I’ve been warned – it’s a full moon tonight. The site that tells me about when is best to plant by the lunar calendar says no sowing of anything from 6:15am today to 6:15pm tonight. I’ve planted a whole passel of seeds. After 6:15pm it’s good for planting root vegetables. I’ve planted some of those. I have to admit that the lunar calendar hasn’t served me extraordinarily well so far – not a sign of my ginger – so I’m a skeptic. We’ll see if mother nature has the last laugh or not.
Here’s the new bed. It’s at the foot of the stairs out our back door. It used to be the home of a small lemon grass plant and a bunch of herbs. Then it became the home of a large lemon grass plant and a bunch of weeds. Frank cleaned it out and mixed in beer mash and today it’s ready to go, so I threw caution to the wind and planted. Plus the weather is perfect, sunny but not hot and I watered the seeds in with rain water. Surely the seeds will appreciate that.
This bed now contains the following rows, back to front, right to left:
1) Peas
2) Spring Onions, Scarlet Globe Radishes (old package), Long Scarlet Radishes (new package)
3) Sparkler Radishes (new package), Scarlet Globe Radishes (new package)
4) Perpetual Leaf Spinach, Rocket
5) Cos Lettuce, Russian Tarragon (yes, I’m trying AGAIN)
After a bit of research on the net I’ve tried propagating rosemary again, this time in a pot with potting soil (compost/sand from the ginger bed). It’s sitting in the sun. Apparently it likes it warm.
Update 4 May 2011: Near total disaster! I don’t blame the calendar, I blame the heat. None of this stuff likes a heat wave and we suffered a hot, dry summer that wilted most things. Definitely leafy veggies (and most veggies I suspect) need mulching and preferably protection from the sun in summer. The rocket is actually looking pretty good now and we can harvest it. Ditto the spinach. The lettuce we ate but it bolted and never formed many leaves. Zero radishes, the spring onions still stand in a row of about 6 blades of grass, no tarragon (the seeds were defective) and we harvested about 5 peas. I’m not giving up but I’m learning not to plant stuff that likes it cool in late Dec!
Laura Rittenhouse's Gardening Journal 