So, while most of you wouldn't care, this journals been under a fair amount of neglect lately. This is partly because of exams and lots of work has meant no time to garden (most of the vegie patch has done its bit and died, and I haven't planted anything new because I want to pile on the 'soil conditioner' and mulch etc... before planting new stuff).

The other part is I got invited into the beta testing of http://www.myfolia.com/

This has its own blogging feature and I can describe my individual gardens, so from now on most of my ramblings will be on there. Which you should be able to see from here: http://www.myfolia.com/gardener/gretel assuming you want to keep reading about my gardening adventures.

I've been looking at the garden again (now that house is slowly sorting itself out).

So what's happenned... well the radishes where harvested, they came out okay, but a little twisted) along with the discovery that I don't actually like the taste of them... Wondering if its worth planting the rest (just how to grow them well).

My mushroom boxes appear to have reached the end of their lives, I have the last of the portabello mushrooms sitting on my kitchen bench waiting to be eaten. Boxes are now outside, (with a new one bought and about to be made ready), waiting for me to dig up the final weeded section of the 'vegie' section, so I can plant out some corn, and probably some tomatoes (and maybe eggplant). Thinking of having some vines growing up under those so I can gain some room.

Some broccoli is ready to harvest, with the cauliflower looking like following. Some will be eaten for dinner tonight I think, possibly with baby beetroot.. The plants will probably be replaced with some more onions (I know how to plant those properly now!)

Have the stuff I want to plant for summer/spring. Corn (as I already said) as well as eggplant, I have some tomato seedlings in pots, and heaps of vines like rockmelon, cucumber and pumpkin. Really want the pumpkin and rockmelon. I think I'm going to plant them on the edges of the lawn as well as where they can grow over that in the summer as the lawn dies.

Orange tree is still being a bastard, refusing to come healthy. Will be creating a garden bed of mulch around it soon though, so that should help, apparently they hate grass. Loquat is looking happy though full of fruit.

Rounduped a heap of area I want cleared. Have decided to put some paving on top of some grass nearby the back door, so I have somewhere that isn't the pathway to put all my pots. Should be able to set up a sprinkling system tied to the water drains too.

I need to start wearing proper gardening clothes, not work clothes I can't be bothered taking off. Sick of the mosquito bites. This will involve getting comfy wellies (because my sneakers are getting wrecked) and a Bob hat, as well as finding my longsleeved tshirts.

Ants have started taking over again. Time to get the ant dust. Yuk.

Want somewhere to plant sunflowers and more corn. This (along with planting the lemon tree and knocking down the crappy loquat, and evil grape vine)  will have to wait until I can convince people that we should knock down the back fence and shed, and build some new ones.

May have accidently poisoned gooseberry bush, which is sad, but it was in an AWFUL position so it may be for the best.

Study break next week. I only have like 12hours at work as well :D

I bought a shirt awhile ago saying 'pick flowers not fights' for obvious reasons.

Went shopping today in it, people REALLY like it. Had random strangers telling me how awesome it was, it was great :D

I DON"T HAVE A FLOWER ICON. OH NOES!

So, as you may have noticed I have been neglecting this journal, due to things other then gardening taking over my attention. Mainly, getting back into the habit of uni, trying to save up some money (so working alot) as well as not nice weather (I am a wimp and don't own any waterproof shoes, which I _really_ need to buy) and some household messiness that is probably best not to go into here. The upside is, that my house has just had its carpet and bathroom cleaned, and we are working on moving things around again, so it'll be liveable easy to care for and a minus a housemate, so I will have a study desk again! And possibly less overflowing bins (so much stuff is being thrown out, we are spring cleaning early I think).

So soon I will be back to posting again alot  on this journal (especially with the coming good weather). Though I suspect this journal my also be turning into my handyman journal as I attempt to document the stuff I attempt to fix around the house.

What's happened over the past month?

Most of my radishes that didn't get invaded by potatoes are mostly ready for picking. Need to know what to do with them now. All my potatoes are doing great, I just wish I knew where I could crap a heap of straw (that's a good bulk mulch to use?) or dirt to heap around them like I'm meant to. Have done a little but its bloody expensive that way. 

Broccoli and Cauliflower are also looking okay, though starting to get attacked by white aphids or something? Little grey things under the leaves and leaves looking sad and eaten. Don't really know what to do about it. 

Garlic, onion, beetrot are looking mostly good. Parsley and Lettuce are growing faster then I can eat them (though that doesn't say much given I've been mostly living off takeout due to household dramas lately. They look good though.

