Out with summer, in comes autumn

The "before" shots

What a weekend we have just had.  I am completely exhausted.  My bones are weary, but my garden is beautiful.  We had a long weekend here in Victoria and one of my kids had booked a bunch of things in so that meant that we were stuck in town, but not wanting to get down in the dumps about it, I took the opportunity to get my hands into the garden, and boy did it need it!.  The vegie garden was sad and over summer.  It was time to rip things out, fill it up with compost (I will talk my composting moment another day) and put in the new winter vegetables.  

It was also time to review exactly how many parsley plants I really did need (probably not that as many as I had). 

I found that my dwarf peach was shooting below the graft, so that needed to be trimmed.

I gave the oregano a really good haircut and put it all in a paper bag to dry out in the kitchen to use.  This is the one herb that I love dried and always have a paper bag of this in the kitchen.  This my improved version of drying oregano (also known as a lazier version, but it works!). 

The end result for the vegetable garden was incredibly pleasing when I finally sat down with my aching back.  Two beds full of compost and fertiliser, and all of the vegetables planted with a nice wet and soggy layer of sugar cane mulch on top.  

I have planted:

leek

chives

lettuce

mizuna

rocket

spinach

broccoli

beetroot

cabbage

bok choy

cauliflower

red cabbage

rainbow chard

marigold (for the bugs)

I have still to plant once the eggplant, beans and basil and completely done:

broad beans

more lettuce

coriander

I will plant my carrots in and around my natives as I have always had much more luck with them doing it this way.