Get a bloke in

I'm out of my sling but heavy lifting/work still isn't, and probably never will be my thing. The garden area I have fenced off still needed a bit of clearing out. Enter Andrew and 15 minutes later we can see fence. And I have more space that I think might eventually be corn, right now however I am simply clearing as snails hide in and lay eggs in loose leaf matter. I'm taking this snail issue seriously reading lots of blogs and working on my next move.

Before and after shot of a great job done.

Seeing those photos make me realise just how nicely everything is growing. I had my first harvest yesterday, I shared two yummy strawberries with my daughter, cousin and an unwelcome bird. We all got half each.

Not much of an entry this week. I'm back at work and am hardly getting time on week nights for watering, not to mention blog writing. I am really enjoying both however, so I will keep at it.

A death in my plant family

I'm sure there will be more, and I won't detail every plant That is murdered. But today was tough. The other night one leaf was taken and the only remaining evidence was a shiny looking snail or slug track.
When I was little I used to think snail tracks were exciting, I don't even mind that they eat bits from our mail. But today I have joined the hard arse gardeners and am waging war on all snails and slugs that slither and eat green leaves.

last night we lost a whole zucchini plant. It's lucky my neice Lena is too little to remember choosing it for me, so a difficult conversation about mortality has been avoided. It's also lucky that the snails took the weakest of the two plants.

See our poor wee bugger, I now have an opening in a full sun area however, I'll probably get another zucchini and call him zucchini 2 like a childhood goldfish.

All of my research reading will now be on organic snail and slug control. I'm not going completely organic but don't want poisoned bugs being sniffed out by Bonnie and I do want to try reduce the chemicals that go on our food.

If you have snail eradication tips please let me know!

My garden store sanctuary and 1st progress report

 Kings Plant Barn in St Lukes is my local, and most favourite garden centre. I buy big stuff like soil and tools from cheaper places. But all of my plants so far have been from Kings. (Except my seeds which were a gift from my mother in law). I love going to kings, all the staff are kind and very helpful, I have gained confidence in the gardening retail world, as I'm there at least twice a week. But, in the beginning I was well out of my comfort zone and would walk around in a daze not really sure on any purchases. This place is currently my sanctuary, it is the horticultural heaven that clears my head and recharges my soul. And there is a really yummy cafe in the middle of it, which never fails to satisfy - the halumi and beetroot salad is my current obsession. I have been taking everyone who comes to visit and get me out of the house there for lunch. Partly because it's a great place to eat and partly because I can get a few wee things while I have a driver :) all my lunch dates have not minded at all.

This post is not intended as an ad for Kings, without the catchy jingle. But, I do heart it, I think one of the joys for the gardeners of my generation is the pleasure of a quality gardening retail experience.

After a trip to the nursery with my sister and, almost two year old, niece for lunch. As is routine with every visit, we walked out past the seedlings section and just like that - we needed a trolley. Although with only one arm it's not difficult to need a trolley!

My niece chose two zucchini plants and nursed one of them all the way around the nursary, not a nice beginning to my relationship with this new wee plant, it still has most of its leaves and I'm sure will bounce back most likely with trust issues.

I also bought yummy snow peas and spinach for salads and dwarf peas that are not for the kitchen, they will be popped on the spot for me and whoever is on a garden tour.

Red line - beetroot

Green line - spring onions

Blue line - snow peas

Pink line - perceptual spinach

Yellow line - dwarf peas, for the gardener

Red dots - strawberry bag hiding ugly tree stump

Orange line -  carrots

Orange dots - capsicum

Purple dots - egg plant

Blue dots - experiment snow pea

Yellow dots - experiment dwarf peas

Green dots - zucchini 

The garden space in the front of the photo (concrete tub and stone boarder garden) is the closest my garden has to full sun. Hence the capsicum moving in on carrot space a few blogs ago.

I have squeezed a snow pea and pea experiment plant in this box to see how they grow compaired to their brothers and sisters up the back.  I'm not sure how long I'll have the space but while I do, I can learn for next year.

Progress Report

My beetroot and carrot seeds have done their thing underground and have sprouted into plant babies!

They are so cute, I can feel all the birds keeping one eye on them and the other on my strawberries waiting for the perfect treat. I planted sparingly so I don't need to do too much thinning. Thinning is effectively playing god in the garden and pulling out some of the sprouts so the the strong have room to grow Big and strong. I'm not ready to do this yet as I'm not sure where I stand ethically on the death of innocents. I will probably try some form of rehoming although have read that carrots don't do replanting well.

