veggie patch – Page 2 – Veggie Patch Anywhere

Traditions, Anzac Day, Mushrooms and the Bonsai Pot

05/05/2024Posted in Gardening, grass, plants, pot plants, propegation, succulents, veggie patchLeave a comment

5 May 2024

Traditions

Traditions are a great source of how things used to be done and a wealth of knowledge. A great tradition handed down through generations is the storage of summer produce. These small tomatoes have a sharp point and taste delicious. Nonno picks them in bunches at the end of summer, ties them together, and hangs them under a cool shady spot. He calls these tomatoes Spuntinni. They last for four months; I would love to see the ones in the supermarket last four days. The ones that go rotten drop off and are discarded, but not before seeds are collected. The same process goes for the peppers, which are strung together and dried to make flakes or to fry and eat like chips. A wealth of knowledge is slowly disappearing, and people like me are trying to share and keep it alive.

Mushrooms

After some heavy rains and a bit of sunshine, the lawn is looking very vibrant, and on closer inspection, I have noticed lots of mushrooms. They’re very pretty but not so great if consumed by the family pet. Lily, our border collie, is very inquisitive and highly suspicious of anything new in the garden; she gave them a good barking (along with the wind, clouds, birds, and anything else that moves or breathes, lol). I put on some gloves and got rid of a heap of them under Lily’s supervision. I also made a dish soap solution and gave the affected areas a sprinkle. After a few days, it did the trick.

Bonsai Pot cleanup

It’s Anzac Day, time to relax, pay our respects, watch the football, and give the Bonsai pot a cleanup. I cleared all the dead leaves, propagated as many as I could, removed stones, and gave them a wash. I pruned the Jade bonsai slightly to retain its shape, then placed some red rocks around the base and also some for the elephant to balance on. I might blue tack her down and have decided to call her Caron, a beautiful reminder of a great friend who gifted her to me. I topped up everything with white crushed rocks that were only $6 at Bunnings. It was very relaxing and therapeutic. Turned out looking really nice in the end.

Succulent progress

On another sunny Melbourne day I’m happily veggie patching my way everywhere and enjoying the sunshine before the cold weather hits later on this afternoon . I had a peek at my succulent propagation cuttings . The leaves have some roots – some have just withered away and died, but the ones that have taken off still look healthy . I will leave them alone for a couple of weeks and some time in the future I’ll transplant them into pots. I’ve got some from even about a year ago – they’re coming along nicely. I spray them with some water maybe once a week depending on how hot it is. They do like things to be nice and dry though. I will be keeping them undercover as it has been very cold weather and lots of frost and the little greenhouses have worked a treat.

Orange Tree and Purple Cauliflower

21/04/202421/04/2024Posted in Gardening, plants, pot plants, trees, Vegetables, veggie patchLeave a comment

21 April 2024

ORANGE TREE

This tree was a lovely present from my wife Sandra to add to my citrus collection. I now have lemon, mandarin and orange trees and it looks much better with 5 large pots instead of four 🙂 .

These 37 cm half wine barrels from Bunnings are great for this purpose. I do place them on top of a concrete paver so they drain around the base and don’t rot and at $3 a paver that’s also very affordable.

I have teased the roots out and added some homemade compost and a decent potting mix. Have given it a decent watering and as always the waiting commences – but I do love the aroma of citrus flowers while we wait.

PURPLE CAULIFLOWER AND BROAD BEANS

I planted the purple cauliflower the other day and a white cauliflower later on. They seem to be doing quite well. Just gave them a little bit of watering and pulled out a whole heap of left over tomato plants that have just randomly sprung out from the compost heap.

The beans have taken off as well – everything is growing beautifully.

In the garden section in Bunnings there is a throwaway section of seedlings for a dollar each and I brought quite a few. We’ll see how they go. Absolute bargain because they’re usually $4.99 each.

Happy veggie patch anywhere in pots!

Propagating Gardenias and my Bookshelf Garden

21/04/202421/04/2024Posted in indoor plants, plants, pot plants, veggie patchLeave a comment

21 April 2024

PROPAGATING GARDENIAS

My propagation corner is starting to take shape. The cut of Gardenia that I took two weeks ago has rooted and also has a tiny new leaf. I’m very excited about propagating the Gardenias. They make a wonderful evergreen shrub and when they flower the scent is beautiful.

BOOKSHELF GARDEN

My bookshelf garden is also starting to take shape. Lots of offcuts of Jade and succulents that are taking off as well. I had to add some sticky bug paper to try and catch some of the bugs that are constantly flying around. These little bugs are quite annoying and hard to get rid of, but the sticky paper seems to be working a treat.

I’m contemplating getting some growing lights as I’ve seen other people (namely my daughter Adelle) put some nice lights on the plants. Give them some growth and it also creates a lovely ambience.

