Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Labour Day gardening


All the weather forecasts predicted doom and gloom for the long weekend, so we were pleasantly surprised to wake up to warm, sunny weather throughout.

It was especially lucky on Labour Day, because that's supposed to be planting day here in New Zealand and I had done nothing to prepare for it. No little seeds raised. No gardens weeded. No plan in my gardening journal.  Nada.

Since Paul was home for the public holiday, he took care of the girls' needs so I could spend the day in the garden. It was such an amazing feeling to garden for as long as I wanted, without interruption. The girls did spend some time in the garden too (which was nice), but when their attention waned Paul was able to take them back up to the house and leave me to it.

My thoughtful husband even brought me hot chocolates, snacks and lunch to keep me energised. Love that man.

Labour Day garden projects

Project One: Garden dismantle
My freecycled raised garden bed was starting to fall apart, so S and I moved all the lovely Zoodoo soil to other gardens and I dismantled the bed.

S clearing Zoodoo soil out of the raised garden bed.
Left-hand corner: Crumbling raised bed garden
Left-hand-corner: Raised garden bed is no more. 
Project two: Weeding and harvesting
Everywhere I looked, weeds were taking over. Weeding was what I spent most of the day on, as well as harvesting carrots and beetroot to clear space for new plants. (I'm planning a trip to the garden centre to buy compost to spread on all the gardens, plus a variety of seedlings such as tomatoes, celery and cucumber.)
Weedy beetroot and carrot garden, plus some broccoli plants I traded for tiger worms.
Weed-and-carrot-free garden, making space for more broccoli plants that have self-seeded.
Weedy long garden.
Not-so-weedy long garden.
How was your Labour Day? Did you get out in the garden?

2 comments:

  1. Hey Emma-
    I started last week, and my little seedlings are gong so well. I cut some bamboo for my my tomatoes too and built a new raised garden. Because I am building a fence at the moment, I am waiting for that until I build another raised garden.. I got a big hedge I need to remove though- got any tips? The roots are so deep.

    Warehouse had raised garden bed bags for $2dollar the other day, I trying them for the first time to grow my lettuce.. they are fantastic! Weed free, and you can move them around if you need too :-)

    -Tasha Dalziel

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd love to see photos Tash! Could you post some on Facebook? Where did you get the bamboo from?

      How do the raised garden bed bags work? I haven't come across them before. xx

      Delete

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