Holiday gardening
Well, it's been a bit quiet on the blogging front recently (blogger on holiday!). We took the kiddies away for a few days but, holidays can be a bit conflicting for a keen gardener!! "Where shall we leave the seedlings?" We thought that they would be ok tucked into a corner of the back vege garden where they would get a light spray with water from the sprinkler. So they were carefully moved and off we went. We were only away for two nights and I must admit that I got not a wink of sleep on the second night because we were hit by a massive rainstorm. I lay in bed all night listening to the rain absolutely pounding down on the roof, worrying that my seedlings were being pummelled to death back at home.
When we got home they were the first thing I checked. I don't think it rained too hard at home, because most of the seedlings were growing happily with no sign of having been flattened while we were away.
The only casualties were three capsicum seedlings which a disgusting, horrible slug had gobbled up. A vengeful slug hunt followed and all the offenders were removed from their nasty lurking places and humanely stomped upon.
The last part of our holiday was spent popping all the seedlings into the garden - as the vege garden has started filling up I have had to resort to some guerrilla gardening! Vegetables are slowly spreading to the front garden as well as the back, with kohlrabi and cabbage being transplanted into some of the flower beds. Maybe the white butterfly won't look for them there!
Beside the outdoor gardening, we have a few microgreens on the windowsill these little plastic dishes from the supermarket were fantastic - we just poked some holes in one of them and used the other as a "saucer" underneath. Just a bit of seedraising mix and some basil seeds and the microgreens are looking good. (There will be more about basil coming soon!)
I thought I would finish with some thoughts about gardening:
Ten things I have learnt since taking up gardening
Buying a plant doesn't guarantee that you will have that plant forever.
The children will always beat you to the blueberries....and to the strawberries....actually, they will beat you to all the berries.
Snails and slugs can break your heart overnight.
Sometimes things die.
Sometimes it is very nice to have rain in the middle of summer.
If you don't label your seedlings, you WILL forget what they are, no matter how sure you were that you would remember.
You get more results from time spent in the garden than from time spent reading about gardening!
If you keep putting more seedlings in the gaps, then eventually your garden will be very overcrowded.
It is a miracle every time you pick a tomato from a plant that was once just a tiny seed in the palm of your hand.
- It is going to take to a very, very long time to learn everything I would like to know about gardening!