Veggie Garden Challenge week!

This week, I'm inspired to get out into our veggie garden.  We have been half hearted growers for about 5 years, and last year I achieved my goal of having some kind of crop year-round.  Here is the most recent harvest, a Kent Pumpkin.  Last year at one point we had 6 growing on the vine.

My challenge for the week is to get the winter crops planted, as well as a fresh batch of year-round things like lettuce and carrots.

Here are the before shots.

These are the 2 empty beds at the front. Behind the big bed is mostly parsley and beetroot.

This shot shows the weeds! but in the foreground is the mini-bed with capsicum (bell peppers) and a big space in the middle where my tomatos and basil are going.

We have chives to help keep the aphids away from our rosebushes. I planted these on the weekend, with my son, around 'his' rosebush, a scented Mister Lincoln who hasn't yet flowered.  I also want to incorporate nasturiun and marigolds into the pest-repellants for the rose area.

The other crops going in are 2 punnets of lettuce - but first we need to finish preparing the bed, with some extra soil and compost.  I will be sowing some carrot seeds into trays for transplanting among the lettuce as they make good companion plants.

 

My husband bought some unknown 'somethings' I think I'll get them identified before I let them into the garden! 

We also have cucumbers (or they might be zucchini!) - these will need some support as the plants grow viney.

Happily, I already managed to get the 4 basil and 2 tomato plants into a garden bed with some existing capsicum (bell peppers) before all our rain, so with any luck they will thrive as soon as it stops raining. This is the basil before planting out, in one big clump.

For the rest of the week I'll be working on the list of jobs and plants above.  At the moment around the subtropics it really is time to plant broccoli and some of the other winter crops for early harvesting.

In the northern hemisphere its the perfect time to get all your spring / summer crops in like beans, beetroot, cucumber, cabbage, celery, even sweet corn, potato and leeks.  This site has a terrific worldwide sowing guide, although nothing replaces local knowledge, if you can get in touch with keen growers near you they'll have so many tips and tricks that suit your climate perfectly.