Veggie Patch

So a few weekends back Tony and I bought some seedling trays, seed raising mix, and most importantly seeds! I've not grown anything from seed in my whole life, and have prior to this point imagined it to be some very difficult elaborate task.

So I have now successfully sprouted sunflowers, watermelon, butternut pumpkin, yellow beetroot, radishes, carrot, purple king beans and zucchini. I've planted the sunflower seedlings along the fence that my veggie patch is on. I've put the zucchini near the compost bin hoping that any nutrient run off from the bin will help the zucchinis grow big and strong. The purple runner beans are along the other fence, and I am hoping the grow nice and big, and cover that ugly fence! The flowers of this bean are supposed to very pretty so here's hoping to that too.

The topic of compost can be so amazingly complex you have no idea! I have now read a few books and multiple web sites on the subject to try and give myself a rounded idea of how it all works. Most of my compost is made from weeds we have pulled from the garden. Some purists will say never to add weeds as the seeds can then grow when you use the compost. However if you can mange to to achieve hot composting you should be able to kill off the seeds. Anyway,my point to all this ramble was going to be that I used some of my compost today. So it wasn't from my traditional compost heap in the corner where I've tried to do it all 'by the book', but it was from just a great big pile of weeds that I add and add to as I pull the bastards out. So I turned it, and at the bottom was quiet usable compost. I was expecting that the whole process would take a lot longer to be usable. The top layer is mostly dried and and still whole plants, but the bottom was teaming with slaters, millipedes and all kinds of friendly little garden bugs helping to chew up and break down the organic matter.

So I'm just so excited to keep adding and adding to my garden. Slowly it just keeps evolving, getting bigger, better and more interesting. Also today I planted an artichoke, which from what I saw at the APACE garden in North Fremantle grows to be a beautiful noble plant. Lastly I planted asparagus, which is such a fascinating plant. It will need to stay untouched for about 3 years before we can start harvesting tasty spears from it, and each Autumn/Winter you cut all the plant away down to the soil and basically let it hibernate. This amazing little plant lives and keeps giving you it's yummy spears for about 30+ years. I have read tales of old farm house gardens being tidied only to find ancient asparagus plants still growing as well as ever.