Saturday, July 2, 2011

Along our driveway in mid-winter

Every week day morning with heavy feet I walk on our driveway to the bus stop and these are the plants that cheer me up. They are also a distraction as I check on them and usually made me late arriving to school. The first stop on the driveway before out to the main road will be this area that has cauliflower, florence fennel, Asian greens, leeks, peas and other vegetables or flowers seedlings growing here at the moment. The sad-looking plant near the trellis with peas are cucumber which I have not pull out yet. Bolting parsley from last year still have many seeds on the plant. I am not really an organised person that is why many different plants on one small area.
The allium section from the back row ~ potato onions (thanks Maggie for the bulb), red shallot (Matador), Garlic (Adelaide Red), and Creamgold onion seedlings grown from seeds. All of them just sprouted leaves since I tossed them there last month. All of them are newly introduce in our garden. So they have the best spot in our garden in winter.
At the back row inter-planting cauliflower with lettuces. Lemon grass are perennials here so they always remained on that spot.Middle Row are Creamgold onion seedlings. At the front several garlic  (Cloves from Veggie Gnome) has sprouted. Bellis perennis and pansy growing at the front. Hopefully they flower soon and provide some colours on this area.
We still have one white sweet potato plants not harvested yet. Wondering when that broccoli going to grow some nice head.  A Giant purple mustard plant in between chili plants growing the same size as broccoli. 
The last distraction are these four Italian sprouting broccoli plants. Among these plants, 2 plants are forming broccoli head at the moment which is 3 weeks earlier than last year. The seeds were sowed last March.
After this area, along the driveway are grasses and weeds until near our mail box where our neighbour has just gave consent for us to garden there as well.This is more than 20 metres away from our house. So I really have to be careful of what kind of plant I should grow there which don't need much care. I know that area has so many snail and slug since our mail box is always full of these pest which even sometime eat our letters. Last Saturday we planted some of our excess seeds near the mail box like florence fennel, larkspur, aquilegia, leeks and creamgold onion seedlings. Every morning, as I passed this area, I saw that florence fennel seedlings disappeared one by one. But the other plants are still there. So I think allium family will be the best choice to plant on that side in winter. I have not asked our closest next door neighbour whether we can plant along her driveway or not but I have been trespassing bit  by bit. Our driveway are used by 3 houses. So along the middle part of the driveway at the moment are full of grasses.

11 comments:

Mark Willis said...

I also like to have a look round my garden in the morning before I go to work - as long as the weather allows.

Sue Garrett said...

Plenty going on with you even in the depths of winter You neber seem to have a time when you stop gardening. For us mid winter is doing things indoors.

Gardener on Sherlock Street said...

You have such a variety in the space. Your winter must be mild compared to ours with all those wonderful kohl crops. It truely is interesting to see you have garlic sprouts and I just harvested mine! I love sharing gardens from around the world.

littlekarstar said...

How is your fennel coming along? I miss my garden! Yours always looks fantastic. So much! How do you fit it all in?

miruku said...

I refrain myself from going to the garden in the morning be course i will always be late to work, too! Haha.
The easiest to grow and almost pest-less leaf veggie i found so far is Kailan. But i heard someone said it is not so easy to plant in Australia.
Ooo, thinking of what to plant in the new area? That is so exciting huh!

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Mark~I become more cheerful and motivated after I look at the plants along the driveway.

Sue~I wish we have a break sometimes. But the garden not allowing us. Mid-winter will be focusing on the alliums and weeds.

Gardener on Sherlock Street~We have very mild winters. On friday I was shocked we had above 20 degree Celsius make you wonder you are in spring.

Mrs Bok~The fennels are bulbing nicely and yours must be too. Hahaha...I am not trouble with following space rule.

Milka~Mustard is much more pest-less if you want to have a go with it. Excited to plant in the new area but no time lah.Hoping to plANT something in this weekend but hujan lebat pulak.

Rosie Gan said...

Diana, I have a suggestion...you need to change the first sentence in your profile from "I am a novice gardener" to "I am an expert vegetable farmer/scientist". You are amazing.
Rosie

Tatyana@MySecretGarden said...

Snails and slugs? We have a lot of slugs, but they don't eat our mail...

Sue Catmint said...

Dear Diana, what literate snails you must have in Adelaide! I generally inspect the garden too each morning before I do anything else. cheers, cm

Malar said...

You must be very energetic to lab and can't wait to come back from lab to see your vegetables

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Rosie~ I still have many failed experiment ;-).

Tatyana~The snail here seems to be munching on papers too.

Catmint~I don't mind them munching on catalogs in the mail if they don't come close to the veggies. But important letters a bit worrying so we have to check the mail frequently.

Malar~I usually make a quick tour in the garden in the morning. Because during winter it is already very dark by the time I reached home and cold too.