My Birdies Beds

 My Birdies Beds have arrived!!  
So excited!!  After watching Epic Gardening videos and hearing that Kevin loves our Aussie product I was more than happy to purchase locally (well 3hrs away but that is still local in in Australia!)  

Birdies Garden Products This is the link for you to check out their range yourself.  They sell them in Australia and the U.S.  And now they sell them in the UK!  The material they are made from is nice and thick and they are so easy to assemble.  

So I will just share a few more pictures of my vegie patch(as we call it here in Australia.  We shorten most words add an IE or O to the end.  eg Steven becomes Stevo.  We love our nicknames over here).

These are from this year

The above photo is a pineapple top we cut off (bought from a local grower).  The pineapple is sweet and delicious and for the past couple of years we have planted all the tops.  Now I had an Agave plant in this pot.  It was getting very tall and was worried it would blow over and smash at some stage.  So I planted the top in it.  As well as bearing the fruit it can look like a succulent in my pot until then.  Both functional and decorative.  

These are my 3 little seed hot houses (one lid is on the floor at the bottom of the picture) I used to use this for propagating, but now it grows my vegie seeds.  Growing from seed is less costly and you can succession plant very easily, so as to not run out of goodies. The rack was a cheap pot plant holder I bought years ago when we first got married.  Is looking worse for wear now but still does the trick.

Making the most of all my space (even though we have 3 1/2 acres I like to keep pots on the concrete).  This is the pathway from the back laundry patio to our big 10 000 gallon concrete water tank.  Living out of town we have to provide our own water.  We also have 2 x 5 000 gallon tanks on the back of hubbies shed.  Between these it provides all our household water and whatever watering for the garden that is needed. I the pots above I have broccoli, tomatoes and radishes.  And you can see during the day I put my seedling trays in the sun for germination and growth. 

Again our 2.5m z 2.5m patch.  Freshly weeded and some good crops growing. 

There is lettuce, cucumber 9to climb up and shade the lettuce in the heat and allow sun for the beginning of winter.  Tomatoes, spring onions and not seen are Kale and Broccoli in the middle empty space. 

Now in our part of Queensland, our town is on a river that can flood.  We had 2 and a half floods at the beginning of the year (The 3rd one was not as high luckily) and it was the main reason I started growing again.  As most of the state went under and farmers could not even plant lettuce for a good while.  Prices were up to $10 a lettuce!  Crazy!  But since I started growing lettuce after the first flood we were saved having to pay such a high price.

Anyway that was a long way around to say when we had a downpour for a few days I put the Oztrail tent over the top to help stop my crops from drowning.  Even if the bed is raised slightly the water tends to sit in that corner.  Worked a real treat.  Lost nothing!  

Hahaha.  Me trying to be arty with my camera shot!  My first tomato flowers and fruit for the year with broccoli in the background.  Cannot say my photography skills will improve anytime soon but will try to do better....lol. 

Cucumbers!!

Yes my gorgeous cucumbers!  I planted 3 plants, from seed, which I have now learnt is way too many at once.  We had them coming out our ears.  I am sure we got over 40 good size fruits.  We ate some, gave some to family, gave some to hubbies fellow workers and even provided some for the staff BBQ at hubbies work.  Next time succession planting will help to alleviate this excess.  

A nice way to end this post.  From now I will be posting the building of the Birdie beds and what I plant in them.  Stay tuned!

Happy gardening!

  

Welcome

 Welcome to my little patch of dirt.  

I have been inspired many times over the years to grow a vegetable garden.  And many times I have started then stopped.  Whether it be lack of motivation or lack of water (we are on tank water, no town water access) or a bit of both. 

Anyway, now, I am hoping to change all that.  I have been watching Kevin and his mate Jacques the Garden Gnome (as he is known) grow their own and keep things simple.  Their videos over at Epic Gardening are awesome.  A lot of popular plants are covered in specialized videos and are a great go to for trouble shooting or how to get started.  

I shall start off with a couple of gardens I have started, stopped or continued with over the years.  My biggest successes have been Green Minuette Lettuce and Cucumbers.  Wow do those Cucumber vines throw out a ton of fruit!

The next few pictures are from 2020.

In this garden I have lettuce at various stages of life and a big ol zucchini there in the middle at the back.  And some spring onions in the middle front.  The pots with stakes are tomato plants.  and the one in the front corner is a left over strawberry that didn't fit in the photo below.

I had put some half pots on the kids cubby house, as well as some hanging pots.  All with strawberries in them.  Varied success, but honestly it did come down to lack of watering and those pots do not hold enough moisture in summer. 

A picture of one of those beautiful green mignuette lettuces.  They are just such hardy growers here.  

Strawberry!!

And this was one of 2 capsicum plants (bell peppers to Americans).  I have them in 2 large pots either side of my garage.  They have a north facing position which means I can get them growing earlier and later in their growing  seasons as they don't get the chilly southern winds The bricks behind them, the post and the concrete of the driveway also get full sun in winter so that helps to keep the temperature warm for this plants.  I harvested about 12 capsicums off each one.  So that kept us going for a good while.  

And added bonus I grew these from seed.  The seen from a store bought one.  Free seed, free vegetables!

Thank you for reading my first blog post.  I will be sharing a few more in the past photo's and then sharing our setting up garden beds and loads more. 

Happy gardening!