September In The Garden

Spring is finally here! I started my spring garden planning about 2 weeks ago. We let our garden beds settle...I think I said something crazy like, "Let's leave them for 2 weeks." That lasted all of about 3 days. We transplanted a lot of our herbs that have been living in pots for the past 6 to 8 months. After the transplant a lot of things suffered - which makes sense, even plants don't like moving home straight away! Also our garden beds are much bigger so obviously become much drier, they are also a totally different type of soil to that which we have previously used. As keen as I was to keep going I realised everything actually did need some time to settle. So with frequent watering and big drinks of seaweed tea it all started to come together nicely.

I decided that after the great spider mite disaster of 2013, I would never use purchased seedlings again. The following reasons contributed to this decision
1. seedlings have the potential to introduce pests into the garden (see: the great spider mite disaster of 2013)
2. seedlings are expensive
3. seedlings come in boxes of about 6 - I find that about half of this (if not more) tends to be fairly weak and die off, thus making my spent money useless 

With all this in mind I got some seeds. I have never planted anything from seed.....ever!! Crazy right?!

I was naturally a little bit nervous but I thought the best thing to do is try "hardier" crops so I selected sweet corn, chilli and some flowers. I also wanted to add another herb into the mix and as I seem to be using thyme fairly frequently these days so that was my herb of choice. I set my seeds up in a large egg carton with some nice compost in a sunny position. I planted everything and crossed my fingers. Over the next few days I sprayed my little clumps of dirt with excessive amounts of water and frequently yelled, "GROW!" at them.

And to my surprise, they did! 

Thyme was the first thing to pop up which was a huge shock as thyme is supposed to take a long thyme. They all got off to a great start but, predictably, have slowed right down now. I'm assuming it will be close to a year before my thyme is anywhere near useable - but still, there is quite a lot of them so I'm hoping to be able to offload a few plants to friends at Christmas time (can you believe it's close enough to Christmas to be thinking things like that! Did someone say Gingerbread House!?)

The next thing to pop up was my corn. I am so totally in love with it. During our holiday in Nepal we saw so much corn growing in the jungles as the base of the mountains it just had me so captivated I decided I had to grow it - AND I AM!!!! Seeds - they are so darn magical aren't they?! 

Finally, the flowers started to poke through and they took off like wild fire (flowers?). They have been zooming along nicely. Also down in the actual garden I popped in some bean seeds that practically punched through the soil overnight - you can only imagine my rapture! 

My next project is zucchini, carrots and parsnips. I'm going to attempt to grow these straight into the garden beds rather than doing the seed trays. I have transplanted most of these little guys into the garden beds and I'm eagerly tracking their progress. I feel a little sorry for my plants, I observe them so intensely they must feel an overwhelming amount of pressure some days!! The Chilli has just started to come up in the last few days so, fingers crossed warm weather will bring about a yummy yard that is fast growing, high yielding and hopefully evil-pest-free (or as much as possible!)