May 2016

This green manure is really growing quickly considering its shaded from the sun.  It's a mixture of Field Oats, Field Peas and Vetch, and it will provide the soil with nitrogen and bulk organic matter.

In a couple of months, just before it flowers, it will be cut down to the ground with shears and covered with 60mm of homemade compost.  A blanket of sugar cane straw will keep it all nice and moist so it will be well rotted by the time my potatoes are planted in early August.

Ecobed 2 has been planted with crops to grow through winter.  They include garlic, carrots, beetroot and silverbeet with a catch crop of lettuce being harvested now. One section is being prepared for the onions seedlings currently growing in my propagator.  They will be ready for planting in about a month.

Finally I have a row of 4 new french lavender plants being grown from cuttings and ready to be planted out in my drip irrigated herb beds.  A crop of leeks will follow them as soon as the soil has been revitalised with compost.

This is Ecobed 4 and I always have to give my cauliflowers extra support at this time of year.  They are top heavy and the soil is a bit soft for brassicas so they fall over in the slightest wind.  Maybe I don't plant them deeply enough.  The cabbage and lettuce are growing very nicely though.