April 2015 (2).

Its Autumn in Melbourne, and I'm busy sowing winter vegies.  Ecobed 1 is being planted out for the first time and I have spent the last few weeks improving it's soil.  There is red silverbeet and english spinach at this end of the bed, a row of beetroot in the middle and 3 rows of garlic at the far end.  There's space for a broad row of carrots and a few rows of onions beyond the beetroot, and I will be sowing the carrots next week.  I hope it doesn't get too cold by then as they don't germinate well below 10 deg C.  Once germinated, they grow slowly through our mild winter and then jump away in spring.  The onions will be sown in punnets under glass next week, and wont be planted out for a couple of months.

I'm thinking of upgrading my Mini Ecobed.  The cold frame does a great job of keeping the seedlings and cuttings warm and protected, but the Mini Ecobed doesn't make good use of the space available, and will not be big enough on its own next spring when summer vegetables are being propagated.  So I think I will have to build an Eco style propagation bed into the cold frame and use it all year round.  When the weather is warm enough I will use a lightweight cover replacing the polycarbonate with Vegenet.