Autumn in the Garden

Firstly, I have left my job at Geelong Botanic Gardens, mostly to peruse my studies, (in my usually over achieving way I thought I might do a Masters in Urban Horticulture), with working full time and all the other demands on my time, it got increasingly obvious that something had to give, and the paid work was on the bottom of the list! I will start up my classes again and am going to be setting up a community garden at Cloverdale Community Centre. Seems that the universe is pulling me that way. Strange how long this summer has been, the hot days kept coming back, which means I was able to grow sweet corn for that little bit longer. The garden is starting to take shape, here and at home. It takes about a year in a garden before you can really start to see how things work, how that unique little micro climate is just slightly different from everyone else around you. Everyone at Geelong West was most impressed with my corn.

Have to keep reminding them that this is what I have done for my living for the past ten years so I should be pretty reasonable at it by now. The idea with this space is the paths of bricks and herbs mean I don’t have to step on the growing beds, keeping the soil light and friable. In front of the corn is some potatoes, not sure which type, I will find out in a few months.
Last week I added 2 enormous bags of sheep manure, the garden gets things like this and pea straw delivered and buying in bulk means we get a cheaper rate.
I poured it liberally over the garden, and other follow plotters were surprised at the amount I had used. I shrugged and replied that it doesn’t means it will work! The herbs seem to be working ok, put some snail bait down as with the rain, the hungry buggers decimated the French beans. Still enough pods on the two kinds for next year, Butter Bean and Brown Beauty both seem to do remarkably well in Geelong. The Brown Beauty is from saved seed, and unsurprisingly does so much better than the bought seed.

The broccoli seems to be taking a long time to head up, and that was from saved seed, so with Brassicas tendency to cross pollinate (they are the sluts of the vegetable world), I am a little bit concerned they might be something else….time will tell. I dug in so much compost and the benefits can be seen in the plant growth and unfortunately the weeds, still from the nettles and mallow I know this means my soil is fertile and high in iron and nitrogen.


In between the bricks can be seen growing thyme and oregano, two types the Greek and Wild oregano. The Greek has a much higher flavour and oil content or as I have been learning in my plant science class-the secondary metabolites-Terpenoids that give herbs their taste and aroma, it is a defence mechanism against insect pests, and is stored in glandular hairs (trichomes). The Greek oregano can be distinguished from the wild by the slightly hairy undersides of the leaves.
I guess now I will have more time for all things edible, and should be able to post more often.