My snow peas seem to be doing well, with my sugarsnap less so (doesn't want to climb up, despite having the better rack to climb up). Both are still alive.

My passionfruit vine seems fairly happy for the first time in awhile, with it shooting off extra 'main' type vines and starting to fill up space.

Lots of weeds have appears, I've attempted to keep them at bay. Grass has also regrown over alot of the 'tobe' vegie patch which I had mostly cleared. They have attemped the used portion of the vegie patch but have been kept at bay. :(

Started clearing out the grass and weeds that grew up through the last lot of mulch under the orange tree. In preparation for the single mulched area that joins up underneath the fig orange and eventually lemon tree (when I get a old gum stump pulled out the lemon will be going there)

Front gardens looking good, have some tulips out, though they all aren't growing evenly and weeds are kinda choking the area I already cleaned up. :(

Suspecting I need to start having people over to help out,  just to get everything undercontrol but I suspect that'll get expensive, and summer will at least kill off the nasturtiums.

Have planted some tomato seedlings they seem to be doing okay in the pot I gave them. Not sure when I should plant some more in the ground, to get maximum tomato fruiting time though. I have plans for making tomato sauce and 'perserved' chopped up tomatos (I'll hopefully have time by then). Want to plant some cherry tomatos as well, but I'll do that from seed, for the practice.

My basil seedlings have sprouted (but my mint hasn't yet) herb garden is slowly starting to appear despite me still not having a place for it.

My locut tree has more seedlooking things on it then the big original (kinda sad warped looking one) wondering what I should do to cheer the old one up abit (though clearing out the weeds and old kitty litter would probably help).

Need to fix or pull out grapevine. Probably fix it as the grapevine will have to come down when the safety hazard that is also called a shed does.

That's about it for now I think. See you all later.

And not enough play. The garden hasn't had much happen to it in recent days. House cleanning also had to take priority.

The basil seed tray has been set up, some weeding (though not nearly enough) has been done in the vegie patch. Vegies are otherwise looking great

Have been forming plans for pink foliage plants to go along side where the agaves will eventually go. And maybe sunflower seeds there. With bamboo nearby the front door next to the wedding tree thing, to hide neighbours evil aircon.

More mushrooms have been growing its great.

Bought some cheap very sad looking gerbera from work, mainly for the cute little pails they are in (which will look great for houseplants or herbs). Gave them some water though and they cheered right up, so they may be savable.  Have soo many plans for indoor plants at the moment. Especially with my succulents. Those of you that have seen the bright blue lounge room can probably imagine it looking decent with lots of green plants in it. :) Hopefully more will come on special as the fresh produce boys forget that plants need water.

Snow peas and sugar snap are looking awesome at the moment. Looking forward to setting up their spot along the fence tomorrow (as well as more weeding :P).

Still in complete panic over what to do with orange tree. Oh and to work out what to do to get the passionfruit vine acting happily.

Need to find out what to do with excess stock and ways to perserve etc... Hopefully it'll use up lots of jars and not freezer space (of which there currently is none, due to housemates pile of evil meat).

Spent most of today at Katies house, so didn't get alot of gardening done.

Summary:

Did some weeding. Oh god is there weeding to do.

Bought, marigold seeds (I hear marigolds are good for keeping pests away), snapdragon seeds (Chris likes them), a basil seed raising tray because it looked cute, two pump bottles to make spraying stuff easier.

And garden tie which is awesome. 

Mushrooms taste good.

So I'm back from Manji/Terracon, and here's just a quick list of things I noticed when I got home:

Rain was great, more bulbs, potatoes, radishes have shot up, and everything except the passionfruit vine has got bigger.  Especially amazed at my snow peas and sugar snap.

Vegetable patch AND bulb patch need serious weeding.

White mushroom kit is doing great, I just going my first crop of mushrooms. Very proud.

Fig needs more trimming.

Space along the fence in the ground needs to be set up for sugar snap and snow peas.

Happy and excited about all this,  looking forward to my new projects. :D

Haven't had much time lately as end of exams has meant back to looooooooooooooooong work hours and events that people have. Stupid evenings being dark.

But anyway, have bought some succulents (from subiaco markets, so they aren't the healthiest looking things but they're cute). Have pot I want to make ready for them.

Sealed lots more of the pots and gotten a second layer of seal on them. Decided the round ones will have herbs the dragonfly ones will have succulents and look nicer then my current succulent containers on the wall. Also looking through to get names of them all

All of my snow peas and sugar snap have sprouted and are looking really good, I'm going to have to start prepping the wall that they'll be growing on soon.

