Gardening is easy... I promise!

Every month I get this really cool email from this website. It's inspiring, it is!

So far it's inspired me to do all this.

I've planted out Cauliflower, cabbage, celery and peas.

The peas don't seem to be happy.

I'm praying for them.

I've sown some kind of red capsicum from seeds I harvested from a shop-bought one. Believe it or not they are actually germinating in there - I checked yesterday.

Maybe this will actually work, then again, the seeds are probably hybrids so maybe not...







These are Sub-Arctic Tomatoes. I don't know if they are germinating or not, when I dug around a few I couldn't find the seeds... They're gone!

There is one in the foreground that has a little sprout coming out of it. It might be a little baby tomato plant.

So far my seeds-in-toilet-roll-inners has been a good idea.

It worked with the pumpkins.

Also seeds from a shop-bought pumpkin. So maybe it won't work.

I'm just so proud that they germinated! I've never germinated anything in my life!







Now if I could just do something about the snails!!!

I hate snails. I have no idea where the wisdom was in their creation.

I'm sure that one day, during the course of eternity, I will find out, but for the moment I hate them.

For my kiwi readers: Mitre 10 has MacGregors Snail Bait on sale this week for $1.77.

I stocked up!


I also have two more gorgeous heirloom pumpkins to plant out.

These came from Treena and apparently are called tripods or something because they look a little weird. I'll be sure to post a photo (and save tons of seeds!) when I get some.

The back are heirloom tomatoes.

Also from Treena.

We love Treena.


Already planted out a couple of the heirloom tripod pumpkins. They look like they are surviving.

I just need to watch the stupid snails!











This pile here came from....

















...this bed here.

That is what you get for ignoring your flowerbeds for two years.

Currently very thankful to the One who created preggie nesting hormones because I'm getting quite a bit done!










For those interested I'm currently reading these books:
500 Popular Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits & Nuts for New Zealand Gardeners

Easy Organic Gardening and Moon Planting

Cow Plop

Yesterday we let The Jord play hooky and took a drive out to Mangapai to visit Treena.

We love Treena. The boys adore Treena.

She lets them do fun things, like terrorise her calves and steal eggs from her chickens and raid her strawberry patch.

Anyway, yesterday my left ankle was swollen (not my right, mind you, just the left) so while the boys wandered the farm I reclined on Treena's couch, eating decadent chocolate covered cookies and reading her gardening books.

There is this fascinating gardening concept called Companion Planting. I found more about it on this website: kings.co.nz

But, the best thing was this book: The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Edward C. Smith. I spent about an hour and a half frantically scribbling notes from it! Link below.

Anyway, after a great visit we left with way more than we came. Treena gave me some pumpkin and tomato seedlings, which I planted out this morning - and she gave me cow plop.

I have four sacks of it. I don't who went around Treena's farm collecting it, I hope they wore gloves.

I only have gardening gloves - a fact I regretted after making this cow plop 'tea' for my plants. Guess who got to dip into that with bare hands to pour it out.
:(
In other, happier news, I am very glad to be able to report that my tomatoes are actually growing upside down...

...that Parsley is a good companion plant for Tomatoes (phew!)...

...that the potting soil is staying put when I water them...

...and that the snails have, so far, left them alone!

Hallelujah!

I am so proud of my babies for doing what they are meant to.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!