September Week 2

Maybe The Black Ninja thinks that sleeping in a pot of Gotu Kola (Centella asiatic syn. Hydrocotyle asiatica) will give her brain a boost!!!

Weather Highlights:
The week started with cold, windy and drizzly weather and cleared once again to bring frosty mornings including Tuesday's low of -3.1C. After that the day temperatures rose up to 28C by Friday and the frosts were gone...for now.

Propagation:
Seeds:
Alyssum Gold Dust Aurinia saxatilis from Goodman Seeds
Carrot Purple from Goodman Seeds
Beans Soy Centaur Glycine max from Eden
Watermelon Citrullus lanatus:
Sweet Siberian from The Lost Seed
Golden Midget from Digger's Seeds
Moon and Stars from Digger's Seeds
To replace the earlier sown ones that failed to grow well after germination

Potting on/up:
Arnica
Basils:
Mrs Burns Lemon, Large Italian Sweet, Genovase, Purple, Thai
Black Coral Pea
Chamomile German
Coriander
Honey Dew Melon Tigger
Korean Mint
Large Gourds
Leeks King Richard
Marigiolds Crackejack, Oranges and Lemons
Mexican Hyssop
Queen Anne's Lace
Rockmelon Hearts of Gold
Salvia Blaze of Fire
Savory Summer
Savory Winter
Silverbeet Rainbow Mixed
Sticky Hop Bush
Tomato Black Cherry
Watermelon Golden Midget
Zinnia Lilliput

Potting up New Purchases:
Sweet Potato Hawaiian Sunshine (Purple)
Current White Ribes glandulosum
Gooseberries Ribes uva-crispa
All from Goodman Seeds

Planting out:
Lettuce Red Coral, Black Seeded Simpson from seeds sown 2 Jul 2011
Miner's Lettuce from seeds sown 4 Jun 2011
- as Companion Plants in the Strawberry Wicking Bed
Cosmos White Purity from seeds sown 31 Aug 2011
Cosmos Mixed from seeds sown 5 Aug 2011
Ivy Pelargonium Pink that had been living in it's pot way too long!

Potato Nicola form The Lost Seed
Planted into a re-worked Wicking Box

The Hot House is just about full,
especially on these days
when it is so windy I can't put the
boxes of Tomatoes outside!!

I have set the Mini Hot House up again to take some of the overflow! The 5 litre containers of water help provide warmth at night and also help to weigh the flimsy structure down!

With hot, windy weather on the forecast already I have attached some temporary shade to Main Veg Garden Bed 3 where the Celery continues to provide us with a handful of stems and leaves for our morning juice each day. Just as it has done right through winter, surviving many frosty mornings, even a couple of -5C.

The Scarlet Cambridge Broad Beans
in Main Veg Garden Bed 7
are beginning to produce
some of their lovely red seeded beans!

While the Crimson Flowering Broad Beans
are struggling against earwig attack
in Kitchen Garden Bed 2

So far so good with the Apricots and Plums.
New fruit is appearing
and the Plum tree is Aphid Free this year!!!

With the Spring Equinox due next week we are expecting some more nasty windy days.