All the vegies are looking great (except one or two of each type), with many thanks to the rain, I'll give them a weak dose of thrive for the weekend (when I'll be at terracon) and they should be good assuming there's more rain.

Bulbs are also looking good.

Bought portabello mushroom kit. Set it up, but the compost inside was damp, and covered in mould. NOT GOOD (that's meant to be dry when its open, the peat is meant to be wet, I _think_). Lost receipt so I've set it up anyway, and hoping.

Pondering more succulents, and more radishes or carrots. Looking forward to have enough money saved for a nectarine/peach cross and a pinkabelle apple tree (not sure it would do anything here but it looks _so_ cute_ and I like apples).

Also looking at setting up loungeroom so I can have some indoor plants in alot of sunlight. The lucky bamboo would do better and having herbs growing inside would be convenient.

I'll look forward to having money.

So, stuff I did today.

More scrubbing and sealing pots (about half now have their final layer of sealant on them).

Started work on my little bonsai kit of an australian alpine wattle, growing it from seed. Said seeds are now in the fridge for the next four weeks with a large DO NOT TOUCH label after a long soaking of warm water. Now to check them every week to make sure there no mold :P

Cleaned up fig tree pruning mess. Well at least half of it.

Saw that some radish seed have sprouted (as has one of the little snow peas) and the garlic looks really happy, with most of the beetroot and onions looking much happier today. I think I just need to remember this watering thing. And wetting agents. And not to panic. :)

One of the old potato plants decided to finally sprout, appearing in the middle of the radish sections. Oops. :P

Organized my mail order from Garden Express (I'm hoping I won't regret this), getting some strawberries, asparagus (it just looks so _cool_ I don't actually like the stuff)  hellebores (Chris's choice), agaves (which will look awesome as the main thing on the side front garden), rosemary and pomegranates. Can't wait :P

Mushrooms have lots of mould on them. I'm told this is a good sign by the packaging, so I think they like the indoors.

Also as exams are over tomorrow, its taking all my strength to _not_ go straight out and by a heap of succulents to use up all my new pots. Have car bill to pay. Must remember this. And I want some of those pots for herbs, and I've already got plenty of seeds I don't need to go out buying more plants. I just don't have enough succulents. :(

Still haven't done anything about the orange tree. Mainly because more trimming it means more getting covered in ants. And any sprays I use will wash straight off in winter :S

I got lots done today, sealed a heap (about half) of the new pots. Planted two rows of potatoes, and planted tulips and daffidols in some of the prettier pots. One of the pots had a DRAGON on it. Its awesome. Oh and trimmed back fig tree (though I did it too early)

My orange tree is still broked. Last year I trimmed it back heavily as it was all tangled, got some mulch and fertilizer down underneath it and cut off most of the oranges just too try and get it growing a bit better. Now, its still kinda awful. There is black soot all down one side, its still having ants clambering to get on it (so I'm assuming there's still aphids), leaves are looking eaten and all turned on the sun side, and all of the fruit left are much too small, coloured unevenly (with black and/or green spots on them) and the leading 'top' branch is all leaning down under its own weight.

Its very sad, I don't know what to do to fix it other then clear out a larger area underneath (putting more fertilizer and mulch stuff underneath) trim it all back again and cover it in some sort of killing fungi and bugs formula. Then apparently fish and seaweed liquid stuff sprayed on the leaves will help, but they can't be helpful till I've worked out what to do with all the goddamn bugs on the thing.

Hitting the point with all the rest of my seedlings (so the onion, beetroot, cauliflower and brocolli) where the things all start to die on me. I'm currently suspecting pigeons buggering around with them, but really, this is always what happens, I can't get the things to stay healthy enough to reach adult size and producing. This is also sad.

Mould appeared on top of white mushroom kit stuff, have trimmed back plastic etc... now have a week to wait for tiny mushroom heads to appear apparently.

It'll probably be longer because, its so cold in the laundry, but I think I got banned from bringing the kits inside (even though they aren't smelly now).
Still need to set up brown mushroom kit.

EDIT: I was wrong, I am allowed to bring them inside. *cheers*

Didn't get that much done this weekend due to drinking.

I did get my lettuce and parsley planted into (bright blue and purple) pots which was good, though I'm not sure the lettuce looks happy.

Set up the last segment of the cleared vegie patch area for potatoes, just need to get the conditioner mixed into the sand a bit more and plant the bloody potatoes. Hopefully they will grow.

