Devestation

My Foray into gardening is having difficulties.

All my tomatoes are now dead. We had 3 40 degree centigrade days last week over the course of one the days they all died.

LEARNING

wait for the tomatoes to get bigger before I repot. Get them as sheltered as possible

6 weeks since I planted the results so far

I should have noted the date when I planted my first stuff bt it was around begging of December so that means it has been approx 6 weeks since I planted. Whats happend?

GENERAL LEARNINGS

• Must note down what I plant where I plant it and when - (seedings can look pretty similar when they are small)
  
• I didn't wait long enough for some seedlings to grow before I repotted them - they died
  
• None of the mint grew at all
  
• None of the carrots grew at all
  
• I almost killed an aloe vera cutting a freind gave me becuse I overwatered it
  
• Don't plant in pots of normal soil it doesn't drain well enough (I ended using a mix of soil potting mix and much (a third each) it seems to work better.
  
• My plants don't iike the heat - my seedlings are all in the shade now.
  
• My old compost heap wasn't composting I worked out why it was getting to hot. I moved it so it was under lemon tree and measure a 10 degree difference between the two locations last week.
  
• Green beans grow quickly!

Basil from seed - > growing I have 5 plants that seem healthy - bt small

From Our Garden

Basil plant bought from Kmart
They are growing well I found that the basil I have planted in the beds have been attacked by slugs. I have moved one such plant to a hanging basket to reduce slug attack.

From Our Garden

Chives
THey are growing I have 3 chive seedlings

From Our Garden

Green Beans

I dug over bed D last week and added mulch to the soil and then covered with mulch (to prevent evaporation and keep the plants cool). I then planted beans. I did this because as I don't have any compost yet I though it might be worth growing the beans to rejuvinate the soil ( I will dig the beans into the soil when they are grown).

From Our Garden

OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS

The back garden gets pretty hot (much hotter than the front - last week it was 40 degrees in the shade (this is about as hot as it gets in Melbourne). I think what is happening is that the brick floor that covers half the garden is heating up and eating the air. I need to fix this - not sure how though.

Soil contamination?

How could I go about checking this to make sure there is nothing nasty in my soil? Any Ideas?

Permablitz

I just sent an email to permablitz. A nice chap called Adam at permabliz

Permablitz is an organisation where they help you to build a permaculture garden

http://www.permablitz.net/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

2 months in and need to get organised

Its 2 months since I decided to start planning a vegetable garden

I was listening to the survival podcast yesterday morning (one of the best podcasts about modern chemical free gardening) and it occured to me that I was not really going to get anywhere with without some proper organisation.

So far I have planted some 

tomatoes, basil , chives, lettuce etc. 

Many items such as tomatoes will need to be planted throughout the year so I need to build a planting calender. I have also allready lost track of what seeds I planted where so I need to get organized hence the blog. I hope that documenting my progress will make things better for me and hopefully useful for other people too