April 2015 (2)

Its Autumn in Melbourne, and time to get winter vegies planted.  Ecobed1 has 3 rows of red italian garlic under way.  The cloves were selected from last years crop and out of the 40 planted only one has failed to germinate.

I have also sown beetroot in Ecobed1, and they are looking good so far.  I have already thinned to one plant per seed cluster, and will thin again when they start to compete for light.  I just nip the foliage off with scissors and leave the roots in the ground.

There are 3 silverbeet plants and 2 english spinach plants growing in the same bed.

Ecobed2 has just been planted with a green manure crop of peas, oats and vetch.  It will be cut to the ground just before setting flowers (roots left in place) and used as a surface mulch under layers of compost ,manure and straw.  They will be left to break down in time for the following potato crop, which will be sown in late August. 

The strawberries at the far end of the bed are still growing, but in mid winter, they will be thinned and some of the runners removed for planting in Ecobed3.

Ecobed3 is my heavy feeder bed this year and I have mini cabbage, lettuce and 2 varieties of broccoli at the far end of the bed.  There is space in the middle of the bed for 3 mini cauliflower which are growing in my seedling bed at the moment.

Ecobed4 is busy.  From right to left the rows contain, a few herbs (rosemary and thyme), a double row of climbing peas (just sown), a dense row of carrots, and a row of leeks.  The carrots and leeks are currently being harvested as required.  Out of sight at the other end of the bed is a row of broad beans (just sown).

The wire netting you can see in this bed keeps the pesky blackbirds from digging for worms.  

The capsicum in the end Ecobin is still ripening fruit, and when its finally finished, a late crop of peas will be sown.  The other bins have just been sown with peas (3 bins) and broad beans (1 bin). They were sown densely and may have to be thinned when they get bigger.

The netting is used to keep birds out.