At least one of my tulips in the wheelbarrow has sprouted and poking its tiny head above the dirt, so soon shall be able to wheel that out the front and have a pretty.

Washed a heap of the terracota pots I've got, and bought the blackboard paint to use for labeling them (forgot to buy chalk though which was a bit silly). Need to plan herb garden properly though now. And buy the plants.

Boyfriend went and bought a handpowered lawn mower today which is awesome. No loud noises for me!  And I get a short lawn out of it :P

My current plans:
Also got some nice looking pebbles and purple sand for the top of succulent and cactii trays after falling in love with some succulents (but not buying them) at the Subiacco markets. Have some shallower trays for trials with creating these. Looking forward to spring and summer, hopefully I'll have found some cheap places to get stuff for making little succulent trays and have places inside to put them, mess around with propagating them and making lots of pretties. Stupid, but looks insanely fun and probably cheap gifts to give to people (especially Nanna).

Have ordering booklet for garden express. Want to buy lots of plants (strawberries, agaves, healthy pomegranates etc...) Trying to decide. Know I will be buying most herbs from garden elegance, a mini peach/nectarine grafted plant from random place in Osbourne Park, possibly a dwarf apple tree. Also curious about getting a little blueberry shrub which I saw in a catalogue (but can't get from that supplier because I'm in WA).  This will be crazy expensive, so these are all things I'll hopefully be buying over time, as I won't get _that_ many more hours while on holidays.
Also want hanging basket plants, have some spider bushes but want more succulent that's suit them (and probably a few geraniums as well) but that's low on the priority list).

Related to the previous two paragraphs I'm also hoping to get garage and shed cleaned out so I have somewhere to work on my attempts at making things grow and propagating (I feel like I'm spelling that wrong) etc... Oh yeah and having more space would be awesome.

I think these are really cool (my backup plan for when I found myself without a house again) and I know there's people who live without back gardens:

www.communitygarden.org.au

I drunk waaaaaaaaay too much last night. Upside is that Thatcher gave me a heap of pots, so I think my exciting day will be scrubbing them out and putting sealant on them. :P

Today, being my whole day off work before exams, I should have got alot of study done... needless to say, I procrastinated by gardening, doing laundry, and cleaning out the disgusting thing that was my outside access laundry. I can't wait till I get a new washing machine I have to add to that.


Anyway to the point.

I went and bought some beetroot, which got planted in front of the passionfruit vine, clearing that and the area next to it, as well as putting in the usual soil conditioner and clay. Next to that I decided to get brave and plant some radishes. From SEED. I followed instructions on the packet, watering them and the beetroot with seaweed concentrated water and now I just have to hope. Apparently they grow really fast so I'll at least know soon.

The reason I planted the radishes was because I found an easy winter vegies kit I bought awhile ago. It contained seeds (pakchoy, chinese cabbage, brocolli, coriander, radishes, carrots, other herbs, sugar snap, and snow peas) as well as little tags and a waterproof pen to write on them with, and two sheets of little punnets to raise seedlings in, with a lid to stop bugs.
Planted 18 punnets of snow peas and 18 punnets of sugar snap, watered and left in sunlight. Hoping for those to work too. Left enough room nearby the fence to set those growing so it should work okay.

I should also mention that I bought parsley and a portabello mushroom kit while in Bunnings getting the beetroot. I figure I'll start the mushroom kit in a few weeks so it doesn't completely conincide with the white mushrooms going (I'm going to wind up with a lot of mushrooms). Still haven't found pots or places for parsley and lettuce though I kind of ran out of time today. Probably get it done friday or saturday morning, the same time as I start a few more herb seeds up and (hopefully) growing so I can get a decent start on that herb garden.

You get all excited because you get to go 'treat' yourself by buying an extra little punnet thing of lettuce (as well as the onions you wanted)

So I cleared another area (one between the passionfruit vine and gooseberry bush) and planted 8 onion seedlings and then in front of that, several garlic cloves (red and white garlic). Added some soil conditioner to the sand (not much because it had already had worm castings added from when the passionfruit vine was planted). Forgot clay stuff because I suck. _Hopefully_ some of the water will get through, I added seaweed concentrate (what the packet on the onion said) to water, and forget soil wetter stuff because as I said before I suck at these things.


Tomorrow I don't have work, I have plans for pruning fig, finding a place for lettuce (in pots not dirt), beetroot, more potatoes, and working out plans for herb garden. And clearning area for that. And plans for what trees to buy because apparently nows a good time to get them (and in three weeks I'll be relatively rich from work).