My strawberry bag is doing great with heaps of green strawberries fattening up nicely. I think the bag is a great incubator, always nice and warm and full of everything a strawberry needs to grow sweet and juicy berries to go nicely with ice-cream. My next job is strawberry protection from birds, which should be simple with them being so nicely compact in the bag.

I can't believe how quickly I am feeling a sense of achievement and progress in my garden. You can see everything has grown since it's planting day and 10 minutes out in my patch everyday is great medicine for me. There are so many lovey gentle jobs I can do with my arm still in a sling. Although I have been lucky to have had Andrew, Mum and even our neighbour helping me with the heavy jobs and all the people who have driven me for lunch at the nursary and a wee purchase ( I have been to the cafe, I mean nursary, 6 times in the last 3 weeks - yum)

Lily is starting to ask to go for a look in Mummy's garden and getting better at only looking with her eyes and smelling flowers. Although toddler sized handfuls of soil are often re-homed. I am looking forward to all the things she will learn out here, most importantly it will hopefully keep her interested in vegetables and healthy eating.

This week I am telling people I know about this blog. Being my first blog, this is quite a weird, exciting feeling. I'm fine with strangers reading and not enjoying this but not sure how I will feel about how people I know will respond. So leave a comment if you have been for a visit to my blog, I'd love to know who has dropped in, it's like having a virtual garden visit - but without a taste of peas or strawberries.

Xx Robs - VegeGardenNovice

Big planting day

With only one arm currently in action, I have to be cunning in order to make things happen. So a lunch date with hubby was put on the table. "I know a great place..." I said.

So off we went for a romantic, the child is at daycare, daytime date. It was a wonderful coincidence that the cafe, I chose, was right in the middle of a garden centre. The food is yummy, I love it there and after some great quality time I suggested to Andrew we walk back to the car through the seedlings section.

He knew what I was up too before his first sip of Latte but still played along with my plan.

A trolley was found and we bought some wee beauties!

2 x capsicum 

2 x egg plant

6 x strawberries

And some pretty little marigolds because the southland times told me these were good for companion planting.

 Hot lunch date, followed by a hot afternoon in the garden = perfect day

Strawberry bag planting experiment

My friends Kim and Chris first introduced me to growing stuff in a bag with their tomatoes outside their flat in England. Then Mum started talking about it with strawberries and I thought I have the perfect spot covering an ugly tree stump and it won't take up precious garden space. So on my tree stump I will have my yummy strawberry bag with lots of warm rock seats around for Lily and I to enjoy berries right off the plant.

I got a bag of special strawberry mix and whacked some drainage holes in the bottom, cut six little crosses, and watered well.

I folded out the corners of the cuts, jammed in my strawberry beauties and then folded the corners back into the middle of the plant, making a nice plastic surface with plants popping out.

Easy as 1, 2, 3...

Hot tip from Kim I will use a drink bottle to get the nozzle right into the bag for watering.

Planting my other babies

Egg plant and capsicum need as much sunshine as possible. I didn't know I was going to be growing these, Andrew picked them when he was high on the excitement and romance of a meal out with only us, no high chair required. 

You know when you buy suede high-heels and they are amazing, and you are really excited to get them home and do a new shoe dance. But then, you get a pair of boots the next week and it's winter and it's practical that you wear them for the next while rather than your beautiful suede high heels in the rain.

I am in this predicament in my garden. My carrots are the high-heels and my capsicums are the boots and they need the sunny spot that my carrot seeds are sprouting in.

So carefully I reclaimed what was a carrot haven, and gave the most sunny spot to my orange cap. Who knows, maybe the seeds will survive and when they sprout the can be re-homed. There is still plent of the carrot row left and my capsicums can bask in the sunniest spot like little tuataras.

My garden paradise is filling up, now all I have to do is keep everything alive, I wonder what my survival rate will be. I also bought seed potatoes and have thrown them in a dark warm cupboard for time out to think and sprout for a while.

Red line - beetroot

Green line - spring onions

Orange line -  carrots

Red dots - strawberry bag hiding ugly tree stump

Orange dots - capsicum

Purple dots - egg plant

Here's me, a very satisfied, slow moving, one armed, novice gardener. It's all coming together nicely.

And the best thing about my hot afternoon of gardening, was that it motivated Andrew to mow the lawns and it was fun working together/perving at him mowing the lawns.