Friday, July 18, 2008

Update from the vege garden

This morning I sowed seeds of more silverbeet ('Giant Fordhook'), 'Winterbor' kale which did well before, and some 'Bloomsdale' spinach. We have lots of space to utilise so figured if we don't eat the greens the chooks can benefit from them.
In the last few days I've also planted out some more spinach, pak choi and kohl rabi seedlings.
The broccoli and cauliflowers don't seem to be growing very fast, I don't know if that's normal for this time of the year or maybe they're too exposed where they are.
The windcloth fence took a bit of a hammering during the last storm and needs fixing.
I'm still a novice for growing most of the veges so it's all a learning curve.
Also the Red bunching onions that have done really well are starting to go to seed which is good so I can save that and sow more.
Won't be long before we'll be thinking about our spring/summer crops. I know I'll put in more 'Roma' tomatoes as they did really well. Maybe we'll grow pumpkins somewhere else as they took up a lot of room and now we've planted garlic and strawberries, and a few other more permanent crops like artichokes, won't have the space for them.
We talked about using part of the chook run to grow crops for them to eat, like corn, greens and maybe some other grains. We could section off an area and then let the chooks in after we've harvested the corn, or just leave it on the plant to dry for them. The cost of chook food is quite high so if we can supplement their feed with our own crops we'll be better off. Comfrey is another plant that can be fed to the chooks.

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