Really should study at some stage.

So not alot of gardening or study got done.
In the meantime though, here's a link to the strawberry table and article I was talking about to lord_stapham the other day.

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1933159.htm

I want one of these tables, with wheels, so I can find a decent spot in my garden to grow bug free strawberries.

Yeah, I want strawberry plants was the point of this post.

Went and visited my grandma this afternoon, went to City Farmers with her to get a watering can and rat food. She showed me the bulbs, I gave her (because my nanna gave me too many).

This made me feel guilty  (along with not planting more potatoes and garlic) and promptly start doing more gardening when I got home.

So what did I do:
Cleared another (probably a bit more then a metre square) of dirt in the front gardens half circle bed, in the front of the tree and more area of complete sunlight. I added some of the clay stuff, a bit of soil conditioner and dug that in. Then I planted, the bulb my nanna gave me (most of them, still have some I'd like to put in pots).  Also added some more tulips and other bulb things that were sprouting in the little paper bags (I had a heap left over from the first lot I did).
This area I did before is inside the quarter circle part of the bed which I  cleared out and covered in bulbs. It seems to be doing okay with at least some bulbs already poked out. Still have heaps of bulbs left though. Need more pots to put stuff in.

Watered whole area (new and old) with watering can, added 1 cup of thrive to 9L (the amount you should apparently use for seedlings) and a little bit of the seaweed extract. Not sure if it was the right thing to do, but I figure bulbs need some sort of fertilizer anyway. Oh and snail pellets as those buggers are everywhere except in the currently neglected areas (which need the snail trimming).

Then when it got dark fiddled around with this ljs settings lots, and made it a paid account. Am consumeristic whore, but figure I should pay for what I use. It looks much nicer now, and I'm currently making lots of gardening related icons.

Am rather tired.

Spent most of the time in the garden digging up old grape vine roots. This sucks just so you all know.

Then spent a lot of time weeding and raking this area, eventually adding the clay powder stuff and a bag of soil conditioner. Raked all that in then planted my cauliflower and broccoli seedlings. Soil didn't seem too acidic when I tested it, so I didn't add any lime (apparently brassicas SP? don't like acidic soil). Watered them lots, with a little bit of thrive in the water. Apparently I need to add the thrive every week, for healthy leaf plant growth. So we'll see how that goes. Added snail bait too after discovering a few of the seedlings had already been eaten.

Edit: It turns out, for seedling vegies add 1 spoonful per 9 litres of water fornightly. NOT 1 spoonful per 4.5 litres weekly, like I thought, that's only for adult plants. *sighs*

Boyfriend also helped with the weeding of evil couch grass, and discovered I had two tiny potato plants where I thought they'd all died. So hooray!

Things I learned so far:
Soil conditioner really stinks.
Need a watering can with a 'rose' thing on the end.
Grape roots are evil.

I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted done, still have more potatoes and garlic I want to plant. May do that this evening.

Oh and DON'T dump cat litter on a garden, its really disgusting, unhygienic and yuk to try and clean up. If you must dump it in your garden dig a hole and bury it, so everyone is happy.

So, set kit thing up (I've never done this before). It seemed straightforward which suggests I did something wrong. :P

But anyway, It should stay closed for around the next 10 days, or until it grows the mold stuff. So check it everyday from next thursday. Then open up box,  trim up cardboard and plastic and leave open, about 6 days after that and mushroom pinheads appear start watering lightly with sprayer and no more then about a cupful of water.

Yes, I just wrote down the instructions on the box, but I needed them somewhere else where I could remember them.

I just got given the best kind of chocolate ever.

Got told to start a gardening diary. This is it. FIRST POST.

Have bought at the recommendation of Bob and Nanna (my gardening experts):
All purpose thrive (they suggested doing what they did first before I tried to go completely organic)
Lime (for compost and other stuff)
Cauliflower and Broccoli seedlings because theirs were yummy

Also bought:
Gloves (because I can't find old ones)
Mushroom kit.

Now just need to get boyfriend to buy some soil conditioner (soil where I want to grow vegies is currently sand) and I'll be set for setting up vegie patch v.2 (will be attempting growing potatoes, garlic, radishes, brocolli and cauliflower by the end of the weekend hopefully). Oh and I need the conditioner for planting the bulbs nanna gave me.

Oh and last night I got more bricks from Thatcher and Lee for more wallness.

Need icons methinks.

Oh if you want to see my actual whining lj its at greteldragon