Garden Diary: April 9th 2020

Carol and Art planted early potatoes today. There are 6 different varieties as follows from north (foreground) to south:

1. La Ratte yellow fingerling

2. Russet

3 Sieglinde yellow

4.White Rose

5. Yukon Gold

6. Red Chieftain

Rows are 0.5 m apart and approx. 15 cm deep. Seed pieces were planted 30 cm apart in the rows in blocks of 8 plants of each variety. Seed pieces were covered by about 2 to 4 cm of soil to be followed by further “hilling up” as the plants grow. This plot had received the standard application of 2 to 4 cm of Net Zero compost on April 2. 

Thanks to Helmer’s Organic Farm in the Pembertion Valley for the donation of seed potatoes. Support them at the Farmers Market.

Note that soil temperatures at about 5cm depth at mid day today was 15C, up from around 10 to 11 two days ago. The spring is starting to warm up and it’s a good time to plant cool season crops.

Until next time gardeners,

the Riley Park Garden team.

Garden Diary: April 8th 2020

Angela pruned some of the big blueberry bushes that were donated to us last year; there is a lot of work to do on them so only managed to attend to half of them, cutting out dead and crossing branches, but some more remedial work will need to be done next year.

 Amy cleared out her patch, added compost and sowed some turnip and radish seeds. Didn’t see Anja today so no more work done on the compost pile.

Until next time gardeners,

the Riley Park Garden team.

Garden Diary: April 5th 2020

We had such a productive day in the garden today, the sunshine brought a lot of families to Riley Park but our A-frame signs kept the crowds out of the garden while we worked. We can’t wait to get back to gathering around the plants.

We were greeted by Rita who was already hands deep in the soil sowing a lot of seeds in her accessible bed and adding some delicious compost. She also helped with the never-ending weeding around her section. Patrick and Roland joined us and did a splendid job of weeding the path edges then finished moving half made compost to the next bin before chopping their way through some of the freshf compost that is already appearing.

After a second week on the berry patch, Rebecca finished the weeding around this bed which was covered in buttercup. 

She then moved onto weeding beside the accessible beds, pulling up the purple deadnettles and moved the cardboard sheets to cover the grass along the paths. The cardboard helps to block the sunlight and kills the grass instead of having to pull it up (if you’ve ever tried to pull up grass, you’ll understand how difficult it can be).

Angela was busy with the veg beds and finished planting the leek seedlings, sowed some new leek seeds, and some turnips and carrots, we can’t wait for these to start coming up. She covered these with cardboard to try and retain moisture as the water has not yet been turned on and we are therefore unable to irrigate. Fortunately we have had recent rain and the ground is nicely moist, but with the forecast of sun for the next 7 days, we desperately need the City to turn on the supply!

Until next time gardeners,

the Riley Park Garden team

Garden Diary: April 1st 2020

Angela showed a very enthusiastic Anja how to turn the contents of the compost bins; there’s still a little material  in Bin 1 which could go into Bin 2, and there is now a large pile of new material which needs chopping up so it can be added to Bin 1. If there are any of the weeds shown on the lid of the black compost bin beside it, put them in the black bin.  Spare leaves which have been removed from the veggie beds in preparation for planting can also be added to Bin 1.

Broad Bean Bed

We sowed onions and scallions down the middle of the ‘Broad Bean’ bed as the small of the onions keeps aphids away from the broad means. A great example of companion planting. It was just in time as the broad bean are now coming up beautifully!

We also started planting two of the three pots of leek seedlings in V3 and will finish them on the next visit.

Art came along to keep us company and dug over V8 in preparation for planting the seed potatoes in the next day or so.

And we had some visitors from the neighbourhood, we hope to see them back when our public work parties start up again.

Until next time gardeners,

Angela

Our prolific noxious weeds

As winter warms to spring, annual weed seeds that have overwintered in the garden, burst in to grow as the temperatures start to rise. These are a few of our worst weed offenders this spring, and the team are weeding away to get these out of the garden. But not all these weeds are destined for the bin, some can be a great addition to your kitchen.  

Hairy Bittercress

This one is popping up everywhere now, it is most prolific after early spring rain. The white flowers soon turn to long seed heads which split open explosively when ripe and fling seed everywhere. The appearance of this weed starts to reduce as temperatures rise in summer, but better to rid the garden of it well before it has gone to seed. 

It is a member of the mustard family and is completely edible. It is full of vitamins and antioxidants, and has a mild peppery flavor, so please feast away on it.

Buttercup

This weed, also known as 'creeping buttercup' has a rampant growth habit and inserts itself insidiously in to the landscape by craftily sending out creeping stems that root at intervals along the surface of the soil, and each new root becomes a new plant, soon forming a thick tangle of interlocked foliage which crowds out intended garden plants.

Always best to tackle it early in the season, before it has had a chance to spread far.

When weeding, it is very important to get all the roots out and the creeping stems.

Purple Dead Nettle

This common annual weed  belongs to the mint family (it is not related to stinging nettle, hence the common name 'dead' which refers to it not having a sting).

Don't be fooled by the pretty pink flowers, it is an aggressive grower that spreads like wildfire once left to go to seed. 

Has medicinal properties, high in Vit C and iron, helps offset allergy symptoms, can be used as a salad green, popular with wild foragers. Once again, feast away, but get it out of the garden!

Selina