Our raised beds are now filled with a wonderful mix of topsoil, spoiled hay, organic fertiliser and old cow manure (courtesy of the dairy nearby), and are topped with a layer of hay mulch to keep the soil moist. We hope the huge input of materials and effort will pay off in great soil quality (there’s more than 5 one tonne ute loads of cow manure in these 4 beds – and we hauled the mix in by tractor bucket load…. It took over 40 trips to the mixing site… a mammoth effort from Farmer Phil over 5 days)
We’ve even planted our first seedlings (cos lettuce, giant red mustard greens, warragal greens, cream-gold and red onions) and seeds (beetroot, butter beans, borlotti beans) – how satisfying! (that's one of the warragal greens)
And the old garden site has been taken over by Farmer Phil’s potato crop – and they are up already! (local wisdom states one shouldn’t plant potatoes or tomatoes until after the October long weekend (last weekend) but Phil decided to take his chances…. Fingers crossed the frosts have all passed…
And today our large Eden seed order arrived (oh Joy) Eden Seeds are open pollinated, non-hybrid, heirloom and old time varieties – I ripped open the packets – rushed to the garden and planted 'little finger' and 'red chantenay' carrots and hollow-crown parsnips… tomorrow I’ll get to some of the other beauties!
