June 2020, things are somewhat going back to normal as it finally cools down.
Here's a little garden tour I put together for our Winter Garden of what is growing.
What was growing
Front yard mandala
Garlic is going really well, I planted the tomatoes early in the month and they have popped to the surface. The two northern beds seem to struggle a little bit so these will be the next beds to get our own compost when it's ready. The compost has definitely slowed over the cooler months, instead of every month it's more like every 6 weeks to 2 months for it to be ready, I've put this months compost straight into our worm bathtub.
The irrigation is working well, except I need a timer as I keep forgetting I've turned it on getting distracted by children. I suspect our next water bill will be quite high. We've finally got a water tank so I'll be hooking that up soon.
Front Yard - the Stage
Nathan cleared the deck of rosellas - harvesting around 8 kgs of them! It took around 3 hours. He then peeled off the petals and dried them so we now have years worth of tea - that took 3 days. Don't worry we'll get through it.
The tomatoes are going well, just taking a while to ripen. We're harvesting Daikons and asian greens from this area. The broccoli is just starting to form.
I've been using Daikons in this area to break up the clay (you can see my latest YouTube clip here on some of our clay breaking strategies). I picked a few that looked pretty good. They are actually a pretty yummy veggie, so versatile and so quick and easy to grow. They do grow a fair bit bigger than I was expecting.
We're getting plenty of chilli from the wicking bed. We've topped up the wicking bed and it seems to be doing a lot better, I realised it had dropped down sow low that it was only around 10cm before it hit the resevoir. The soil is full of worms and looks really good. I'd like to get some living mulches in here and well established before summer.
Aquaponics
We harvested our Turmeric and got a whopping 3.5kgs. You can see the YouTube clip here on it.
Other than that nothing really to report here, it's doing shit. The shade cloth is too shady for winter so nothing other than strawberries and lettuce seem to be doing much.
Back raised beds
Vegepod is doing well, it's nice not having to protect from caterpillars, although aphids are still an issue.
I planted out onions and we're now harvesting carrots. I've pulled out the first run of Giant Yakumo Snow Peas and plan to get another run of those in ready for Spring Harvest.
The tomatoes have just about finished up and I've got some more seedlings on the go which should give us late winter/early spring harvests. I've popped some more Black Krims and Pink Thai eggs in pots out here.
Potatoes are thriving, some have flowered and I've done a few bandicoots down but can't see anything yet. I hope it's not all a leafy show.
Food Forest
Not much is happening out here, aside from pigeon peas. They mystery passionfruit (volunteer from the compost) turns out to be a golden panama. I need to get in and control it a bit. I am still a bit concerned about the papaya.
I've also been collecting loads of Blue Butterfly Pea seeds from this area as well and am doing germination tests to get them ready for the seed shop.
What I planted in June
Mostly we've been doing succession of Tomatoes, Asian Greens, Kohlrabi and Lettuce. I also took a punt on cucumber, it germinated but it's not doing much. If you're looking for a full list of things to plant in June you can see the full list here.
Harvests of June
The big ones we're the rosellas, eggplants and turmeric, plus a fair amount of tomatoes with a couple of kgs coming from the Black Krims.
The total we harvested this month was 22kgs of produce.
Things we harvested:
- Zucchini
- Capsicum
- Amish Paste Tomato
- Eggplant
- Sugar Snaps
- Asian Greens
- Lettuce
- Cauliflower
- Pink Thai Egg tomatoes
- Jalapenos
- Birds Eye Chilli
- Habernero Chilli
- Turmeric
- Purple Podded peas
- Snow Peas
- Carrots
- A fig
- Black Krim Tomatoes
- Rosella
- Daikon Radish
- Kale
- Swiss Chard
Bug Watch
It's mostly aphids and spider mites we're dealing with at the moment. And the aphids have been extreme. They had taken up residence in the rosellas.
Bugs around in June:
- Shield Bugs
- Flea Beetle
- Spidermites
- Aphids
- Cutworms
General Observations
This month we finally got a decent amount of rain with around 30mm. The weather is starting to feel a little bit cooler but nothing really extreme.
July Planning
I want to get a vertical garden happening soon outside our kitchen so I don't have to look at an ugly fence. I am thinking easy access herbs.
As for what I am planting out, it's too late now for broccoli, cauliflower and onions so I'll be sticking with succession of more asian greens, beets, kale, peas, swiss chard and find some space for some carrots.
If you want to know what you can plant in July in you can get the full list here.
