Gardening photos Nov 09

Took these photos last week. My first year of trying to plant vegetables and other green stuff. First year I was here I only went as far as to buy a few young chilly and capsicum plants.

This year I decided I needed to try and do a little better - and each year add on a bit more. I was a bit adventurous as I decided to plant from seeds, which takes longer. Was later told it was mistake for 2 reasons.

1. I do not have a conservatory so it meant I had to plant later (best if they are planted in punnets indoors where the seedlings are protected and warm so when spring actually comes they will be of a decent size and can be transplanted to the outdoors). No wonder the seedlings from the shops are already of decent size at the start of spring! LOL - I am obviously pretty ignorant

2. We had an unusually cold spring so not enough sun and warmth and too much wind and cold making it hard for the plants to spring forth from the seeds and when they do, they struggle to grow. Ah ... now I understand :-)

Of course I also messed up by using the wrong kind of soil for my seeds - a bit too harsh.

BUT STILL ... I am pretty happy with the results so far.

My little green posts in the first photo are actually chilly plans (from my last year's seeds!!) The little black punnets on the left are additional seeds I planted later and this week they are coming up (was empty when I took the photos last week!) The bigger pots contains one of my bean plants (from seeds as well). I did not plant in sand (I just covered the top layer of soil with sand as I have lost of sand I was thinking it might help keep weeds coming up). The bigger plant on the right is a capsicum plant (bought it as a seedling).

The second photo has my cucumber plants (a couple of different types), a curry leaf plant (bought as a seedling) - strange looking and not like the curry plants I am used to but I thought why not plant it and see what it will taste and smell like? Far right are my chives (also from seeds!) And in the front row is my mint plant and some of my bean plants (got them mixed up so I am not sure which beans they are - but I will know once I see the fruit! :-)) Front row are some of my variety salad plants

The third photo are (back row from left) my tomato plant, my strawberry plant and some herbs from seeds that I have forgotten what they are! LOL. Will find out later! Front row is my mint plant and more bean plants.

The fourth photo is of my backyard sand pit which I am slowly converting into a vegetable patch. You can see onions, some salad plants growing well (back room). The green plant on the right (back room) is actually a potato! Second row is some salad and rows of beans! And right in the front is a whole batch of carrots (also from seeds)

The fifth photo brings a big smile to my face. It is one of feijoa trees that is the same size as when I planted it in late August last year but lots of buds and shoots and now flowers (meaning it is alive and well). This week, even more flowers :-)

Planting vegetables is very therapeutical.