First Garden Craft Session

Today we’ve had our first Garden Craft session with Christina.  It’s hard to believe, but she hasn’t been to Lottie’s Lot since 11 September when all the planting out of the raised garden beds, new raspberries, and trees (chestnut, mulberry, and cherry) took place.  So much has happened since – even later that day after she left!  (I do a post on 11 October looking at what’s changed in the past month – well, it might not get published until the 12th so I can include photos from the 11th.)

The first order of business was showing Christina what we’d done and what had changed.  I’d noted down a few questions as well.  She confirmed a few things (such as pruning the citruses would be a good idea), reminded us of a few things (such as keeping the mulch and poo away from the base of the citruses), and gave us a few suggestions (such as solving the fly-away straw mulch problem  in the raspberry patch with chicken wire).  She and Scott pruned a large limb off the ailing old apricot behind the shed.  And we all had a look at the raised garden beds, and aside from the green mulch in Big Green I think progress was good so far.  As our raised beds used a mixture they hadn’t used before, we hadn’t weeded except for grasses in case Christina wanted to see what came up; we wound up leaving an example of one volunteer she couldn’t identify from the seed leaves.

Christina gave us some instructions on thinning carrots progressively; I’m going to have to steel myself to do it!  We got our hands dirty transplanting frilly pink lettuce, mizuna, bok choy, and tat soi from the overcrowded conditions in Big Blue to the Berry Patch under the swings.  Once we get a plank to walk on down the centre we’ll transpland some lollo rossa and spreckles as well.  I still have plenty of overcrowded frilly pink lettuce, mizuna, etc if you’re in Hobart and interested!

Christina Transplanting Frilly Pink Lettuce Behind Blueberries

Christina Transplanting Frilly Pink Lettuce Behind Blueberries

We went around to the front so we could show off the artichokes.  We also discussed Apty the Kiwi Vine and his harem.  They will be given the north facing wall of the house to make their own little world.  Christina will talk to Danny to see when he can come out and put in 6 tall posts and cross bars.  Each of the 3 Chinese Gooseberries* will have a post to be trained up; then they will be able to be trained horizontally when they reach the top.  The vines will fruit from the horizontal parts.  Danny will also help renovate the arch over the front path.  It’s been quite precarious for years, and we want it in good shape for growing red and white runner beans over it!

The garden craft session was fun.  It was fun to show Christina around, it was great to get some advice, and it was fantastic having someone so enthusiastic to chat and garden with.  Very energisinig!  🙂

Lottie Loves Gardening

Lottie Loves Gardening

Lottie really loves her garden.  It ensures that people get down near the ground, and she loves taking that opportunity to climb onto laps.

* ‘Chinese gooseberries’ was the name used for ‘kiwis’ before New Zealand decided to brand them.  Scott prefers to call them Chinese gooseberries but is happy to give the individual vines Kiwi inspired names.

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4 Responses to First Garden Craft Session

  1. DavidC says:

    What does “thinning carrots progressively” mean?

    We grew carrots for the first time this year. They were tasty, but tiny. At first I thought they didn’t have enough time to grow (we planted pretty late) but then I later realized that the anti-weed barrier would have constricted their growth, if they made it that far down.

    • Lottie says:

      If the carrots are too close together, they’ll not do well or grow in a huge, twisted clump. So I need to thin them a bit at a time: some now because they’re too close together for even a small carrot to develop, some once small carrots would be getting close to that those left behind can get bigger, etc. But when you’re in IVF patient it just seems really WRONG to pluck these little things that made it through germination out of the ground. Or maybe that’s just me.

  2. DavidC says:

    OK, so that also explains why you have to steel yourself to do it. I am way too bone-headed to have ever drawn that conclusion on my own! Sorry to have made you spell it out for my sake.

    When small carrots develop, you could potentially transplant those to another location though… I wonder if that’s the real reason we had tiny carrots, because our raised bed was so dense-packed this year.

    • Lottie says:

      You’re not a bone-head; I wasn’t expecting anyone to get why yanking the little guys out of the soil was so difficult for me. But I’m also not going to tell fibs about it.

      I can ask my garden guru if your thin carrots might have been from over crowding. I know they can also grow into a twisted mass of several carrots together.

      Root veggies don’t transplant so well, however the smaller carrots you thin out will be tasty! What I’m aiming to do is thin them out so I can get a finger or two between them, then in a couple weeks thing them out so I can get 3 fingers between them. The ones I thin out at that point should be small, yummy little carrots.

      I have a gardening book that shows how big the root system of some veggies is, and it helps you understand why some things don’t transplant well!! I guess the carrot isn’t so much the root as the fruit; if you look at carrots when you pull them out you can see where a lot of little roots broke off. So I guess if those are left behind it’s not going to transplant well.

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