It has been a month since the last update, partly due to time constraints as I’m back working helping others with their gardens, partly due to the backlog of jobs that needed doing and to top it off the whole family had a dose of heavy cold/ flu-ish symptoms for a week where absolutely nothing got done.
This will be my final regular update on how the Galaxy Garden is going, but I aim to carry on making irregular videos on interesting topics as they come up. With the work situation I just can’t commit to fitting videos into a regular schedule.
Relatively speaking, there hasn’t been as much to do in the veggie patch, but the rest of the garden has received a bit of a tidy up and provided a colossal amount of food and composting ingredients. All the pumpkins, sweet potato, yacon, kiwi fruit, lemons and oranges have been harvested and either eaten, stored or processed for keeping. We still have ongoing daikon radish, peas, broccolini, lettuce, rocket, limes and the odd beetroot.
The seedlings in the greenhouse are progressing at a snails pace, just like everything else so I haven’t started a new tray since mid-June. I’m aiming to get some going either at the start of August or mid-August – just waiting until when the weather starts to turn warmer.
Elsewhere, some of the fruit trees are straight into flower and budding. It never fails to amaze me that they detect the extra sun within days of the solstice passing. Just when you are really battening down the hatches for the cold, out come peach and nectarine flowers to brighten things up.
This time of year is about preparing everything for the spring explosion, pruning trees, composting and feeding the soil. I managed to dig up half of the chicken run to feed all the fruit trees and strawberry pots, just taking about 10cm off the floor of gorgeous fluffy well-rotted compost. A twenty litre bucket worth for each tree. Great work for keeping me warm on cold days. All the veggie beds bar one have received a dose of my sieved ‘hot’ compost and I’ve sprayed a dose of compost tea all over the garden.
My last main job is the desk work – revisiting the garden plan for the next 12 months to allow for increased growing of what works, and to try some experiments elsewhere with crops that drive me crazy – such as the brassicas. This is something I’m not especially looking forward to, but because of the lessons I’ve learned over the past year, it really needs doing!
The biggest lesson I’ve learned this year is that there is no substitute for just getting out and having a go. Let nature be thy guide and only go back to Youtube when there are real problems!
If you have been reading and watching all these updates for the past year I really want to say a huge THANK YOU. It’s quite a weird feeling putting part of my life out there for all to see, but it keeps me honest and on track and now I have a priceless record of all the knowledge I’ve gained over a years worth of growing. It has been a pleasure to share it hoping others can be inspired to have a go.
See you shortly and what are you waiting for? Let’s Grow Shopping…..