These free standing indoor pot hangers (also from Adelle’s house) are outstanding and display the pots beautifully. I am hopefully waiting for some string of hearts offcuts from Adelle some time soon … 😉

Adelle’s indoor plants

30/03/2024Posted in indoor plants, plants, veggie patchLeave a comment

23 Mar 2024

Today I visited my wonderful step daughter and I was impressed beyond belief. Her indoor plant collection is something to behold.

They are so colourful and pretty that I just had to share some photos here!

One of my favourites is her String of hearts. I remember them when they were only tiny and now they’re going from the ceiling to the floor probably a few times.

Very very impressive and pretty indeed!

Mowing

30/03/2024Posted in Gardening, grass, veggie patchLeave a comment

22 Mar 2024

On this beautiful sunny Melbourne day I decided to try my new lawnmower and cut the grass myself.

It was costing me $135 a month to get it mowed by a professional gardener. The last time the gardener came over he only spent 25 minutes mowing and I felt like it was a waste of money and that I could probably do it myself. But I would have to get my own mower and whipper snipper first of course.

After putting the new mower together I thought to myself it looks like a toy because I decided to get a small, lightweight battery powered Ozito model. I was wondering if it was even going to work because it was just so small :-).

I’ve gotta say … it’s done a beautiful job and it’s well worth the money. So easy to use and not hard to push at all. The battery also seems to last forever and I will enjoy mowing my grass myself from now on.

Here is a link to the mower I got from Bunnings for $229. I think I’ve probably already made my money back – light as a feather and hardly any noise either. My next step will be to get a whipper snipper to get those edges nice and straight.

Happy mowing everyone!

Winter Broccoli Seedlings

24/03/2024Posted in veggie patchLeave a comment

21 Mar 2024

On this lovely rainy Melbourne day I picked up some broccoli seedlings from Bunnings and a couple of bags of potting mix.

This winter I’ll try to grow some seedlings in large pots and see how they go. Earlier this week I also planted some peas which had to be covered with bird netting right away, because they are continuously being dug up by the birds. It’s a never-ending battle 😦

I had quite a sore back today, but with some help from my lovely gardening assistant Sandra 🙂 , we got these into the ground ready for winter.

Sandra also thought it was important that I describe to everyone how I tease the seedlings out of the punnets.
First you squash all four sides of the punnet gently, then place your fingers above the dirt in between the seedlings and turn it upside down. While holding the plants in your fingers, give it a slight squeeze and they will all pop out easily – soil and all. Then you can gently pull apart and subdivide the individual plants and plant them in your prepared holes in the pots. The gentle pulling apart of the seedlings ensures that the roots do not get damaged.

Happy planting everyone and good luck with your winter gardens!

Peas covered by bird netting to protect from the birds.

Zebra Plant

24/03/2024Posted in home made, propegation, succulents, veggie patchLeave a comment

19 Mar 2024

Zebra plant – also know as Haworthias.

My one has produced some little plants (called pups) which I have cut off and re-potted with a little bit of soil and put them in a partly shaded area.

We’ll see how these pups behave and if they take root.

I do enjoy propagating succulents and adding to my collection – it really is a great hobby.

Strawberries in a tin

16/03/2024Posted in fruit, home made, plants, Vegetables, veggie patchLeave a comment

10 Mar 2024

I’ve always loved strawberries and recently Facebook sent me a reminder of something I did years ago when my son was a baby.

I repurposed the baby formula tins by poking a few holes in them and then hooking them onto the chain link fence. I then planted the strawberry plants inside these tins. The seedlings loved it and I had a great crop that year. My son loved eating them too 🙂

This once again proves the fact that you can basically have a Veggie Patch Anywhere… even an ugly chain link fence can be made pretty this way.

Keep gardening and be kind – always.

Mandarine Tree

16/03/2024Posted in Gardening, trees, veggie patchLeave a comment

8 Mar 2024

Here I am outside on another gorgeous and sunny Melbourne day. It’s 24°C with a cool wind and I’m looking at my beautiful mandarin tree.

I can see two mandarins already and they both look very healthy.

I’ve put a layer of mulch on top just to retain the moisture and it’s growing quite nicely in the pot.

Also … a tomato plant decided to just randomly grow out the side of this pot – who knows how it got there, but it seems to be doing really well so I’ll give it some time.

There’s a couple of tomatoes on it also so we’ll see how that goes. I don’t know where this tomato plant came from and I thought tomatoes didn’t like pots but this one seems to be adapting well 🙂

Magnolia Tree

10/03/2024Posted in Gardening, trees, veggie patchLeave a comment

4 Mar 2024

On this bright sunny afternoon I was walking through the garden and once again noticed my beautiful Magnolia tree.

