First growth

The raised beds were fully installed and filled with organic herb and vege soil from Centenary Landscaping Supplies in mid-August. We were going to The Mouses House for our wedding anniversary the following week, so I planted the first round of seeds just before we left.

I had planned three plots based on advice from the excellent book One Magic Square by Lolo Houbein - an awesome book and well worth checking out before you plan your veggie garden layout. The seeds I chose to plant snow pea, broad beans, leeks, beetroot, cauliflower, corn and carrots (based on what we would eat the most of and what fitted in with my crop rotation plan). I chose Greenpatch Organic Seeds at the ABC Gardening Expo - untreated, non-hybrid, non genetically modified, open pollinated seeds. They had an excellent pollination rate, apart from the marigold seeds which have a 100% fail rate :-(

I had also been propagating and growing my own seedlings indoors in toilet rolls, but when I planted them out the local magpies and crows decided to dig up the toilet rolls - ruining weeks of TLC in an afternoon. Rather than go through that again, we supplemented the seed planting with commercial seedlings. These included broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes, capsicum, cucumber, celery, radish and garlic bulbs.

Here are some pics taken on 6th September - approx 3 weeks after planting.

Bed #1: Corn, Broad Beans, Capsicum, Tomato with a Pumpkin in the middle

(The silverbeet is accidental - it somehow grew next to the pumpkin - go figure!!)

Bed #2: 12 x Snow Peas, 9 x Broad Beans, Radishes, Broccoli, Cabbage, Celery

Bed #3: Tiny Cauliflower seedlings poking their heads up after 3 weeks growth!

Bed #3 again: Look closely and you'll see the distinctive red leaves of Beetroot plants

Each of the raised beds also has a pot of Marigolds to help with organic pest control. The Marigold was supposed to get planted in the soil, but I ran out of room!

3 beds also didn't end up being quite enough room for all the seedlings that we chose. So the garlic and the cucumbers are in their own separate pots - here are the pics: