vigilant with the feeding thing. I've added worm castings (there are lots of big fat worms in some spots now, which is very pleasing), organic pelletised chook manure, blood and bone and dolomite, but obviously need to do more, and more often.

I'm looking forward to seeing people on Sunday - apparently the weather will be fine

SJP

[Scarlett]

Ah is that what molasses is for. I've read that people use it but hadn't put it together with nematodes! Excellent, I'll give it a shot
Yes, I hope so!

[Donna]

Hi Scarlett, have heard that sugar works well against nematodes and doesn't harm the soil. Anthony suggested that I buy molasses from a feed shop and water it down to make it easier to use - apparently is cheaper too.
You won't know yourself with all that extra time saved from lugging watering cans around!