Plant winter seedlings

Rain rain go away, come again another day

It has been raining! Cats and dogs! But it finally stopped, so I can go back out into my garden. It took a few days for the bog to seep away, and then, gumboots on, winter planting time!

I've got spinach, and kale, and wall flowers, and alyssum, and basil, all grown from seed.
Soooo satisfying. It can rain again for a week, I'm all good with that.

Autumn Vegetable Planting

Summer is over and now is the time to plant things for winter. So I've put in some spinach, kale, caulis and broccoli. But something has started to nibble them already.

And some coriander, because it is so yum.

New spring vegetable planting

This is a big big moment...my first vegetable plantings in my new garden! Its still winter, but I've not let that hold me back. A row of bok choy, a row of spinach seeds, which are too late, and don't do well in warm Auckland. And a packet of broadbeans to the left, and a packet of peas to the right.

I rather think I still have the 'not got very much space so I have to cram it all together' mentality though, these are lettuces, and could have been spaced just a bit more.

Finished planters, all waiting for spring and proper planting. I had to resist the temptation to fill them with winter stuff, because I know spring is just around the corner and I will be wanting to absolutely fill them with lovely summer things like tomatoes and courgettes and beans and pumpkins and cucumbers and other space hungry things. Maybe these aren't big enough at all then?

Growing Vegetables in Winter

Growing vegetables in winter is not always such a great idea. Here are my lettuces that I planted a while back. Its been raining a lot, but its not really cold yet, so the ground is lovely and wet for the snails and slugs to crawl over, feasting on everything they enjoy.

Not everything is suffering though, here are the 'weeds' that have colonised alongside the retaining wall. So, just in this patch I can see dandelion, and nasturtium, and puha.

And here in the foreground, some tomato plants, from the neighbours plants that hung over the fence at the end of summer.

And after all, a weed is really just a plant that grows well. I'm not quite sure how much I am going to embrace all this growth though.