Planting Seeds, Our Vegetable Garden, Huthwaite Farm

Every year while growing up the Ekka Holiday was always the day my dad would plant watermelons and rockmelons. He would turn the soil a few weeks before planting, then again on the public holiday. The seeds were sown directly into the ground and then watered. Why do you ask this day in particular. Christmas time with no watermelon spitting contest is not right. The fruits of the melons are generally ready and picked for a hot Christmas day. Stored in a fridge so they are nice and cold.

Roy and I have built our first garden bed on the farm, which I will show you once we have fully completed it. The fencing just needs to go up so we can keep the bandicoots out. We are turning the soil, adding manure and mulch to create the perfect veggie patch. We even tested our soils PH level. Fortunately we are sitting on 5.5/6 which is great for the veggies.

After buying a silly amount of seeds, in hope that the garden will be able to hold them all. I can firmly say that we are both a little excited about gardening on our new farm. After the many years of inner-city gardening failures and successes. This time we have the best soil and a north facing site. Surely nothing can go wrong, maybe just bugs and wild animals.

Now we sit and wait, after sowing the seeds into our newly designed styrofoam seedling tray. We must keep up water every two days, making sure the soil does not dry out or flood. Making the perfect habitat for our prospective late spring/summer harvest.

In seven to ten days we should have the first of the seeds sprouting out of the soil. In the meantime we will keep nurturing the soil in the garden bed, getting it ready for transplanting our seedlings.