Planting out

A few weeks ago I took some pics of the nursery.  Everything was thriving and so I've done a bit of planting out.  I also wanted more space to plant other seeds, so it was time, ready or not.  Firstly, the tomatoes went in.  They are a heritage breed called money maker.

They are all going gang-busters so we should be drowning in tomatoes in the not too distant future.  In the row in front, though they are not visible in this picture, I've just put in watermelon and this will act as a ground cover over this whole patch once they get going.  Behind the tomatoes, in the last row, I've put in a few gourd seeds.  I haven't grown gourds before but just like the look of them, so we'll see how it goes. The second crop of beans are starting to climb the two tee pee trellises you can see in the back too. Also in this patch are my yellow zucchini and they are just starting to set fruit.  I love making fritters with the zucchini (and carrots, onions, beans and parsley) and can't wait for the first ones of the season.

And lastly in this patch are some sunflowers. for chook food and the joy of them, and a few cucumbers in the front with the metal trellis.

You may remember that I planted flowering creepers over each archway to bring the bees to the patch.  The one I planted over this patch's archway is in full flower and is just gorgeous

I planted out some other zucchini and a few patty pans and they are coming along nicely

But the bulk of the seedlings went to the swales to give me some ground cover in the newest parts of my food forest.  And I've put in a second lot of seeds which will go into the section I've cleaned up and mulched over the last few days. Though you can't exactly see it, I planted about 10 in this area, so we should see some good coverage in about six weeks time.  Can you spot the wooly pod vetch starting to cover as well.  That will die back soon but hopefully bolt to seed before it does.

And I couldn't resist (a) leaving them and (b) showing you the peach tree in this new area

And here is the new area that I cleared just yesterday (with a sore shoulder overnight for my efforts)

From the other side of the dam, you can see the progress we are making, slowly but surely.  You can see more and more mulch appearing, though that will seen be covered by green again, but the real benefit is in how much better the trees grow once you take out all the grass and give them good deep mulch to grow.

But you can also see how dry its been.  So I'm spending a lot of time watering my veggies and my trees so they don't suffer.  Thankfully we've got so many tanks that we can!