Howdy y'all! Today's guest is Mel from House of Powell. She blogs about life at her place with her husband, stepdaughter and two very spoiled cats. I totally understand the cat thing!
I am so glad spring has sprung!! The crisp air, warm sun and the
excitement in the air is wonderful. Spring is definitely my favorite season.
It’s also a great time to plant some veggies in your garden. We were lucky
enough to buy a house with a raised garden bed already established. If you
don’t have a garden bed, you can still grow a variety of veggies and herbs in
pots.
This
is our veggie garden prior to prepping it for spring. Note the Broccoli
flowers… I forgot to harvest the broccoli! :(
Veggies love full sun and great soil. This means positioning your garden
bed (or pots) in a place in your garden where they will get at least 6-8 hours
of sunlight each day. This not only helps them grow, but the sunlight also
provides nutrients and flavor in your veggies. You also need to make sure the
soil is rich in nutrients before you plant your seeds/seedlings. This means
topping the soil up with some slow release fertiliser before planting your
seeds or seedlings. If I’m planting seeds, I like to start these off in
seedling trays. Seeds need a little more love than seedlings, and I find I can
give them that little bit extra if they’re in seedling trays rather than in the
veggie garden straight away.
Our
veggie garden, ready to plant our spring veggies. The soil has been turned
over, fertalised and given a good watering. I’ll plant the seedlings in about a
week once the soil has had time to settle in.
Mulch is another big plus for ensuring the success of your veggie
garden. Not only does the mulch help to stop the weeds, it is also great at
conserving moisture, which helps your plants not die! (This is great for me, as
I do tend to forget about my veggie garden every now and then!). I prefer to
use sugar cane mulch, as this eventually breaks down, and adds more nutrients
to the soil.
The only other tips I can give, is to look at the spacing guidelines on
the back of your seed packet. They put these there for a reason! I tried
putting my red cabbages closer together than was recommended, and it was a
disaster!
I hope my tips have helped, and if you have any other questions, please
let me know. My favorite spring veggies to grow are tomatoes, capsicum, basil
and beans. These will be planted into our veggie garden shortly.
Will you be planting
some spring veggies? What are you favorites to plant? What have you had success
with?
Mel
Your carrots look delicious! I'll be doing a little gardening with my girls, but as they're pretty young we might stick to cress! x
ReplyDeleteWe've just planted for Spring! I can't wait to harvest but we've had a small problem with snails!
ReplyDeleteSnails are such a pain! Try this: Cut a 1.25L bottle (or a 2L milk bottle) in half. Dig a hole in your garden, so when you pop the bottom of the container in, it sits flush with the ground. Fill the container with some beer (leaving about an inch from the top). The snails are attracted to the beer, and will fall into the container and won't be able to get out. You'll have to clean it out every few days :)
ReplyDeleteKids love gardening! I think it's the excitement of watching something grow. Try snow peas, these grow super fast, don't require much maintenance - and the kids can pick them right off and eat them!
ReplyDeleteWow! Amazing harvest! I never have that a huge carrots harvested. Cool! Thank a lot for sharing such post. Check my post at
ReplyDeletewww.egardensheds.com.au
OMG! Your carrots!!!!!
ReplyDelete