It has tripled in size since I planted it last year in a half barrel and I do love the copper/orange colour when the sun strikes down the side of the leaves.

The flowers are just about to bloom and it looks quite beautiful. It also has a really amazing smell once the flowers open up.

More succulents and my winter garden plans

10/03/2024Posted in Gardening, grass, plants, pot plants, succulents, veggie patchLeave a comment

3 Mar 2024

I have started propagating a few more succulent leaves by laying them down in some soil. This is day 1 so we’ll see how this goes.

I again spent a little bit of time clearing out the veggie patch and turning over the soil – even the cleaning up is a full time job I think 🙂

Then I contemplated maybe buying two recycled steel containers and filling it up with fresh soil and compost to plant the winter crops in, but I’m not 100% sure yet if I’ll do that… watch this space.

I’ll be keeping some of the larger pots to grow cucumber and peas in next season. They are quite compact and the cucumbers and peas seem to like the pots. As long as you remember to keep them moist by watering them often and take good care of them regularly.

They also don’t take up a lot of space and you can put them just about anywhere – under a patio or a veranda – as long as it gets a bit of sun every day.

You’ll learn how to look after them eventually and they should give you a nice tasty crop with not too much effort at all.

Recycling cardboard boxes to stop weeds

10/03/202410/03/2024Posted in Gardening, grass, home made, plants, veggie patchLeave a comment

2 Mar 2024

A couple of weeks ago I trimmed the fig tree again and pulled out a couple of shoots that were growing out of the base. I decided to plant one of the little off-shoots because it had some roots at the end of it and it has taken off. It’s a lovely little tree in a little black pot. So now my fig trees have multiplied to 3 – I don’t know where it’s going to end. All depends on how much room I have in the garden I guess.

The tomatoes are all gone now. I’m still getting some scraggly little cucumbers which are still very tasty though.

Everything else now looks nice and neat. I did plant a few lettuces and spread out the strawberries into a standard pot and then I covered them with bird netting to stop the birds from digging around and destroying everything.

I’ve also decided to brush away some of the bark and soil and laid down some flattened cardboard boxes – then I covered them with soil again. This is a good way to contain some of the weeds and grass shoots that are coming through under the fence from my next door neighbour. I did this before and it works a treat – the cardboard gets wet, compacts and creates a nice barrier against any weeds that are trying to poke through. You can then cover this back up with bark or mulch and it controls a lot of the weeds while you’re also recycling cardboard boxes at the same time and doing your bit for the environment.

Some dead leaves that I clipped off the cucumber plant

Succulents

02/03/2024Posted in Gardening, succulents, veggie patchLeave a comment

19 Feb 2024

I’m sitting outside today on this lovely sunny day with the gnomes keeping an eye on my little pot here.

We have a new addition in the pot – it’s a very very colourful elephant. I think it looks extremely nice as a centrepiece amongst the plants.

I’m also propagating quite a few new succulents in one of my little greenhouse. They’re taking off quite nicely too. It’s been about three weeks and the roots are just starting to form – quite easy to grow. Hopefully the rest of these succulents will take off and start growing too.

The little gnomes are also extremely happy going about their work, taking care of my garden 🙂 .

The gnomes helping me out with the gardening

Lawn Care

02/03/2024Posted in Gardening, grass, veggie patchLeave a comment

18 Feb 2024

Today I used some of the soil from the veggie patch cleanup to top up the bare patches and low points in the lawn. This is a very good use for all the soil that I was left with after the cleanup. The vegetable soil also contains a lot of nutrients still so it is really good grass food essentially.

The piece of grass I like to call my golf practice area will definitely appreciate the loving care.

I also pulled out a whole heap of weeds and hopefully it will green up in the next few weeks and end up looking wonderful again.

Veggie garden soil used on top of the grass here

Veggie Patch Cleanup and Strawberries

25/02/2024Posted in Gardening, trees, Vegetables, veggie patchLeave a comment

17 Feb 2024

It’s that time of the year again – to clean up the veggie patch after the season ends.

This year I had a total of around 300 tomatoes (big and small), six cucumbers (mostly very large ones) and then it all ended with a whole heap of mulch and mess to clean up.

I have some lovely bunches of basil that I’ve put into a couple of pots – making the veranda smell amazing. That will definitely be used used for cooking over the next few weeks.

During the cleanup process, I also found three more strawberry plants that were growing quietly on runners. They’ve been divided up into individual plants and put into a pot – one of the stand-up pots. These stand-up pots had quite a bit of sun damage, are quite brittle and are just breaking up so they’re probably going to end up in the bin after this.

On another note, the fig tree has fully rejuvenated fully and it’s looking quite healthy so maybe there will be a “saving the fig tree part 3” soon 🙂